Disabling Indexes

[Milen]

Is there any reason you don't just put an empty HTML file in it naming index.htm ?
That way you just get a plain white page.

This is certainly the simplest solution, however, it is not particularly convenient to use when clients have a high number of directories and subdirectories in their accounts or when these directories are dynamically generated by a script. The use of an .htaccess file or permissions change are more suitable solutions in such cases.

[drummerboy]

The use of an .htaccess file or permissions change are more suitable solutions in such cases.

Which one would you recommend?

[Milen]

Use the one that you find easier and more convenient, essentially they are different ways to achieve the same result.

[syownet]

Which one would you recommend?

One thing to consider when making the choice, is whether lowering the permissions is going to change anything for the scripts you use. You may need to leave a directories permissions set to 0777 because a script may need to do something in the directory or with the directory requiring those permissions. In this case I recommend IndexIgnore *.

[Wicked]

..

Personally I would not recommend chmod of 777 to anything.. Some will tell you other wise to defend their honor but I know from experience and from research performed by myself and a large contributer of phpbb communities. On shared hosting chmoding 777 perms open doors to those unwanted visitors who like to leave a "I got ya" message on your index home page and then insert some php port monitoring.. If you havent guessed already I speak from experience.. Took me about 6 hits before I and another programmer figured out how it was happening.. It all happened via 777 perms.. I was hot target for a while and now Im going on like 8 months with no attacks since I fixed the issues.. It wasnt just a situation of chance that the attacks stopped either because they were coming in like clock work. Nor was it just phpbb because domains with no php files even in it were being hit as well. Now this doesnt mean that when you chmod something to 777 that you are going to have any troubles.. I just always suggest to have a recent back up of all your sql data and server side files. Your hosting company can not always locate a good back up for your site.. #$%$# happens.

Now back more to the topic. For the one who mentioned they are redirected to the main page when trying to directory browse. That is done like someone said via a simple redirect.. This can be done with some javascript.. If someone has it turned off though I rather use the meta refresh instead. Thing is I have hundreds of directories so I just use the blank index. Also I would use the html indexes instead of php.index files.. I have actually seen some browsers pass up a php index file before under certain circumstances.

[drummerboy]

Personally I would not recommend chmod of 777 to anything.. Some will tell you other wise to defend their honor but I know from experience and from research performed by myself and a large contributer of phpbb communities. On shared hosting chmoding 777 perms open doors to those unwanted visitors who like to leave a "I got ya" message on your index home page and then insert some php port monitoring.. If you havent guessed already I speak from experience.. Took me about 6 hits before I and another programmer figured out how it was happening.. It all happened via 777 perms.. I was hot target for a while and now Im going on like 8 months with no attacks since I fixed the issues.. It wasnt just a situation of chance that the attacks stopped either because they were coming in like clock work. Nor was it just phpbb because domains with no php files even in it were being hit as well. Now this doesnt mean that when you chmod something to 777 that you are going to have any troubles.. I just always suggest to have a recent back up of all your sql data and server side files. Your hosting company can not always locate a good back up for your site.. #$%$# happens.

Now back more to the topic. For the one who mentioned they are redirected to the main page when trying to directory browse. That is done like someone said via a simple redirect.. This can be done with some javascript.. If someone has it turned off though I rather use the meta refresh instead. Thing is I have hundreds of directories so I just use the blank index. Also I would use the html indexes instead of php.index files.. I have actually seen some browsers pass up a php index file before under certain circumstances.

Thanks for sharing me your thoughts. I appreciate it.