I am attempting to connect to a web service (REST) but I'm receiving a "403 forbidden" response code. My application server is Tomcat 7 on Linux.

I can browse to the web service URL from that server (using elinks from the command line).

Firewall is off.

I can successfully call the web service with Google's PostMan, so I'm comfortable with the syntax of the call.

In fact, I was successful using this same servlet as a stand-alone java app prior to incorporating it in my OD application.

Any ideas on how I might trouble shoot this connection to the web service or why the 403 response?

The snippet below is how I have this programmed in a Java servlet:

  try {



			URL url = new URL(urlString); 

			do {

				HttpURLConnection conn = (HttpURLConnection) url.openConnection();

				ncpSession.getTraceOutput().writeln(ITraceInfo.TRACE_LEVEL_INFO, "MY TRACE ncpSession.conn.getResponseCode: " + conn.getResponseCode()); 			

I wonder if it may have something to do with ProofPoint's URL-Defence. I'm looking into this possibility now.