Making a site such as only I or the client can see it?

[patrick j]

Hi

I'm going to suggest to a friend of mine that I create a web-site for
her. She lives in London and I live in Brighton.

I'd like it if I could put the web-site up on a server such that I or
she can see it but nobody else. This is so she can have a look at it
during the period it is being created.

Is there an easy way to do this?

If I put the site up on a server for her to view it using her browser
then how do I prevent it from being included in Google and other search
engines?

Could I password protect it in some way for example?

TIA

 

[SpaceGirl]

Hi

I'm going to suggest to a friend of mine that I create a web-site for
her. She lives in London and I live in Brighton.

I'd like it if I could put the web-site up on a server such that I or
she can see it but nobody else. This is so she can have a look at it
during the period it is being created.

Is there an easy way to do this?

If I put the site up on a server for her to view it using her browser
then how do I prevent it from being included in Google and other search
engines?

Could I password protect it in some way for example?

TIA

We hide sites under a subdomain that's password protected - only myself
and the client know the url and the password. Example
somethclient.northleithmill.com

xSpace

 

[J.O. Aho]

Hi

I'm going to suggest to a friend of mine that I create a web-site for
her. She lives in London and I live in Brighton.

I'd like it if I could put the web-site up on a server such that I or
she can see it but nobody else. This is so she can have a look at it
during the period it is being created.

Is there an easy way to do this?

Apache has the access control support, that will give you easy way to password
protect parts of the web servers pages (of course you can do it for all too),

for Apache 1.3.x see: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/auth.html
for Apache 2.x see: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/howto/auth.html


using the built in features of Apache, you don't need to write special login
features or use server side scripting and so on, just old plain HTML files
works fine.

 

[patrick j]

We hide sites under a subdomain that's password protected - only myself
and the client know the url and the password. Example
somethclient.northleithmill.com

Thank you that is a very good idea.

 

[patrick j]

Apache has the access control support, that will give you easy way to
password
protect parts of the web servers pages (of course you can do it for all too),

for Apache 1.3.x see: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/auth.html
for Apache 2.x see: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/howto/auth.html


using the built in features of Apache, you don't need to write special login
features or use server side scripting and so on, just old plain HTML files
works fine.

Thank you I will investigate this most definitely.

 

[dorayme]

I'd like it if I could put the web-site up on a server such that I or
she can see it but nobody else. This is so she can have a look at it
during the period it is being created.

Is there an easy way to do this?

If I put the site up on a server for her to view it using her browser
then how do I prevent it from being included in Google and other search
engines?

You have had general advice about password protecting pages. What
I do is simply put stuff up in a folder on domains under my
control, the addresses highly unlikely to be quickly stumbled
upon. And anyone who does is highly unlikely to have any interest
or connection with you or client or likely to cause any problems.
It takes a while to get noticed in search engines.

Not saying you should not password protect (it might even look
geeky and neat for the client!), just that is it worth it given
the very small risks involved?

Unless... unless... PATRICK! WHAT IS THIS SITE ABOUT? <g>

 

[patrick j]

You have had general advice about password protecting pages. What
I do is simply put stuff up in a folder on domains under my
control, the addresses highly unlikely to be quickly stumbled
upon. And anyone who does is highly unlikely to have any interest
or connection with you or client or likely to cause any problems.
It takes a while to get noticed in search engines.

Not saying you should not password protect (it might even look
geeky and neat for the client!), just that is it worth it given
the very small risks involved?

That is appealing in its simplicity but I fear that the search engines
will have their bots doing their thing and then the pages will be found
that way.

Unless... unless... PATRICK! WHAT IS THIS SITE ABOUT? <g>

This is between me and MI5/MI6/CIA

 

[Ed Mullen]

That is appealing in its simplicity but I fear that the search engines
will have their bots doing their thing and then the pages will be found
that way.

One thing you could do during development is simply change the name of
the page file every day. Like:

http://yourdomain.com/2007-01-17.html
http://yourdomain.com/2007-01-24.html

etc. This way you can just tell your friend that each day she can look
at it using the current day's date as the filename. Even if (unlikely)
search engine's find it and show it in results listings, it won't be
there when people click on it. ;-)

--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net
http://mozilla.edmullen.net
http://abington.edmullen.net
Is sloppiness in speech caused by ignorance or apathy? I don't know and
I don't care. - William Safire

 

[dorayme]

One thing you could do during development is simply change the name of
the page file every day. Like:

http://yourdomain.com/2007-01-17.html
http://yourdomain.com/2007-01-24.html

etc. This way you can just tell your friend that each day she can look
at it using the current day's date as the filename. Even if (unlikely)
search engine's find it and show it in results listings, it won't be
there when people click on it. ;-)

Intersting idea Ed. Or perhaps Patrick can think about which
words are so likely to attract attention and he mentions in a
subsequent post that his client or friend is famous. So may I
suggest that if it is the name that attracts and is something
likely to be searched, you use a different name for the draft
site:

