403 error using Xampp

I use Xampp as my local webserver for development. When I re-install the software, I also linked my /home/kristof/www folder to the htdocs/kristof of Xampp. I use the command:

~$ ln -s ~/www /opt/xampp/htdocs/$USER

After putting an index.html test file in the www map, I pointed Firefox to http://localhost/kristof/ An error 403 page was the result.

The source of this error is Apache not having the rights to access files in the www directory. For some reason, my home folder didn’t allow others to access files. After right-clicking the home folder and changing the security settings to “access files”, I could surf to the index.html file without any problem.