HELP - Problem setting up user html directories

I'm trying to set up users html directories in redhat. I keep geting an error message -"You are not authorized to view this page". I can't remember how to solve this problem can anyone please help?

What is your setting for..
<Directory /home/*/public_html>
</Directory>
in your httpd.conf file.

I've listed the entire file. This may sound dumb - but there maybe something in the rest of the file that is preventing it.

Thanks,
Bob

# There have been reports of people trying to abuse an old bug from pre-1.1
# days. This bug involved a CGI script distributed as a part of Apache.
# By uncommenting these lines you can redirect these attacks to a logging
# script on phf.apache.org. Or, you can record them yourself, using the script
# support/phf_abuse_log.cgi.

# <Location /cgi-bin/phf*>
# deny from all
# ErrorDocument 403 http://phf.apache.org/phf_abuse_log.cgi
# </Location>


# ---------------------- Server Configuration ----------------------------

# ServerType is either inetd, or standalone.

ServerType standalone

# If you are running from inetd, go to "ServerAdmin".

# Port: The port the standalone listens to. For ports < 1023, you will
# need httpd to be run as root initially.

Port 80

# Number of servers to start --- should be a reasonable ballpark figure.

StartServers 10

# Server-pool size regulation. Rather than making you guess how many
# server processes you need, Apache dynamically adapts to the load it
# sees --- that is, it tries to maintain enough server processes to
# handle the current load, plus a few spare servers to handle transient
# load spikes (e.g., multiple simultaneous requests from a single
# Netscape browser).

# It does this by periodically checking how many servers are waiting
# for a request. If there are fewer than MinSpareServers, it creates
# a new spare. If there are more than MaxSpareServers, some of the
# spares die off. These values are probably OK for most sites ---

MinSpareServers 8
MaxSpareServers 20

# MaxKeepAliveRequests: The maximum number of requests to allow
# during a persistent connection. Set to 0 to allow an unlimited amount.
# We reccomend you leave this number high, for maximum performance.

MaxKeepAliveRequests 100

# KeepAliveTimeout: Number of seconds to wait for the next request

KeepAliveTimeout 15

# Limit on total number of servers running, i.e., limit on the number
# of clients who can simultaneously connect --- if this limit is ever
# reached, clients will be LOCKED OUT, so it should NOT BE SET TOO LOW.
# It is intended mainly as a brake to keep a runaway server from taking
# Unix with it as it spirals down...

MaxClients 150

# MaxRequestsPerChild: the number of requests each child process is
# allowed to process before the child dies.
# The child will exit so as to avoid problems after prolonged use when
# Apache (and maybe the libraries it uses) leak. On most systems, this
# isn't really needed, but a few (such as Solaris) do have notable leaks
# in the libraries.

MaxRequestsPerChild 500

# PidFile: The file the server should log its pid to
PidFile /var/run/httpd.pid

# CacheNegotiatedDocs: By default, Apache sends Pragma: no-cache with each
# document that was negotiated on the basis of content. This asks proxy
# servers not to cache the document. Uncommenting the following line disables
# this behavior, and proxies will be allowed to cache the documents.

# CacheNegotiatedDocs

# Timeout: The number of seconds before receives and sends time out

Timeout 300

# ScoreBoardFile: File used to store internal server process information.
# Not all architectures require this. But if yours does (you'll know because
# this file is created when you run Apache) then you *must* ensure that
# no two invocations of Apache share the same scoreboard file.
ScoreBoardFile /etc/httpd/httpd.scoreboard

# ServerRoot: The directory the server's config, error, and log files
# are kept in.
# NOTE! If you intend to place this on a NFS (or otherwise network)
# mounted filesystem then please read the LockFile documentation,
# you will save yourself a lot of trouble.

ServerRoot /etc/httpd

# HostnameLookups: Log the names of clients or just their IP numbers
# e.g. www.apache.org (on) or 204.62.129.132 (off)
# The default is off because it'd be overall better for the net if people
# had to knowingly turn this feature on.

