Thread:Project:Support desk/url redirect problem/reply (5)

If you attempt to access yoursite.com/FAQ (for example), since in your rewrite rules you have an exception if the "FAQ" part is a file or directory in the server, it won't be rewritten, but instead it should retrieve the file or folder in the installation, that's why you won't be able to have an article with such name, unless accessing through /index.php?title=FAQ. That's the only option and you can't choose between them, unless you add further rules to match those files and do the rewrite instead. That depends on how would you want to "fix" that.

The problem you're describing (403 Forbidden) shouldn't happen. Maybe those files don't have the appropriate permissions for the server to read them.