Question

Using htaccess I’m basically trying to forbid access to the page i.e http://example.com, but it will still allow people to download files if they have a direct link i.e http://example.com/hi.zip.

I’m using the directory directive to display the basic download page. According to here mod_autoindex.c is used,so basically what I’m trying to do is:

<Files mod_autoindex.c>
    AuthType Basic
    AuthName "Example"
    AuthUserFile "/home/.htpasswd"
    require valid-user
</Files>

Any advice/tips?

Answer 1

This should work (tested on my webserver: http://www.gopeter.de/test is restricted, http://www.gopeter.de/test/test.zip is allowed)

AuthType Basic 
AuthName "Restricted Directory" 
AuthUserFile /path/to/directory/.htpasswd 
require valid-user

<FilesMatch "\.(gz|pdf|zip|rar)$" >
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
    Satisfy any
</FilesMatch>