<OT> webpage index

[Ken Moffat]

Tony Alfrey wrote:
> Ken Moffat wrote:
>> Tony Alfrey wrote:
>>> Thanks in advance for help with this.
>>>
>>> Consider a URL with a directory like this:
>>>
>>> http://www.a_website.com/a_directory
>>>
>>> Without knowing that a directory exists with the name a_directory, 
>>> or the names of files, html pages, whatever within a_directory, is 
>>> it possible for anyone to actually see these files, html pages, 
>>> whatever or to know that they exist?
>>>
>>> I suppose that this is the same as asking "how does Google know that 
>>> a page exists (especially without any "keywords" in the page)?
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>>
>> caveat: no expert.
>>
>> but I believe as long as you have an index.html in the www.a_website.com
>> root directory the directory index will not be shown, so the directories
>> will not be shown. I think google goes to the website address, and sees
>> the index.html contents, then just follows links from there.
>>
>> If your web server is set up for php, this also applies to index.php, I
>> think.
>>
>> Ken
>
> Good.  So in other words, if I want to use a_directory as a place to 
> put a file that I would like to transfer to someone who knows its 
> existence and path to it, and said file is no earth-shaking security 
> issue, and there are no links to the file within the pages on the 
> parent directory, then it's a relatively "secure" way to send the file?
>
>
>
That's my opinion, but just to be safe, put an index.html file in each 
directory, so if someone goes to that directory they don't get a listing 
of files, they see the index.html contents.

ken