HostnameLookups on

# ---------------- Dynamic Shared Object (DSO) Support ---------------------

# To be able to use the functionality of a module which was built as a DSO you
# have to place corresponding `LoadModule' lines at this location so the
# directives contained in it are actually available _before_ they are used.
# Please read the file README.DSO in the Apache 1.3 distribution for more
# details about the DSO mechanism and run `httpd -l' for the list of already
# built-in (statically linked and thus always available) modules in your httpd
# binary.

# Example:
# LoadModule foo_module libexec/mod_foo.so

# Documentation for modules is in "/home/httpd/manual/mod" in HTML format.

# LoadModule mmap_static_module modules/mod_mmap_static.so
# LoadModule vhost_alias_module modules/mod_vhost_alias.so
LoadModule env_module modules/mod_env.so
LoadModule config_log_module modules/mod_log_config.so
LoadModule agent_log_module modules/mod_log_agent.so
LoadModule referer_log_module modules/mod_log_referer.so
# LoadModule mime_magic_module modules/mod_mime_magic.so
LoadModule mime_module modules/mod_mime.so
LoadModule negotiation_module modules/mod_negotiation.so
LoadModule status_module modules/mod_status.so
LoadModule info_module modules/mod_info.so
LoadModule includes_module modules/mod_include.so
LoadModule autoindex_module modules/mod_autoindex.so
LoadModule dir_module modules/mod_dir.so
LoadModule cgi_module modules/mod_cgi.so
LoadModule asis_module modules/mod_asis.so
LoadModule imap_module modules/mod_imap.so
LoadModule action_module modules/mod_actions.so
# LoadModule speling_module modules/mod_speling.so
LoadModule userdir_module modules/mod_userdir.so
LoadModule proxy_module modules/libproxy.so
LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so
LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so
LoadModule access_module modules/mod_access.so
LoadModule auth_module modules/mod_auth.so
LoadModule anon_auth_module modules/mod_auth_anon.so
# LoadModule dbm_auth_module modules/mod_auth_dbm.so
# LoadModule db_auth_module modules/mod_auth_db.so
LoadModule digest_module modules/mod_digest.so
# LoadModule cern_meta_module modules/mod_cern_meta.so
LoadModule expires_module modules/mod_expires.so
LoadModule headers_module modules/mod_headers.so
LoadModule usertrack_module modules/mod_usertrack.so
# LoadModule example_module modules/mod_example.so
# LoadModule unique_id_module modules/mod_unique_id.so
LoadModule setenvif_module modules/mod_setenvif.so
ClearModuleList

# Reconstruction of the complete module list from all available modules
# (static and shared ones) to achieve correct module execution order.
# [WHENEVER YOU CHANGE THE LOADMODULE SECTION ABOVE UPDATE THIS, TOO]
# AddModule mod_mmap_static.c
# AddModule mod_vhost_alias
AddModule mod_env.c
AddModule mod_log_config.c
AddModule mod_log_agent.c
AddModule mod_log_referer.c
# AddModule mod_mime_magic.c
AddModule mod_mime.c
AddModule mod_negotiation.c
AddModule mod_status.c
AddModule mod_info.c
AddModule mod_include.c
AddModule mod_autoindex.c
AddModule mod_dir.c
AddModule mod_cgi.c
AddModule mod_asis.c
AddModule mod_imap.c
AddModule mod_actions.c
# AddModule mod_speling.c
AddModule mod_userdir.c
AddModule mod_proxy.c
AddModule mod_alias.c
AddModule mod_rewrite.c
AddModule mod_access.c
AddModule mod_auth.c
AddModule mod_auth_anon.c
# AddModule mod_auth_dbm.c
# AddModule mod_auth_db.c
AddModule mod_digest.c
# AddModule mod_cern_meta.c
AddModule mod_expires.c
AddModule mod_headers.c
AddModule mod_usertrack.c
# AddModule mod_example.c
# AddModule mod_unique_id.c
AddModule mod_so.c
AddModule mod_setenvif.c

# ServerAdmin: Your address, where problems with the server should be
# e-mailed.

ServerAdmin root@localhost
NameVirtualHost 165.201.192.129
ServerName kid129


# ----------------- Name Space and Server Settings ---------------------
# In this section, you define the name space that users see of your http
# server. This file also defines server settings which affect how requests are
# serviced, and how results should be formatted.
# This used to be a separate file. Now part of httpd.conf
# (srm.conf -- Apache HTTP server configuration file)


# DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your
# documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
# symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations.

