Can you hide a domain name and use an IP insead?

Zascar

I have a domain: www.myfullname.com with some personal files that host for myself and occasionally share.

I want to send a file to someone but I do not really want them to see www.myfullname.com and possibly go exploring the site.

Is it possible to insead of having www.myfullname.com/file.doc - can I have a link like http://123.123.12.3/file.doc

Anyone know?
Thanks

jester77

Sending the IP address is no different, they can still browse your site. What type of server are you hosting your site on? Can you setup a logon and grant the user access to only 1 folder and place your file in that. Or set them up with FTP access. Is your IP address dynamic? If it is then the user might not be able to get the file at a later time.

Spud83

You should be able to http://193.120.250.21 brings you to breakingnews.ie. However Jester is correct this will still give them full access to the site.

zAbbo

Not if the site is hosted on shared hosting (as most are)

It would make more sense to use a yousendit type service to share one off files.

bushy...

Unless you have your stuff locked away on it , won't the all seeing googlebot crawl it someday ?

Zascar

Sorry lads I have not explained it clearly enough. I want to distribute a file to my workmates. I do not specificaly want to advertise the fact that I have a website with my name: www.JohnSmith.com - cause no doubt they will explore. It's not like there is anything terrible in there, but I have lots of photo galleries etc and i don't really want them floating around the office.

If I can point to http://123.123.12.3/folder that will be fine.

I host with blacknight.ie and I am on a shared linux hosting package. Can it not be done on shared hosting?
Thanks

Krusty_Clown

Do you have a static IP address? Otherwise, it will change frequently..

Why not use one of those file sharing services, like:
http://www.4shared.com/
or
http://www.sendthisfile.com/

seamus

Zascar wrote: »

I host with blacknight.ie and I am on a shared linux hosting package. Can it not be done on shared hosting?

Usually not. Shared hosting means that usually an IP address (or multiple IPs) are shared by multiple websites, as well as the hardware and software that the web sites are running on.

When on shared hosting, the server uses the domain/hostname in request to determine what website you want to access. Imagine the conversation going something like this:

Browser: Hey www.mydomain.com! Give me the file called "index.php".
Server: Okie-dokie, I see a file called "index.php" in www.mydomain.com's folder. Here ya go.
<sends file>

If you try to use an IP Address, it will go more like this:

Browser: Hey 123.54.99.156! Give me the file called "index.php".
Server: Urm...I have about fifty websites here, none of them are called "123.54.99.156". I'll just try the default web site.
<server shuffles off to the filing cabinet>
Server: Nope, no file called "index.php" on the default website. Can't help ya.
<end>

There are a few dedicated sites out there for sharing big files as linked above.

irlrobins

Wait, computers can talk?? :eek:

Malice

bushy... wrote: »

Unless you have your stuff locked away on it , won't the all seeing googlebot crawl it someday ?

That's what robots.txt is for In answer to the original poster's question, I've done something like this in the past and simply created an FTP account for the person. They are still going to ftp.yourname.com so maybe something like YouSendit or Rapidshare would be better?

Malice

Zascar wrote: »

I have lots of photo galleries etc and i don't really want them floating around the office.

I just noticed this part. You have personal photographs stored on a publically-accessible website where anyone with an internet connection who happens to stumble on your site can view them and you're worried about people in your office looking at them?

zAbbo

Whats so spicy in these photos anyway ?

Why don't you just use a shared drive on your network, even on your own computer, how big is the file ? can it be emailed / burned to cd / shared on a key etc.

Sounds like you're making this overcomplicated for no particular reason...

Thomas_S_Hunterson

malice_ wrote: »

I just noticed this part. You have personal photographs stored on a publically-accessible website where anyone with an internet connection who happens to stumble on your site can view them and you're worried about people in your office looking at them?

A google search for your name will probably yield the website, so chances are your colleagues wont have much trouble finding it

seamus

Images will only appear on google and other search engines if they are linked from somewhere. None of the search engines have a magical ability to see into a server and look at all the files on it.

What catches a lot of people out are directory listings. Googlebot makes a request for a url, but there's no default document in the directory (say index.html). However, if the server is configured so, it may output a list of all of the files in the directory. The server basically hands googlebot an html file populated with links. Googlebot then visits each link and caches and indexes every item in there.

If the server is configured to give a 404 or a blank page when there's no default page, none of the search engines will be able to index unlinked content in that directory.

Gadgetman496

If the file is less then 30MB you should use

http://www.speedyshare.com/

Then just email them the download link, end of....