Need some help...urgently!
I have an ASP (VB) site linked to an Access DB. The DB resides in a folder on my site, and when I type in the path to it in the browser I can access and download it to my hard drive. Obviously I don't want users to be able to do this.

My ISP have told me that I need to use Server.MapPath rather than an absolute path to my DB. Where can I put my Db so that no-one can access it? When I FTP, there are 3 folders in my _root: 'htdocs', 'private' and 'logfiles'. Is the 'private' directory a good place, and if so what would the path be?

Thanks for any help....

Hello dpchages!

The most obvious thing would be to upload your database to the 'private' folder. This is because it is not likely accessable from the web. I would think that only you have access to the 'private' folder through your ftp, and that way your DB would be pretty secure.

As for the path to the database it would look something like this:
Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=c:\domains\yoursite.com\user\private\database.mdb

The easiest way to get the right path though is to contact your ISP.


Sarre

Let me know how it works.

I've had the same problem and I might be able to help you all the way through on this one.

Sarre

This is for the sake of those folks that do not have the option of placing the database in a folder above the website root. Even though it is not foolproof, this is probably the next best thing to do.

1. Make sure the folder (were your DB is) does not have list access or create an empty default.htm and/or index.htm
2. Rename your DB to something that would be very difficult to guess. Instead of db1.mdb try MyAccess.database
3. Password protect your database.

Hope that helps.

Jesus Torres
www.ep1.com

Many thanks Sarre - you are a star. Along with your help I read up loads and crammed my brain full of the useful stuff. Funny how easy it all seems once you know!! <img src=../images/dmxzone/forum/icon_smile_wink.gif border=0 align=middle> - you feel a fool for asking!

Anyway - all up and running.

Mr.Torres, when you say <BLOCKQUOTE id=quote><font size=1 face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>Password protect your database. <hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote> how do you do that? Many thanks....

Edited by - dpchages on 10 Jun 2003 09:38:38

Hello dpchages,

Open your DB in MS Access and select Tools &gt; Security &gt; Set Database Password.

Jesus Torres
www.ep1.com