DocumentRoot /home/httpd/html

# ErrorLog: The location of the error log file. If this does not start
# with /, ServerRoot is prepended to it.

ErrorLog logs/error_log
ScriptAlias /protected-cgi-bin/ /home/httpd/protected-cgi-bin/

# If you wish httpd to run as a different user or group, you must run
# httpd as root initially and it will switch.

# User/Group: The name (or #number) of the user/group to run httpd as.
# On SCO (ODT 3) use User nouser and Group nogroup
# On HPUX you may not be able to use shared memory as nobody, and the
# suggested workaround is to create a user www and use that user.
# NOTE that some kernels refuse to setgid(Group) or semctl(IPC_SET)
# when the value of (unsigned)Group is above 60000;
# don't use Group nobody on these systems!

User nobody
Group nobody
Options Includes
<Location /server-status>
SetHandler server-status

order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from localhost, 127.0.0.1
</Location>


# #
# # httpd.conf -- Apache HTTP server configuration file
# #
# This is the main server configuration file. See URL http://www.apache.org/
# for instructions.
# Do NOT simply read the instructions in here without understanding
# what they do, if you are unsure consult the online docs. You have been
# warned.
# Originally by Rob McCool
# ---------------------- Use *ONLY* httpd.conf ---------------------------

# With all new apache versions, use of access.conf and srm.conf are
# deprecated. We only use httpd.conf.

# These 2 directives are needed by some modules, for example FrontPage

ResourceConfig /dev/null
AccessConfig /dev/null

# UserDir: The name of the directory which is appended onto a user's home
# directory if a ~user request is recieved.

UserDir public_html


DirectoryIndex index.html index.htm index.shtml index.cgi Default.htm default.htm index.php3

# FancyIndexing is whether you want fancy directory indexing or standard

FancyIndexing on

# AddIcon tells the server which icon to show for different files or filename
# extensions

AddIconByEncoding (CMP,/icons/compressed.gif) x-compress x-gzip

AddIconByType (TXT,/icons/text.gif) text/*
AddIconByType (IMG,/icons/image2.gif) image/*
AddIconByType (SND,/icons/sound2.gif) audio/*
AddIconByType (VID,/icons/movie.gif) video/*

AddIcon /icons/binary.gif .bin .exe
AddIcon /icons/binhex.gif .hqx
AddIcon /icons/tar.gif .tar
AddIcon /icons/world2.gif .wrl .wrl.gz .vrml .vrm .iv
AddIcon /icons/compressed.gif .Z .z .tgz .gz .zip
AddIcon /icons/a.gif .ps .ai .eps
AddIcon /icons/layout.gif .html .shtml .htm .pdf
AddIcon /icons/text.gif .txt
AddIcon /icons/c.gif .c
AddIcon /icons/p.gif .pl .py
AddIcon /icons/f.gif .for
AddIcon /icons/dvi.gif .dvi
AddIcon /icons/uuencoded.gif .uu
AddIcon /icons/script.gif .conf .sh .shar .csh .ksh .tcl
AddIcon /icons/tex.gif .tex
AddIcon /icons/bomb.gif core

AddIcon /icons/back.gif ..
AddIcon /icons/hand.right.gif README
AddIcon /icons/folder.gif ^^DIRECTORY^^
AddIcon /icons/blank.gif ^^BLANKICON^^

# DefaultIcon is which icon to show for files which do not have an icon
# explicitly set.

DefaultIcon /icons/unknown.gif

# AddDescription allows you to place a short description after a file in
# server-generated indexes.
# Format: AddDescription "description" filename

# ReadmeName is the name of the README file the server will look for by
# default. Format: ReadmeName name

# The server will first look for name.html, include it if found, and it will
# then look for name and include it as plaintext if found.

