I'm expanding a FrontPage site (that I made) with .aspx pages that I 
program with C# scripts. I?ll admit I have a lot to learn, and I?m reading 
like crazy right now, almost overloaded by it all. I want to design a file 
download system to allow customers to download files from our site. They 
are small files with extensions like .RSS and .DNT that are used in 
control systems. 

I thought I had a solution...I had my web host enable web browsing on a 
folder called "Customers" and all its subfolders. I could re-direct the 
customer to their folder where they could select and download a file. The 
only functionality I had to build was an authentication system in my web 
that would check a username and password they entered and then redirect 
them to their folder. But the problem was, I found that anyone could type 
the path to that folder from any browser. But protecting the folders meant 
that after I re-direct them, they still have to enter a username and 
password that pertains to my web host?s system. This kind of killed this 
method. 

My new idea is to authenticate a user then populate a list box with that 
customer?s file names and allow them to select a file and download it. Can 
someone tell me what controls and functionality to use? I?m sure 
populating a list box with file names is simple in C# but is it easy to do 
it in an ASP.NET script and display the results on the web page? And my 
biggest question, how do I initiate a download to the user?s hard drive of 
the file they selected? I?d sure appreciate some direction here.

You can try one of these.

1) Create user account on the domain(if you use one) or the system in which runs the webserver and enable Authentication on your web
server accordingly. and notify your customers with their corresponding username and password.

2) If any database involved, create seperate table for customers with Username and password, then add pop up feature on your page to
get username and password, verify with that of the db values and allow them on successful match.

Hope this works. Let me know.

Regards
Vijay.G
 William Love wrote:I'm expanding a FrontPage site (that I made) with .aspx pages that I 
program with C# scripts. I?ll admit I have a lot to learn, and I?m reading 
like crazy right now, almost overloaded by it all. I want to design a file 
download system to allow customers to download files from our site. They 
are small files with extensions like .RSS and .DNT that are used in 
control systems. 

I thought I had a solution...I had my web host enable web browsing on a 
folder called "Customers" and all its subfolders. I could re-direct the 
customer to their folder where they could select and download a file. The 
only functionality I had to build was an authentication system in my web 
that would check a username and password they entered and then redirect 
them to their folder. But the problem was, I found that anyone could type 
the path to that folder from any browser. But protecting the folders meant 
that after I re-direct them, they still have to enter a username and 
password that pertains to my web host?s system. This kind of killed this 
method. 

My new idea is to authenticate a user then populate a list box with that 
customer?s file names and allow them to select a file and download it. Can 
someone tell me what controls and functionality to use? I?m sure 
populating a list box with file names is simple in C# but is it easy to do 
it in an ASP.NET script and display the results on the web page? And my 
biggest question, how do I initiate a download to the user?s hard drive of 
the file they selected? I?d sure appreciate some direction here.


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Vijay, thanks for your input. I will try out your suggestions.

test