Access denied on new Site Collection / web application

Question

SharePoint 2007

I have created a new web application with its own application pool, and created a new site collection, setting both a primary and secondary site collection administrator.

When I try to browse the site with one of these accounts, I get 'Access denied'. The page returned is http://*sitename*/_layouts/AccessDenied.aspx?Source=http%3A%2F%2F*sitename*%2Fdefault%2Easpx

Browsing the site in Sharepoint Designer with the site collection adminstrator, I am unable to view default.aspx - I get the error

'You do not have permission to do this operation. Ask your web site administrator to change your permissions and then try again, or log in with a user account that has this permission. To log on with a different account click OK.'

I am unable to access the site both from the SharePoint server and from other machines.

I have tried adding the users to the Policy for Web Application screen, with Full Control and Full Read rights. I have tried removing the web application and recreating it.

The SharePoint farm (one server) currently hosts 22 web applications (including this one), I don't have any issues with any of the other sites.

Answer 1

Take note of the account the application pool is running under. Next, log into the DB server and check that the app pool account has read&write permissions on the content database.

Also check both the Windows Event Viewer and the ULS to get a more detailed error message that will help you troubleshooting this issue.