# HeaderName is the name of a file which should be prepended to
# directory indexes.

ReadmeName README
HeaderName HEADER

# IndexIgnore is a set of filenames which directory indexing should ignore
# Format: IndexIgnore name1 name2...

IndexIgnore .??* *~ *# HEADER* README* RCS

# AccessFileName: The name of the file to look for in each directory
# for access control information.

AccessFileName .htaccess

# TypesConfig describes where the mime.types file (or equivalent) is
# to be found.

TypesConfig /etc/httpd/conf/apache-mime.types

# DefaultType is the default MIME type for documents which the server
# cannot find the type of from filename extensions.

DefaultType text/plain

# AddEncoding allows you to have certain browsers (Mosaic/X 2.1+) uncompress
# information on the fly. Note: Not all browsers support this.

AddEncoding x-compress Z
AddEncoding x-gzip gz

# AddLanguage allows you to specify the language of a document. You can
# then use content negotiation to give a browser a file in a language
# it can understand. Note that the suffix does not have to be the same
# as the language keyword --- those with documents in Polish (whose
# net-standard language code is pl) may wish to use "AddLanguage pl .po"
# to avoid the ambiguity with the common suffix for perl scripts.

AddLanguage en .en
AddLanguage fr .fr
AddLanguage de .de
AddLanguage da .da
AddLanguage el .el
AddLanguage it .it

# LanguagePriority allows you to give precedence to some languages
# in case of a tie during content negotiation.
# Just list the languages in decreasing order of preference.

LanguagePriority en fr de

# Redirect allows you to tell clients about documents which used to exist in
# your server's namespace, but do not anymore. This allows you to tell the
# clients where to look for the relocated document.
# Format: Redirect fakename url


# Aliases: Add here as many aliases as you need (with no limit). The format is
# Alias fakename realname

# Note that if you include a trailing / on fakename then the server will
# require it to be present in the URL. So "/icons" isn't aliased in this
# example.

Alias /icons/ /home/httpd/icons/

# If you want to use server side includes, or CGI outside
# ScriptAliased directories, uncomment the following lines.

# AddType allows you to tweak mime.types without actually editing it, or to
# make certain files to be certain types.
# Format: AddType type/subtype ext1

# For example, the PHP3 module (not part of the Apache distribution)
# will typically use:
AddType application/x-httpd-php3 .php3 .phtml .php
AddType application/x-httpd-php3-source .phps
# The following is for PHP/FI (PHP2):
# AddType application/x-httpd-php .phtml

# AddHandler allows you to map certain file extensions to "handlers",
# actions unrelated to filetype. These can be either built into the server
# or added with the Action command (see below)
# Format: AddHandler action-name ext1

# To use CGI scripts:
AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

# To use server-parsed HTML files
AddType text/html .shtml
AddHandler server-parsed .shtml

# Uncomment the following line to enable Apache's send-asis HTTP file
# feature
# AddHandler send-as-is asis

# If you wish to use server-parsed imagemap files, use
AddHandler imap-file map

# To enable type maps, you might want to use
# AddHandler type-map var

# Action lets you define media types that will execute a script whenever
# a matching file is called. This eliminates the need for repeated URL
# pathnames for oft-used CGI file processors.
# Format: Action media/type /cgi-script/location
# Format: Action handler-name /cgi-script/location

# MetaDir: specifies the name of the directory in which Apache can find
# meta information files. These files contain additional HTTP headers
# to include when sending the document

# MetaDir .web

# MetaSuffix: specifies the file name suffix for the file containing the
# meta information.

# MetaSuffix .meta

# Customizable error response (Apache style)
# these come in three flavors

# 1) plain text
# ErrorDocument 500 "The server made a boo boo.
# n.b. the (") marks it as text, it does not get output

# 2) local redirects
# ErrorDocument 404 /missing.html
# to redirect to local url /missing.html
# ErrorDocument 404 /cgi-bin/missing_handler.pl
# n.b. can redirect to a script or a document using server-side-includes.

