IP redirect

[rlhanson]

I have a hosting client which has a secure survelliance camera on her own server.
Her previous web designer created the password file (.apw) password protected, and the flash file protected.

Her login screen essentially went to http://123.123.123.123 (example)
I need to redirect it to this: http://123.123.123.124

how exactly would I do that with the .htaccess?

[rlhanson]

thinking about this...wouldn't her server admin have to do the redirect on her server?

[Alexander]

Actually, the situation is not quite clear for me. Maybe, if you describe the problem more detail, I'd be able to suggest something for you. The simple redirect in .htaccess works in such a way:

Redirect permanent /folder http://www.example.com/newfolder

[rlhanson]

Thanks for responding Alexander!
I was having a "no brainer" moment.... I can't do a redirect on our server that would affect her server. So, when the brain started working again, I just created a new login script to go to the correct IP.

Her server admin said that the IP doesn't reset when they restart the server, however, everything worked fine up until that point. At least with the new script if the IP changes again, I can just modify the script.

I did need to know how to do a redirect though, so as always, very helpful info from GH!

[charlesh]

In php it works really well too, to do a simple redirect by:

header("Location: http://www.redirecturl.com/");

You can also force a page to https:// or back to http:// for secure sites in php. I know you can do this in .htaccess, but this has worked for me. Basically, you could would call forcehttps(); or killhttps(); for those pages that you want to secure or unsecure:

function forcehttps(){
        if (!isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']))
        
        {
            $ref = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
            header("Location:https://www.securesite.com".$ref);
            exit;
        
        }

}
function killhttps(){
        if (isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']))
        
        {
            $ref = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
            header("Location:http://www.nonsecure.com".$ref);
            exit;
        
        }

}

Now, it would be good to find a better way to secure subdirectories from browsing - I have in the past included a simple index.php with nothing in it, just to make the sub-directory inaccesible. I know there must be a better way in htaccess to do that, but from what I've seen it is a bit more verbose. Maybe there is a reason I don't need to include an empty index file in my subdirectories, but it has worked so far.

Charles

[rlhanson]

Thanks for the response CharlesH!

I have in the past included a simple index.php with nothing in it, just to make the sub-directory inaccesible.

I actually place an index file with the "You have accessed an unauthorized area, please visit..." in the directories I want to stop browsing. I haven't tried a redirect for the directories yet though.

[Matt]

Index files are a good protection for visitors that haven't seen the site yet, but if google came through and crawled the directory before you put your index.php up, it"s possible that the direct links to files in a specified directory are still accessable via web through links on the google (or whatever) SERPs.

[rlhanson]

Should I have a redirect for specific files in addition to an index file in the directories I want to protect? Or just redirect the whole directory would probably be better..

Thanks Matt.

[Matt]

If it were me I'd make it easy on myself and just use the password protect option from cPanel which will guarantee no one can get into the directory without a user/pass