Forbidden: You don't have permission to access / on this server, WAMP Error

Question

I have installed wamp on windows 8 and received above error whenever I go to localhost or phpmyadmin. After much searching I found many answers which includes modifying the httpd.conf to Allow from All etc. This link shows such a common answer with further information.

My problem is that many have argued that it gives permission to all users to access phpMyAdmin and it is insecure and vulnerable etc. I want to create perfectly secure WAMP server and is it OK if I do this?

Can someone please provide me with some reference or information?

Answer 1

1.

first of all Port 80(or what ever you are using) and 443 must be allow for both TCP and UDP packets. To do this, create 2 inbound rules for TPC and UDP on Windows Firewall for port 80 and 443. (or you can disable your whole firewall for testing but permanent solution if allow inbound rule)

2.

If you are using WAMPServer 3 See bottom of answer

For WAMPServer versions <= 2.5

You need to change the security setting on Apache to allow access from anywhere else, so edit your httpd.conf file.

Change this section from :

#   onlineoffline tag - don't remove
     Order Deny,Allow
     Deny from all
     Allow from 127.0.0.1
     Allow from ::1
     Allow from localhost

To :

#   onlineoffline tag - don't remove
    Order Allow,Deny
      Allow from all

if "Allow from all" line not work for your then use "Require all granted" then it will work for you.

WAMPServer 3 has a different method

In version 3 and > of WAMPServer there is a Virtual Hosts pre defined for localhost so dont amend the httpd.conf file at all, leave it as you found it.

Using the menus, edit the httpd-vhosts.conf file.

It should look like this :

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName localhost
    DocumentRoot D:/wamp/www
    <Directory  "D:/wamp/www/">
        Options +Indexes +FollowSymLinks +MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Require local
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Amend it to

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName localhost
    DocumentRoot D:/wamp/www
    <Directory  "D:/wamp/www/">
        Options +Indexes +FollowSymLinks +MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Note:if you are running wamp for other than port 80 then VirtualHost will be like VirtualHost *:86.(86 or port whatever you are using) instead of VirtualHost *:80

3. Dont forget to restart All Services of Wamp or Apache after making this change