# 3) external redirects
# ErrorDocument 402 http://some.other_server.com/subscription_info.html


# mod_mime_magic allows the server to use various hints from the file itself
# to determine its type.
# MimeMagicFile /etc/httpd/conf/magic

# The following directives disable keepalives and HTTP header flushes.
# The first directive disables it for Netscape 2.x and browsers which
# spoof it. There are known problems with these.
# The second directive is for Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0b2
# which has a broken HTTP/1.1 implementation and does not properly
# support keepalive when it is used on 301 or 302 (redirect) responses.

BrowserMatch "Mozilla/2" nokeepalive
BrowserMatch "MSIE 4.0b2;" nokeepalive downgrade-1.0 force-response-1.0

# The following directive disables HTTP/1.1 responses to browsers which
# are in violation of the HTTP/1.0 spec by not being able to grok a
# basic 1.1 response.

BrowserMatch "RealPlayer 4.0" force-response-1.0
BrowserMatch "Java/1.0" force-response-1.0
BrowserMatch "JDK/1.0" force-response-1.0

# Allow access to local system documentation from localhost
Alias /doc /usr/doc

# BindAddress: You can support virtual hosts with this option. This option
# is used to tell the server which IP address to listen to. It can either
# contain "*", an IP address, or a fully qualified Internet domain name.
# See also the VirtualHost directive.

# BindAddress *

Listen 80

# LogLevel: Control the number of messages logged to the error_log.
# Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
# alert, emerg.

LogLevel warn

# The following directives define some format nicknames for use with
# a CustomLog directive (see below).

LogFormat "%h %l %u %t "%r" %>s %b "%{Referer}i" "%{User-Agent}i"" combined
LogFormat "%h %l %u %t "%r" %>s %b" common
LogFormat "%{Referer}i -> %U" referer
LogFormat "%{User-agent}i" agent

# The location of the access logfile (Common Logfile Format).
# If this does not start with /, ServerRoot is prepended to it.

# CustomLog logs/access_log common

# If you would like to have an agent and referer logfile uncomment the
# following directives.

# CustomLog logs/referer_log referer
# CustomLog logs/agent_log agent

# If you prefer a single logfile with access, agent and referer information
# (Combined Logfile Format) you can use the following directive.

CustomLog logs/access_log combined

# The LockFile directive sets the path to the lockfile used when Apache
# is compiled with either USE_FCNTL_SERIALIZED_ACCEPT or
# USE_FLOCK_SERIALIZED_ACCEPT. This directive should normally be left at
# its default value. The main reason for changing it is if the logs
# directory is NFS mounted, since the lockfile MUST BE STORED ON A LOCAL
# DISK. The PID of the main server process is automatically appended to
# the filename.

LockFile /etc/httpd/httpd.lock

# ServerName allows you to set a host name which is sent back to clients for
# your server if it's different than the one the program would get (i.e. use
# "www" instead of the host's real name).

# Note: You cannot just invent host names and hope they work. The name you
# define here must be a valid DNS name for your host. If you don't understand
# this, ask your network administrator.

# ServerName new.host.name

# UseCanonicalName: (new for 1.3) With this setting turned on, whenever
# Apache needs to construct a self-referencing URL (a url that refers back
# to the server the response is coming from) it will use ServerName and
# Port to form a "canonical" name. With this setting off, Apache will
# use the hostname ort that the client supplied, when possible. This
# also affects SERVER_NAME and SERVER_PORT in CGIs.
UseCanonicalName on

# Proxy Server directives. Uncomment the following line to
# enable the proxy server:

# ProxyRequests On

# To enable the cache as well, edit and uncomment the following lines:

# CacheRoot /var/cache/httpd
# CacheSize 5
# CacheGcInterval 4
# CacheMaxExpire 24
# CacheLastModifiedFactor 0.1
# CacheDefaultExpire 1
# NoCache a_domain.com another_domain.edu joes.garage_sale.com

# ###################################
# Add-on Modules and Virtual Hosts #
# ###################################

# Each time we install an add-on module , the post-install script of the RPM
# adds an "Include" line to read the configuration for that module. When we
# remove the module, we keep the Include line, but we zero out the config
# file so Apache doesn't complain.

# We also put virtual hosts "Includes" in this section. This will be used by
# administration scripts. Instead of parsing all httpd.conf to modify a
# vhost, we just include the config file. Every vhost has its own config
# file.

Include conf/vhosts/vhost0.conf

Include conf/addon-modules/mod_php3.conf

<Directory /home/*/public_html>
Options ExecCgi Includes MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
AllowOverride AuthConfig FileInfo Indexes Limit Options
</Directory>

<Directory />
Options Includes Indexes FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride AuthConfig FileInfo Indexes Limit Options
</Directory>

<Directory /home>

# This may also be "None", "All", or any combination of "Indexes",
# "Includes", "FollowSymLinks", "ExecCGI", or "MultiViews".

# Note that "MultiViews" must be named *explicitly* --- "Options All"
# doesn't give it to you.

Options Includes Indexes FollowSymlinks

# This controls which options the .htaccess files in directories can
# override. Can also be "All", or any combination of "Options", "FileInfo",
# "AuthConfig", and "Limit"

AllowOverride AuthConfig FileInfo Indexes Limit Options

# Controls who can get stuff from this server.

order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>

<Directory /home/httpd/cgi-bin>
Options ExecCgi
AllowOverride AuthConfig FileInfo Indexes Limit Options
</Directory>

<Directory /home/httpd/protected-cgi-bin>
Options ExecCgi
AllowOverride AuthConfig FileInfo Indexes Limit Options
# allow from .your_domain.com
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from localhost
</Directory>

<Directory /usr/doc>
# allow from .your_domain.com
Options Indexes FollowSymlinks
AllowOverride AuthConfig FileInfo Indexes Limit Options
order deny,allow
deny from all
allow from localhost, 127.0.0.1
</Directory>

<VirtualHost bbrown>
ServerAdmin bbrown@ksinsurance.org
NameVirtualHost 165.201.192.129
ServerName kid129.kid.state.ks.us
DocumentRoot /home/bbrown/public_html
User nobody
Group nobody
Options ExecCgi Includes IncludesNOEXEC Indexes
</VirtualHost>

Check if you do have a 'modules' directory under /etc/httpd/ or not.

Yes I do these are the modules.


httpd.exp mod_autoindex.so* mod_headers.so* mod_negotiation.so*
libphp3.so* mod_cern_meta.so* mod_imap.so* mod_rewrite.so*
libproxy.so* mod_cgi.so* mod_include.so* mod_setenvif.so*
mod_access.so* mod_define.so* mod_info.so* mod_speling.so*
mod_actions.so* mod_digest.so* mod_log_agent.so* mod_status.so*
mod_alias.so* mod_dir.so* mod_log_config.so* mod_unique_id.so*
mod_asis.so* mod_env.so* mod_log_referer.so* mod_userdir.so*
mod_auth.so* mod_example.so* mod_mime.so* mod_usertrack.so*
mod_auth_anon.so* mod_expires.so* mod_mime_magic.so* mod_vhost_alias.so*
mod_auth_db.so* mod_frontpage.so* mod_mmap_static.so*

>>I keep geting an error message -"You are not authorized to view this page"
Which URL was that?
Have you checked your /etc/httpd/logs/error_log?

There are no errors in the log. I checked the access log and found this:

kid136.kid.state.ks.us - - [09/May/2000:16:45:35 -0500] "GET /~bbrown HTTP/1.1" 403 217 "-" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.0; Win$

Could it be permissions of some sort?

I asked you "Which URL was that?" and as I expected, it's really GET /~bbrown.
You are not supposed configure vitual host that way. Especially with <VirtualHost bbrown>
You should remove everything from the VirtualHost Directive and try again.

Thanks for all your help.

I've finally found the problem. It's the small things that get you every time. I had the permissions set wrong on the public_html directory. What can I say.