Problem with Protecting Files

[DanTheMan]

Ok heres the deal, my company sells a form of clipart online. They also have a clubsite where they give a certain amount of that clip art as part of the membership. I have an authentication system that works great right now, but there are some problems.

 

I am using a landing page to determine which files they have access to and then I am placing a link that they can click that will open a subroutine in a code behind file that I wrote. The code behind file will then open the appropriate file and stream it to the browser. There are a couple of big problems with this method. The biggest is that it is not functioning in older versions of netscape and on Mac's. It has been a real headache to deal with all the crap that people are experiencing. The second problem we have is these lady's have DAP programs because they are on dial-up. The DAP's don't work without a direct link to the file. That won't work because I can't monitor or screen downloads. But these lady's are insisting that we give this feature to them because they want fast downloads. Also if the download is canceled or discounnected they can't be started where they left off, and they can be with the DAP's.

 

This is a huge problem for me, and I have no idea where I could start looking for an answer. I have considered writing a piece that will create virtual directories into the folders of the files they have access to. This might work if I put the directory with the files outside of IIS. My big concern is what kind of performance issues will I have if I did it this way, also I am not even sure if I can create the virtual directories using .NET. I would really appreciate some insight from someone who has had some kind of similiar experience, or who might be able to shed some light on my dilema.

 

Thanks