Password protecting

[mmzplanet]

I am using the built-in webserver in OSX to share a couple of blackberry items (wallpapers,etc.) out so my wife and I can download them whenever we want them on our blackberry. The main benefit is that we can delete the unused items and get them again anytime from the webserver, saving us memory space for other things.

I would like to put up ringtones I have made, but I dont want it public. What would be the best way to password protect it? Right now there is no HTML so we just get our file list when we access it. (I wanted to keep it as simple as possible for speed.)

It does not need to be super-secure, we are not putting and sensitive info in this folder.

 

[jsw]

If you're not all that worried, you don't even need password protection. Just put a blank index.html there so people won't see the file directory, then create a subfolder named something not completely obvious, and store the files there.

Then, instead of going to www.yoursite.com (which will show a blank page), go to www.yoursite.com/folder, which will show you the files. Simple simple, and pretty effective for non-sensitive files.

 

[mmzplanet]

If you're not all that worried, you don't even need password protection. Just put a blank index.html there so people won't see the file directory, then create a subfolder named something not completely obvious, and store the files there.

Then, instead of going to www.yoursite.com (which will show a blank page), go to www.yoursite.com/folder, which will show you the files. Simple simple, and pretty effective for non-sensitive files.

But would that still get crawled later on by a search engine? If so is there a way to prevent it?

 

[mnkeybsness]

But would that still get crawled later on by a search engine? If so is there a way to prevent it?

if there are no links to it, a crawler will never get to it.

 

[jsw]

You can also read this for how to password protect your site, but, as mentioned above, if there are no links there, the crawlers cannot see the folder.

 

[ChrisA]

What would be the best way to password protect it?

Apache has always supported passwords. The simplest
way is to use an ".htaccess" file in the directory. It's in
the apache docs. If you do this the end user will get
a prompt and is asked to enter a username and
password.

Google for "htaccess" and you will find quite a few totarials on how it works.

 

[mmzplanet]

Thanks for all the info!!! I am keen on html, php, mysql and all that... but i never had to do anything on the simple side of things...