 |
| Password Protection |
|
The only conceivable means to protect your webpage nowadays is through passwords, but are they really necessary? Probably if your website contains some information exclusive only to a number of people, or if your site is laiden with sleazy pornography. Here we focus on how to get one fast, and best of all, free. I signed up at Fido7 and checked on both their quality and speed of service. Although Fido7's homepage doesn't look all that impressive, signing up was indeed an easy task, and at once my login and password took me to the page I was trying to protect. Let's get down to the nitty-gritty: |
| Knowing which page to defend |
| Our sample URL (website address) during this discussion will be http://www.geocities.com/China/Pirates/1135. Before signing in, you first must know which page you'd want isolated from all humanity. One drawback of Fido7 is that it cannot protect index.html or default.html, your main file, since whenever someone types in and enters that URL, they are immediately led to index.html, not to your password verfication page in Fido7. The smartest thing to do is to keep all important info away from index.html and into another html file with a difficult filename. Say that I created a file called secret_files_007_1800_top-secret.html, which carries all my classified undercover information about pirated software in China. To keep people guessing, I further place it inside a subdirectory called Secret0007. I maintain my index.html file but the only information I divulge in it is a link pointing towards the password verification page. |
| How to register |
| Fido7 asks for only the basic information necessary to activate your account. Beside "URL if authorization ok:" I type in http://www.geocities.com/China/Pirates/1135/Secret0007/secret_files_ 007_1800_top-secret.html. Again, this is the URL people are redirected to only if their login and password are correct. Under "URL if authorization failed", the URL for this one is http://www.geocities.com/China/Pirates/1135/sorry.html, which gently blurts out that they provided the wrong information. You can easily create a sorry file after registration. |
| Adding/Deleting Users |
| To add a new user, simply type in a login name and a corresponding password, separated by a colon (:) (ex. brucelee:kungfu). To add multiple users, do the same thing, but separate each user with a comma (,) (ex. brucelee:kungfu,spikelee:malcomx,bubblee:ivory). To remove a user, type in the user name you want deleted (ex. bubblee). You can continuously edit these settings by logging in through the "adjust parameters" section of Fido7's opening page. |
| More Facts & Tips |
|
1. Once you've successfully registered, you'll receive an address wherein your users can login. In your index.html file, put a link directed to that URL. For more advanced users, incorporate the verification process into index.html using cut and paste. 2. Assuming that secret_files_ 007_1800_top-secret.html contains more links to equally secretive files in your website, I give these files hard-to-figure-out names as well. 3. Users can easily bookmark accessed pages using their browsers, so change your file names regularly (like once a week). 4. A more reliable defense system is creating a file called .htaccess, but this requires more work and cash. 5. Xcheck is a site that provides free webspace as well as a reliable password system for people setting up sites targeted to the adult market. Check it out. |