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 A couple of months ago I moved to a new host and consequently moved my Joomla 3 site using akeeba backup. I have just tried to place a google adwords ad and was told that my page was returning an invalid response code of 403. I was not aware of this as I can access the actual pages on my desktop, but when I do a http test it shows as a 403 error. I have tested my robots txt file in webmasters tools and it shows "allowed", but when I test the sitemap it shows a error with 403 response.
Can anyone shed any light on this problem.
The site had been right beforehand so I think it has something to do with the moving of the site and maybe permissions or something.
The site is http://goo.gl/ACJCh1
I had my host check the .htaccess file and it is OK he said it had something to do with the joomla site.
The header response is:
HTTP/1.1 403 An incorrect username or password is an easy mistake. For security reasons we will only allow 3 attempts.
If you could help me I would really appreciate it.

We need to figure out what is causing the 403.

Go inside the plugins/system/admintools directory on your site. You will see a file named main.php. Rename it to main-disable.php. This will turn disable the Web Application Firewall from executing. After you have fixed the cause of your issue remember to rename main-disable.php back to main.php, otherwise your site will remain unprotected!

Now try to cause the 403 error. Is it still there or did that make it go away?

If it is still there, try using Joomla!'s generic .htaccess file. It ships as htaccess.txt, just rename your current .htaccess file, then rename htaccess.txt to .htaccess.

Now try to cause the 403 error. Is it still there or did that make it go away?

Changing the main.php file fixed the problem.
So therefor it must be in the WAP settings, I am just not sure where to start.
Could this have been changed when the site was moved?
Can you suggest where I should start looking ?
Many thanks
Sandra

The next step is to check your Security Exceptions log for the WAF. That should tell us why you are getting the 403 and give us the information that we need to set up the exception.

The log shows the last exception was a couple of months ago an attempt at DFI shield (I was having alot of trouble at the time and I set the geographic blocking to block all other countries other than Australia)
target url was : http://xxxxxxxxx.com.au/index.php?option=com_jce&task=plugin&plugin=imgmanager&file=imgmanager&method=form&cid=20&6bc427c8a7981f4fe1f5ac65c1246b5f=cf6dd3cf1923c950586d0dd595c8e20b

Could this be the problem setting the geo blocking for everywhere other than Australia?
That would explain how I could get in?

Yes! We have run into that before. Try disabling your Geo blocking. (You can disable the plugin rather than unblocking all your countries.)

Well that worked.
I renamed the main.php file back and disabled the geo plugin and all seems fine now.
I just dont have any geo blocking anymore.
At that time I was having such trouble (bombarded) with DFI shield attempts from all different ip addresses it was really unnerving. If I dont have this protection do you have any other suggestions or just keep on blocking the ips?
Interested in any opinions you have on this.
Many thanks
Sandra

GeoIP blocking is effective for scripts and dumb attackers. It is pretty easy for a serious attacker to bypass. All they have to do is log in through a proxy server in an allowed country.

You will probably have to disable the GeoIP block for USA to allow Google to get through. You can continue to block other countries. Disabling the plugin was just a diagnostic step, I did not mean that you couldn't use it at all.