index.htm in all folders?

[Dexie]

Some people say that you should always have an index.htm file in your folders - in any folder that you have including your images folder - that way people can't see your files - anyone know if this is a good idea please? and why or why not.

Dexie.

[bumpaw]

Try:

[2]Options -Indexes[/2]

in your .htaccess. It does the same if you have Apache server.

[Dexie]

I am on Apache, so thats good news, but how would that code look exactly please?

[encyclo]

The code is exactly as bumpaw noted in your root-level .htaccess file:

Options -Indexes

This disallows the generation of an index file with a list of everything in the directory when there is no index.htm file.

[Dexie]

Aah, I see - many thanks, I wasn't aware that was the exact code.

I have index.php's in some of the folders - would that still be ok?

[bumpaw]

index.php or index.html won't matter at all if you have them. You just won't need them to block indexes from showing.

[Dexie]

Many thanks - the helps been much appreciated.

[Gusgsm]

Please, bear a side question about this:

If I were not to allow indexing of folders and I wanted as well sending visitors who made that to a given page (The Main page, let's say), what would be the best? Perhaps including an index.html with just a redirect in every folder? Making an special 403 page? And, if so (or any other approach) what would be the consequences (SEO and the like) of that measure?

Thanks and happy Xmas, by the way :)

[topsites]

I do not understand this problem, I have never experienced anything of the sort, my .htaccess contains this:

Options +SymlinksIfOwnerMatch

[Dexie]

I've not come across that one before - what does Options +SymlinksIfOwnerMatch do please?

[anthrt]

you could also chmod to 0711.