an extremely useful script

I use something similar called snif for my downloads: http://www.bitfolge.de/snif-en.html

Thanks to both of you for the info; just what I was looking for.

I/m trying to do somehing similar, but much more limited: I want to limit downloads from a particular directory to logged-iin users. (The users log-in using PHP/MySQL and if authenitcated they have access to PunBB and the sites other features).

My naive thinking was that I would be able to protect the directory with  a .htaccess file, and then use PHP to send an authentication header to allow lgged-in users to download particular files (so that the users wouldn't have to see the challenge from the htaccess). Htaccess file is working properly, but I cna't seem to get the authentication header working - any ideas, or is this just the wrong way of going about it!  Thanks!

<?php
session_start();
if (!session_is_registered('first_name'))
{header("Location: ../members_area/member_login.php");
exit;}

//get the filename from the referring page
$file=$_GET['file'];

//get the browser settings from the header
$accept=$_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT'];
$accept_charset=$_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET'];
$accept_encoding=$_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING'];
$accept_language=$_SERVER['HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE'];
$connection=$_SERVER['HTTP_CONNECTION'];
$host=$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
$browser=$_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'];

//get ready to generate the authorisation code
$all="testuser:password";

//encode the username and password
$encoded=base64_encode($all);

//send the header
header('GET /downloads/$file HTTP/1.0');
header('Connection: $connection');
header('User-Agent: $browser');
header('Accept: $accept');
header('Accept-Encoding: $accept_encoding');
header('Accept-Language: $accept_language');
header('Accept-Charset: $accept_charset');
header('Authorization: Basic $encoded');
?>

Ahem, yes I did notice that -still doesn't work! Thanks anyway...

Jeez you're right! What a noobie mistake (sigh...).

Unfortunately it stil doesn't work - any more ideas anyone?

Thx.