Trying to deploy MVC 3 application using shared hosting, getting 403 - Forbidden: Access is denied

Question

In the control panel I can see that I am using IIS7.5, ASP.NET Version 4. I have all the MVC3 dependencies in the /BIN folder too. The root folder has correct file access [read only] and I would think the host sets all the users access privillages for all the IIS services/users etc.

Folder structure.

-HTTPROOT
Content
Scripts
Views
bin
cleditor
colorbox
slider
treeview

The web.config is below

<configuration>
  <configSections>
    <!-- For more information on Entity Framework configuration, visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=237468 -->
    <section name="entityFramework" type="System.Data.Entity.Internal.ConfigFile.EntityFrameworkSection, EntityFramework, Version=4.3.1.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
    <section name="resizer" type="ImageResizer.ResizerSection" />
  </configSections>
  <connectionStrings>

    <add name="wwdbEntities" connectionString="metadata=res://*/Models.entitymodel.wwModel.csdl|res://*/Models.entitymodel.wwModel.ssdl|res://*/Models.entitymodel.wwModel.msl;provider=System.Data.SqlClient;provider connection string=&quot;data source=ms-someserver.com;Initial Catalog=myDbname;User Id=XXXXX;Password=XXXXXXbwrt;integrated security=False;multipleactiveresultsets=True;App=EntityFramework&quot;" providerName="System.Data.EntityClient" />



  </connectionStrings>
  <appSettings>
    <add key="webpages:Version" value="1.0.0.0" />
    <add key="ClientValidationEnabled" value="true" />
    <add key="UnobtrusiveJavaScriptEnabled" value="false" />
  </appSettings>
  <system.web>
    <compilation debug="false" targetFramework="4.0">
      <assemblies>
        <add assembly="System.Web.Abstractions, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
        <add assembly="System.Web.Helpers, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
        <add assembly="System.Web.Routing, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
        <add assembly="System.Web.Mvc, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
        <add assembly="System.Web.WebPages, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31BF3856AD364E35" />
        <add assembly="System.Data.Entity, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" />
      </assemblies>
    </compilation>
    <authentication mode="Forms">
      <forms loginUrl="~/Account/LogOn" timeout="2880">
        <credentials passwordFormat="Clear">
          <user name="admin" password="xxxxxxx" />
        </credentials>
      </forms>
    </authentication>
    <membership>
      <providers>
        <clear />
        <add name="AspNetSqlMembershipProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlMembershipProvider" connectionStringName="ApplicationServices" enablePasswordRetrieval="false" enablePasswordReset="true" requiresQuestionAndAnswer="false" requiresUniqueEmail="false" maxInvalidPasswordAttempts="5" minRequiredPasswordLength="6" minRequiredNonalphanumericCharacters="0" passwordAttemptWindow="10" applicationName="/" />
      </providers>
    </membership>
    <profile>
      <providers>
        <clear />
        <add name="AspNetSqlProfileProvider" type="System.Web.Profile.SqlProfileProvider" connectionStringName="ApplicationServices" applicationName="/" />
      </providers>
    </profile>
    <roleManager enabled="false">
      <providers>
        <clear />
        <add name="AspNetSqlRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.SqlRoleProvider" connectionStringName="ApplicationServices" applicationName="/" />
        <add name="AspNetWindowsTokenRoleProvider" type="System.Web.Security.WindowsTokenRoleProvider" applicationName="/" />
      </providers>
    </roleManager>
    <pages>
      <namespaces>
        <add namespace="System.Web.Helpers" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Ajax" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Mvc.Html" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.Routing" />
        <add namespace="System.Web.WebPages" />
      </namespaces>
    </pages>
    <httpModules>
      <add name="ImageResizingModule" type="ImageResizer.InterceptModule" />
    </httpModules>
  </system.web>
  <system.webServer>
    <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false" />
    <modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true">
      <add name="ImageResizingModule" type="ImageResizer.InterceptModule" />
    </modules>
  </system.webServer>
  <runtime>
    <assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
      <dependentAssembly>
        <assemblyIdentity name="System.Web.Mvc" publicKeyToken="31bf3856ad364e35" />
        <bindingRedirect oldVersion="1.0.0.0-2.0.0.0" newVersion="3.0.0.0" />
      </dependentAssembly>
    </assemblyBinding>
  </runtime>
  <entityFramework>
    <defaultConnectionFactory type="System.Data.Entity.Infrastructure.SqlConnectionFactory, EntityFramework">
      <parameters>
        <parameter value="somesqlserver.com; Integrated Security=False; MultipleActiveResultSets=True" />
      </parameters>
    </defaultConnectionFactory>
  </entityFramework>
  <resizer>
    <plugins>
      <add name="MvcRoutingShim" />
    </plugins>
  </resizer>
</configuration>

Answer 1

You may want to check the following:

• See if you have Anonymous authentication enabled in IIS.

Since you are in a shared environment this should already be true, however it might be worth checking.

• Check whether the default document is enabled in IIS.

Even though this is an MVC application and you may think there is no default file, you still need to make sure you enabled "default.aspx" as your default document.