How do I fix my Web page permissions on a Mac?

To fix the permissions on a personal career account website, follow these instructions. It may be necessary to fix the permissions after the website has been created for the first time, and again if there is ever a radical change to its structure (delete or replace folders). You'll know if your webpage permissions need corrected if you get a '403: Forbidden' or similar permissions error when browsing to your website.

1. Open the Mac OS X Terminal by opening 'Finder', and then navigating to the 'Applications' folder and opening the 'Utilities' folder.

2. At the command prompt, type the following command and press the 'Enter' key:  'ssh username@mace.itap.purdue.edu' where 'username' is the proper career account credential.  For example, if the career account username is jpublic, then the proper command would be 'ssh jpublic@mace.itap.purdue.edu'. 
3. If this is the first time that this account has been connected to the web server, a prompt will appear for trusting the server.  Type 'Yes', and press the 'Enter' key.
4. Enter the proper career account credentials when prompted.
5. A list of commands will be presented as the connection to the web server is successful.  Type the command 'webfix' and press the 'Enter' key.
6. Webfix can take some time to run.  If it finishes successfully, a new command prompt will appear. Only if there is an error will any message be displayed.  Type 'logout' and strike the 'Enter' key when Webfix is finished running.  The terminal can now be closed. 
7. Navigate to the website and verify that the the fix was successful. 

Troubleshooting

If an error message that states a website does not exist appears, it is indicative that a page named index.html or index.htm does not exist.  The main webpage (the first page that visitors to see) must be called index.html or index.htm for Webfix to work properly.

If the website still shows a '403: Forbidden error', then it may be necessary to refresh the browser or clear the temporary page cache (in Safari, select 'Empty Cache...' from the Safari menu).  If that still doesn't clear the problem, back-up the contents of the website in another location and delete the 'www' folder.  Then, create a new folder and name it 'www'. Place the backed up website in the new 'www' folder and run Webfix again.

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