Title: Self-Hosted WordPress problems… and now 403 error. Last modified: August 21, 2016 --- # Self-Hosted WordPress problems… and now 403 error. * [bowendesign](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bowendesign/) * (@bowendesign) * [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hosted-wordpress-problems/) * Hey there, I’ve got WordPress uploaded to my website at [http://www.bowendesign.com](http://www.bowendesign.com) and have come across a host (ahaaa) of issues relating to my log in. First, the log in for WordPress on the site doesn’t work with WordPress’ main site, meaning I technically have two main accounts. Secondly, this means that activating Askimet is impossible, as the Askimet log in requires the actual WordPress account, not the site login which isn’t recognised despite being WordPress. Thirdly, I can’t even seem to customise my theme anymore under the new dash – doing so leads me to the customise page with options on the left, and a “session expired” login for the site on the right, rather than a preview. * Any ideas how to solve all this? I’m wondering if it’s best just to have a redirect from my site to WordPress rather than hosting a copy of WordPress’ code and working that way, as clearly a ton of stuff is incompatible using this method. Any way to save my site and copying it over to WordPress if so? Or is there a simple solution? * Thanks in advance. Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) * [C W (VYSO)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cyril-washbrook/) * (@cyril-washbrook) * [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hosted-wordpress-problems/#post-4627116) * > the log in for WordPress on the site doesn’t work with WordPress’ main site * Let’s start with this. What exactly do you mean by “WordPress’ main site”? * > this means that activating Askimet is impossible, as the Askimet log in requires > the actual WordPress account, not the site login which isn’t recognised despite > being WordPress * I’m not sure what you mean by an “actual WordPress account”. Furthermore, to get an Akismet API key, all you need to do is submit your email address and create a username and password, so whatever an “actual WordPress account” is, this should be no obstacle to activating Akismet. * I am confused by your post, but my guess is that you are confusing WordPress. com with WordPress.org, when in fact they are completely separate. A self-hosted WordPress.org site has nothing to do with WordPress.com unless you are using a package like Jetpack which ports WordPress.com functionality into WordPress. org installations. * Thread Starter [bowendesign](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bowendesign/) * (@bowendesign) * [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hosted-wordpress-problems/#post-4627118) * I’ve been reading up since…. so I’m in the right place. [http://www.wordpress.com](http://www.wordpress.com) is the main site, this is for the hosted WordPress. 😉 Yes, I’m confused. * I still can’t seem to activate Askimet without a WordPress login from the settings. Weird. I’ve found something re the customisation “session expired” login here– [http://wordpress.org/support/topic/your-session-has-expired-please-log-in-again-ad-infinitum/page/2?replies=33](http://wordpress.org/support/topic/your-session-has-expired-please-log-in-again-ad-infinitum/page/2?replies=33) * As a note I’ve just tried the solution above and it just makes the customise page grey with nothing previewed. Weird. * And now I’ve borked my website and I’ve no idea how… I only logged out! * [C W (VYSO)](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cyril-washbrook/) * (@cyril-washbrook) * [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hosted-wordpress-problems/#post-4627122) * > I’ve been reading up since…. so I’m in the right place. [http://www.wordpress.com](http://www.wordpress.com) > is the main site, this is for the hosted WordPress. 😉 Yes, I’m confused. * A couple of important terminology points: * (1) WordPress.com is not the “main site”. It is the home of WordPress.com blogs. You do not have a WordPress.com blog so you should disregard that entirely. * (2) What you have is not a “hosted” WordPress blog, but a “self-hosted” WordPress blog. A “hosted” blog implies a WordPress.com blog, because you sign up for a ready-made installation that is “hosted” on the WordPress.com servers. A “self- hosted” blog is installed on a hosting account that you control. * As for Akismet: to get an API key, go [here](http://akismet.com/wordpress/) to sign up: provide your email address and pick a username and password. Once you get an API key, you insert that in the API key field at Plugins > Akismet. * Thread Starter [bowendesign](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bowendesign/) * (@bowendesign) * [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hosted-wordpress-problems/#post-4627124) * 1) Thanks. Got that now. * 2) OK, great. Cheers. * Askimet, I’ll do that. If I could get my site running again. From out of what appears to be nowhere I’m getting a 403 Forbidden Error for the entire site. All I did was change the General Settings Site Address from [http://www.bowendesign.com](http://www.bowendesign.com) to [http://bowendesign.com](http://bowendesign.com) and back again, as per the solution to the main problem. Any ideas? * edit; ok, now this is confusing. Changing it to [http://bowendesign.hosting5.idnet.net](http://bowendesign.hosting5.idnet.net) means I can see my site again, but [http://www.bowendesign.com](http://www.bowendesign.com) seems to be giving an error. Argh. * Thread Starter [bowendesign](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bowendesign/) * (@bowendesign) * [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hosted-wordpress-problems/#post-4627136) * Argh, this is driving me nuts. Tried reinstalling, nothing. Tried deleting .htaccess, nothing. Looked at permissions, all seem fine. If anyone can help or suggest anything, please do. * edit – OK, strangely I can access [http://www.bowendesign.com/?page_id=44](http://www.bowendesign.com/?page_id=44) and other links apart from the home page. Links to the images now seem broken. Erk. * [wplamp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wplamp/) * (@wplamp) * [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hosted-wordpress-problems/#post-4627142) * [http://www.bowendesign.com](http://www.bowendesign.com) is working here. * Thread Starter [bowendesign](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bowendesign/) * (@bowendesign) * [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hosted-wordpress-problems/#post-4627144) * You can access the entire site? * Strange. Wonder if I’ve triggered some security setting as I can’t get anything than a 404 error on this computer. * Thanks for checking, btw. Much appreciated! * edit – my browser was redirecting me automatically. Duh. Thanks for checking. Put it down to tiredness. * Thread Starter [bowendesign](https://wordpress.org/support/users/bowendesign/) * (@bowendesign) * [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hosted-wordpress-problems/#post-4627146) * I’ll keep this open as my preview issues are unresolved for now. If there’s any kind mods… erm… delete the 403 mess for my own sanity lol. * [wplamp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wplamp/) * (@wplamp) * [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hosted-wordpress-problems/#post-4627151) * All of the pages I clicked on worked fine. Flushing your DNS on your computer might do the trick. Viewing 9 replies - 1 through 9 (of 9 total) The topic ‘Self-Hosted WordPress problems… and now 403 error.’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [askimet](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/askimet/) * [customise](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/customise/) * [hosted](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/hosted/) * [login](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/login/) * [site](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/site/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 9 replies * 3 participants * Last reply from: [wplamp](https://wordpress.org/support/users/wplamp/) * Last activity: [12 years, 3 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/hosted-wordpress-problems/#post-4627151) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics