RE: [users@httpd] Restricting the number of times a file canbedownloaded.

[Boyle Owen <Ow...@swx.com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: david0005 [mailto:david0005@optusnet.com.au] 
> Sent: Mittwoch, 12. April 2006 06:00
> 
> I am actually well aware of all of the technical meanings of the word
> bandwidth. However, I was using the word in the colloquial 
> sense -- that
> is bandwidth as a limited commodity which costs money.

Err... this is a technical mailing list about HTTP; bandwidth has a very precise meaning in that context. If you use it in a "colloquial sense" you are bound to confuse...

> 
> After a certain limit my host charges by the megabyte. So I 
> do not want
> to pay for anyone to view this video clip, just the people that I send
> the link to. So yes I am talking about controlling access. 

This makes things much clearer (at last). In this case, I would suggest you simply put the resource in it's own directory and password protect it with Basic Auth (see http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/auth.html). Then you give the user a username and password in the mail you send. If you like, you can even put the username and passwd in the URL (see http://www.devx.com/tips/Tip/5604). However, this won't stop password-sharing so you might write a short CGI that scrubs the user from the password file after they've accessed the file.

Alternatively, you could limit access by IP or domain (see http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_authz_host.html#allow) but you'd have to know in advance the IP/domain that clients would come from. 

To do the job "properly", you will eventually need server-sided logic (CGI, PHP, ASP, JSP, etc.). The URL would lead to a handler that would keep count of the number of downloads per client and control access directly. You'd need a way of identifying clients (eg, cookies) and of maintaining state (eg, DB, file..). It's non-trivial.

Rgds,
Owen Boyle
Disclaimer: Any disclaimer attached to this message may be ignored. 


> However I do
> not care if a recipient emails the video clip as an attachment to a
> friend. I just do not want that friend accessing my web 
> server. Making a
> scalar count of the number of times the file has been downloaded would
> also serve my purpose as it would allow me to cap the 
> bandwidth cost of
> this mail out. I am not concerned about the number of concurrent
> connections so I do not need throttling. I am concerned about 
> minimising
> the number of megabytes of data delivered by my web server.
> 
> > Now I'm even more confused... Are you talking about 
> controlling access? (ie, you
> >  don't want someone who gets a copy of the mail to
> >  access the file?)
> 
> Yes. But I don't care if they receive the file as an attachment.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> David
> 
> 
> 
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