HELP!! Forum seems to have dissappeared

[crazzzydave]

Help guys!
I went to log into my forum (www.civic5.com/forum) today, and got the following error..
Forbidden

You don't have permission to access /forum/ on this server.
Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/2.2.15 (Unix) mod_ssl/2.2.15 OpenSSL/0.9.8e-fips-rhel5 mod_auth_passthrough/2.1 mod_bwlimited/1.4 FrontPage/5.0.2.2635 Server at www.civic5.com Port 80 Also, when i try to access the forum folder in fttp, it wont open?? Whats happening? it was fine last night. Please help Dave

[Marincky]

Your best bet will be to put a support ticket in. That way you will get the quickest and most correct solution to your problem.

[Alien Dude]

This may mean that the folder you've tried to access, in this case /forum/ doesn't have an index file or the permissions settings of the folder aren't set right.
check that you have not deleted the index.php or changed the permissions.
and if you haven't done anything then check for any hacking attempts ( files that are not part of the forum structure or added coding.
not knowing which forum you use its hard to say but as forums are a add in third party software i doubt support could help.
check the files though ether your c-panel or ftp manager.

[Alien Dude]

on a note: Make sure the permissions for the forum folder are set to 755.

[crazzzydave]

Hi alien. I've checked the folder, and as said it wont open. The permissions are wrong on it (set at 0 ) and when i change them, they dont keep the setting (755) .When i check the forum folder through vodahost ftp, the folder is there, but when clicked says "no data available? The database is still there when i check through "php my admin" from vodahost acp. I cant understand whats went wrong or how to fix it.

[crazzzydave]

I use phpBB 3.04. (i know, well out of date! we were meant to be updating it to the latest version this wednesday)

[zuriatman]

Hi Dude,

I am more inclined to think that the permissions settings of the folder aren't set right as you said or has been compromised by recent changes made.

Dave, can you still login as an administrator into your ACP?

[Alien Dude]

You can change the permissions through c-panel file manager or using a ftp manager ie the bluevoda one.
Though its hard to say without having a look at the folder. Have a look at the folder in your ftp manager and see if it will open in that.
If the folder still will not change the permissions there are one or two things you can do but are quite tricky if your not used to doing them. ( we can try them after you have done the below )
If your database is still there then not all is lost. The first thing to know is was the forum installed manually or through fantastico.
Download the database to your pc and keep safe as that is the most important item. If all fails then at least you can reinstall the forum files and put the old database in.

[crazzzydave]

Thanks guys. The forum was installed through fantastico. Im well and truely stuck here! it's like the actual forum is not there anymore, the folder is apparently empty etc

[crazzzydave]

No, cant even get to login to the forum acp