[plug] Apache2 questions

[Daniel Foote]

> I changed that one too, and it still didn't work; I was getting a 403
> forbidden error.  I'm not sure how to allow access to anonymous
> computers, but when I get home I'll go through the apache docs again
> and see if I can set that.
>
> Out of curiosity, I changed everything back to it's original state,
> and tried again.  From firefox on my XP box the Apache splash page
> displayed, but from IE there was another 403 forbidden; also from my
> brother's computer in perth, he got the same thing.
>
> Is that to do with anonymous connections or something?  As I said,
> I'll go do some light reading (NOT!) and see what I come up with.

It should by default be fine to allow any computer to connect.
However... usually when Apache gives 403 errors without any other
settings change, it's a local file permissions problem. Probably,
whatever user that Apache runs as doesn't have access to the directory
that is the webroot.

By default in Debian, Apache runs as user "www-data". I assume
/home/webserver will be owned by user "webserver". (Assuming
"webserver" is a valid system user added with useradd or similar - not
just a directory you have created with mkdir /home/webserver)

You can either:

- Change the target directory to be owned by www-data: as root, "chown
-R www-data:www-data /home/webserver" (not really recommended, as that
users home directory should be owned by the user it matches).

- Change the user that Apache runs as to match the owner of the
webroot. It is in /etc/apache2/apache2.conf, setting "User www-data"
and "Group www-data". If the document root it /home/webserver, then
change the User to webserver and Group to webserver.

I hope this helps...

Daniel.