Intermittent 403 errors using Internet Explorer 1

[DTracy]

Recently we have been receiving intermittent 403 errors while using Internet Explorer. Sometimes five or more tries are required to access a public website, and also while trying to jump to a link or download a file. This just seemed to start within the last month or so, and we have made no changes to hardware or software in our office or our service provider.

We are connected to the cloud through high speed fiber-optic connection and average about 90 users online daily. Response time varies from good to pretty good. Again, no problems in the recent past.

Microsoft blames our antivirus software (McAfee ePO 4.5 and VirusScan 8.7). I don't aggree because of the intermittent property.

Any other ideas what could be causing this to happen?

Regards,
David.

 

[eritguy]

Does everyone get the same error in IE at the same time?

 

[DTracy]

eritguy - I don't know. I seem to get complaints at about the same time as I experience the 403 errors. So, perhaps.

 

[DTracy]

P.S. I did notice that sometimes when I try a link from a webpage and I receive a 403 error, when I go backwards, I receive an "Access Denied" error and have to start over.

 

[eritguy]

Where exactly are you getting the 403 errors? Do your browsers have a home page to an employee intranet ran on IIS or Apache?

 

[Sympology]

Have a look here to see if it helps

http://www.checkupdown.com/status/E403.html

Robert Wilensky:
We've all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.

 

[DTracy]

eritguy - We all use a user selected home page, mine is msnbc.com.

From the desktop I click on the IE. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't I receive a 403 error. If I manage to open a webpage and click on a URL, sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. When it doesn't I receive a 403 error. Then when I press the back button I receive an access denied error.

This is generally the same description received from user complaints.

When there are less users on the web the problem is less. The more users, the more problems and the frequency is greater.

David.

 

[Diancecht]

403 is a forbidden error, who is giving that, the target page or an intermediate proxy?

Cheers,
Dian

 

[DTracy]

diancecht - Everyone! When this happens we cannot go anywhere for several seconds or minutes. Then all is ok, then it starts all over.

David

 

[DTracy]

P.S. So far this morning all is ok. But it could happen at any time.

 

[DTracy]

See attached

 

[DTracy]

diancecht - You said the magic word!

Remedy: I defragged our proxy server and the errors have subsided.

Thanks to everyone for their valuable time and assistance in helping solve this problem.

Best regards,

David.