Instead of

<h1 style="font-size: 1000%;">The Queen of England</h1>

why not:

<h1 style="font-size: 1000%;">Roger Rabbit's Wife</h1>

or... um (even less likely to attract attention):

<h1 style="font-size: 1000%;">The NeeuQ of Dnalgne"</h1>

 

[J.O. Aho]

One thing you could do during development is simply change the name of
the page file every day. Like:

http://yourdomain.com/2007-01-17.html
http://yourdomain.com/2007-01-24.html

etc. This way you can just tell your friend that each day she can look
at it using the current day's date as the filename. Even if (unlikely)
search engine's find it and show it in results listings, it won't be
there when people click on it. ;-)

Why go for a such much work when you can easily protect a subdirectory and
it's subdirectories from unauthorized people and setting a robot rules to not
log the subdirectory (most of the serious ones does respect that).

As long as there aren't any direct links to the page on the net and your
directories has indexing disabled, the robots won't find a directory.

 

[Toby Inkster]

Why go for a such much work when you can easily protect a subdirectory and
it's subdirectories from unauthorized people and setting a robot rules to not
log the subdirectory (most of the serious ones does respect that).

If the directory is password protected properly (i.e. HTTP authentication,
or a decent server-side script), then there's no need to set up any
robots.txt rules to block robots from indexing, as they simply won't be
able to access the site anyway.

Indeed, listing the site in robots.txt will *decrease* the security, as it
alerts people (well, people who look at robots.txt anyway) that the
directory exists. Otherwise they might never have found it. Once they know
*where* it is, they can start trying to guess userids and passwords.

 

[aa]

Websites are designed for publicity
For privacy there are a lot of other tools like emails, Skype, ICQ,
filesharing
Those free e-mail services usually offer PW-protected space for photos.
What exactly is the application, if none of these is good?

 

[aa]

"dorayme" <[email protected]>
Even if (unlikely) search engine's find it

There used to be some robot-repelling tags in <head> - do they work?

 

[patrick j]

Websites are designed for publicity
For privacy there are a lot of other tools like emails, Skype, ICQ,
filesharing
Those free e-mail services usually offer PW-protected space for photos.
What exactly is the application, if none of these is good?

Hi

As I mentioned in the original posting my plan is to give my client
access to the site during the creation period then when client is
satisfied we can make it available to anyone.

My client lives in London and I live in Brighton.

 

[Jonathan N. Little]

Hi

As I mentioned in the original posting my plan is to give my client
access to the site during the creation period then when client is
satisfied we can make it available to anyone.

My client lives in London and I live in Brighton.

What I do, since sometimes the client hasn't settled on a hosting
company yet or domain name, is create a project folder in a temporary
folder on my hosting server. Put their demo in that and email them the
explicit link. Since the link is not public, and only I and my client
have the base url to the project folder it is private between us. If
indexing is turned off (best to be) one could not access the "site"
unless you know the URL.

 

[Spartanicus]

What I do, since sometimes the client hasn't settled on a hosting
company yet or domain name, is create a project folder in a temporary
folder on my hosting server. Put their demo in that and email them the
explicit link. Since the link is not public, and only I and my client
have the base url to the project folder it is private between us. If
indexing is turned off (best to be) one could not access the "site"
unless you know the URL.

Beware of the Google toolbar, if the client has it enabled when visiting
the URL it gets reported to Google afaik.

 

[J.O. Aho]

Beware of the Google toolbar, if the client has it enabled when visiting
the URL it gets reported to Google afaik.

URL references from any browser will give away the site too, as some sites has
those as public information.

 

[Jonathan N. Little]

Beware of the Google toolbar, if the client has it enabled when visiting
the URL it gets reported to Google afaik.

Google|Yahoo|FunWebProducts crap toolbars are problem in and of
themselves...but I guess you are right. But putting this in perspective
here, this is just for site development, a temp folder works for the
most part. The website-to-be will be public? Yes -- No? All OP wants is
to limit in-development versions from competing with the final site. So
far I have not found any of my development sites in the temp projects
folders listed with the final websites in search engines. Good enough --
no? Else to be absolutely private, burn on a CD with one of those mini
webservers and mail that thing to London.

 

[Toby Inkster]

My client lives in London and I live in Brighton.

I'm not entirely sure how that matters. Your client could be in Timbuktu
and you could be circling the atmosphere in an invisible pink[1] zepplin,
and the solution would still be the same.

____
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Pink_Unicorn
"Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based
upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically
know that they are invisible because we can't see them."

 

[patrick j]

My client lives in London and I live in Brighton.

I'm not entirely sure how that matters. Your client could be in Timbuktu
and you could be circling the atmosphere in an invisible pink[1] zepplin,
and the solution would still be the same.

Living in Brighton is a bit like circling the atmosphere in an
invisible pink zeppelin

I know that it doesn't matter where me and my client are but what I
meant really is that the client doesn't live next door or even in my
house.

My next project might be for a family member in Adelaide, Australia.