How do I protect a website?

verbyl.belch

OT

Thanks for those replies, i'll look into the free editors.

ringo_24601 wrote: »

Dreamweaver is pretty good, but learning HTML and CSS properly is the best method, then ditch WYSIWYG editors and just use a programmers notepad (e.g. notepad++)

For photo galleries, i use this free flash gallery system - http://www.airtightinteractive.com/simpleviewer/

Hey ringo - i use the same plugin via lightroom and then upload it to my website...its ace.

/OT

[Deleted User]

Again OT, but until someone releases a WYSIWYG editor that properly handles CSS, i'll be sticking with text editors.

verbyl.belch

OT. I've got a good grasp on HTML but always get confused with CSS. Are there text editors that colour the code? (ie. green comments, blue body text etc) 'cos when i open my site in notepad it just adds to the confusion.

EDIT - coloured like the 'page source' option in Firefox (ctrl+U)

[Deleted User]

I use notepad++ for work (i don't do web design though..) it has an option for CSS colouring. It's also free and available here: http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

wonka

I don't think the OP was really asking for advice on how to author web pages. It seems he/she wants to know how to control access to it.

For me, the easiest way to do this is to use a Content Management System (such as joomla). Most web hosting providers have a rich variety of CMS applications that are free, and easy to setup.

If you're on a budget, and don't mind adverts, try www.jamroll.net

Mehdi

There is nothing wrong with using a WYSIWYG editor such as Microsoft Expression Web, much better than Dreamweaver IMO. They're designed to save time. I only use Notepad to tidy up code for validation purposes.

As anewhope suggested a forum would be a good idea. I think you can restrict viewing to registered users with gallery, a free photo album organiser :

http://gallery.menalto.com

I would also suggest adding a robots.txt file to prevent google and other search engines from spidering your website. More here :

http://www.robotstxt.org

Pennywise

Thanks for all the replies/suggestions so far. I've got plenty to look at.

anewhope wrote: »

What are you trying to achieve? Are you just displaying pictures that you don't want people to see?

No, it's not pictures nor a blog. It's a set of documents - if you think about an operations/procedures manual, you'll be on the right lines, but it's more for a hobby than a business. At the moment, we have the full set of documents, all linked with indexes and hyperlinks etc that we can access through a normal browser (but obviously everything is sat on the hard drive or a CD rather than the internet). The thing is that it changes a lot, so we're constantly sending eachother cds or emails with the latest version after changes have been made, hence why we'd prefer it to be live and the latest version always available. It's not national secrets or confidential information, nor would it ruin lives if the data security was compromised, but there's a lot of names and addresses, email addresses and phone numbers etc (mostly suppliers, relevant businesses, local useful contacts etc) - nothing that can't be found elsewhere but that's not the point - it would be embarrassing and make us look amateurs (not to mention probably illegal under the data protection act) if anyone unauthorised gained access to it or it became public information. And no, it's not the BNP membership list either!!! And yes, we are compliant with the Data Protection Act - that's part of the reason we want it to remain confidential.

zzzLazyDaisy

I have a yahoo group, which is private and not searchable on yahoo forums.

It is closed, so the only way to become a member is if I send an invitation from the site to a particular person.

There are folders for documents, photos etc, and the usual message board.

Would that do the trick?

Reggie_Rebel

There's nothing wrong with Frontpage, as long as you take a few minutes to set it up as you want.

What you want to do is fairly simple, the problem will be that as soon as you give another person the URL then you risk access being compromised.

I second the Yahoo group suggestion