Hello, I am developing a website where I give my music away for free. I want to use a file host such as mediafire, right now using kiwi6. I get a direct link for my mp3 file, but this link shows in the browser. Is there any way to make this link invisible while using a file host? I don't need a high level of security, I am sure someone could find the link no matter what. However I would like it so that the casual user would not have immediate and direct access to the links. The idea is that they would refer others to my site rather than having the ability to send the direct link somewhere like through an email or even (gasp!) use the link on another site. I found an interesting option at hidemyass.com which has the option to only allow a download if the traffic came from a specified website. This would work but that particular site has no direct links for the file, and no info for the duration of the link, bandwidth limit etc. I don't mind paying a reasonable fee for file hosting if the host has a feature such as this. I have not found any such host in my searches with direct links that can do this. I have found scripts that are supposed to hide the link if I host the file on the server with the website, but at ~3-5 MB /DL, this will eat into bandwidth pretty quick (and I wonder if even "unlimited" hosts wouldn't kick me off). I may end up doing this but a file host gives me more flexibility. Thanks if anyone can help!
Pay a reasonable fee and get a real host? Though everyone has a definition of reasonable I guess. A while back I had a game site that hosted the most popular mods, some of which were 20MB+ and many had 10000+ downloads and an average VPS handled it alright. (Though downloads were spread out, after an initial surge on release, the thousands would build up over a few months) I used VPSlatch, at 35/month for 1TB of bandwidth, it's reasonable plus comes fully managed with cPanel. I'm on a dedicated server now, but this would certainly serve your purposes (unless you are illegally distributing copyrighted works). The script itself is easy enough to work, and depending on the amount of files, could be done flat-file (no database). Of course, if you need to pay less, I don't really know how to help you, since direct linking will always be a thing since all sites have a URL...and none that I know of do a referrer check.
O.k., thanks for the input. I never ran a website before so I don't know what to expect. Once I get all of my files up it would not be unusual to have each visitor DL 50 mb or more per visit which makes even a low volume website eat through bandwidth. So you would suggest hosting the files on the site, and not on an external file host? I may go with something like Hostgator, and if I have the traffic upgrade from there. "Pay a reasonable fee and get a real host? Though everyone has a definition of reasonable I guess." Is there some problem with file hosts that I don't know about? I thought that these were legit services such as dropbox, spideroak, or amazon's cloud drive? Of course I own all of the rights to distribute my own works. I think maybe those "you wouldn't eat raw babies so don't file share..." commercials might be having an effect after all But in reality there are lots of legit artists like myself who want to take advantage of modern technology. Here is one of my videos the end of which has a screen shot of the midi editing I do, by hand, note by note, on each one of these things: I don't mean to go on and on about this, but quite often I get accused of illegally distributing my own works so I just want to set the record straight. And thanks for the recommendation for vpslatch, their prices are pretty good. Its hard for a noob like me to find good information about hosting companies! If you have an affiliate or referral code, feel free to pm me and I will use it if I ever sign up for their service (I mean Blueparukia, so others please don't spam my inbox).
Not really, though personally I avoid using them (as a client) as wait times, constant redirects and captchas, as well as slower download speeds means I prefer direct downloads or even torrents. I use SkyDrive for business use. The point is I don't think any of these hosts provide the service you require. Just double checking. Not bad music either (well, it's Mozart I guess), takes me back to the days of Mod Tracker. Haha thanks, but unnecessary.