I have this email from Sid Walker. Is anyone else having this problem?

It seems that almost every day I can't access the site. Access oftens comes back after some hours - but there's a long period when I'm blocked.

I get the following message each time:

Forbidden

You don't have permission to access/on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

Apache/1.3.37 Server at www.educationforum.ipbhost.com Port 80

Because I can still see the forum via a proxy server, I know it's not downtime at the server end.

The problem has recurred today.

I can make this post and view the forum - but only through a proxy server.

As I explained to John before - I have no idea what\'s causing the problem, which seems to occur periodically - and subsequently recitify itself after some time. It may be something on my own computer - but curiously, only access to this site seems to be affected.

If anyone else gets the same problem it would be interesting to compare notes.

I don't like the sound of that, Sid.

I\'m sorry to say that over the last couple of days this problem has been more or less constant.

It\'s the reason my posts have strange backslash symbols.

Posting via a proxy server, for some reason, the forum software doesn\'t handle apostrophes.

Any advice and help fixing this would be much appreciated.

Perhaps its the Israelis?
If you pm me your ip I'll look into this for you

Thanks Andy.

I doubt it's the Israelis - rather too obvious.

I've blame the Torres Straight Islanders.

Happily, this morning the problem has vanished anyway.

But I'll still PM you my IP, and I hope you'll PO your PM (Blair that is).

I trust readers can figure out the meaning of PO

I have been having the same problem for about a week and a half now with a 403 Forbidden error message. Like the others I can post from a friend\'s house or via a proxy server so it seems to be related to my IP address.

I'm still haveing this problem now after more than 3 weeks. Everytime I try to visit the forum I get a 403 Forbidden error. Any idea yet what is causing it or when it will be fixed?

I can only access the forum when I'm logged on. Unless it is a problem at my end I assume this precludes non-members from accessing it too. Is this intentional. If the forum is supposed to be educational shouldn't non-members be allowed to read it? I don't imagine many new members will seek to join a forum they can't read beforehand.

Len

Andy Walker has done this as a temporary security measure. As you say, this is an educational forum and it is vitally important that as many people as possible read the material. Hopefully, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.