Web server 101

[Kylehume]

Hey server people,

I've been reading many posts in the forum to try to figure out the direction I need to head into for my website, but I figured laying out my situation and asking for advice would be the best.

I'm designing my first website for a client and need some advice for where to find some information. Most of the what I've learned is self-taught, so I'm looking for great sites that can teach me what I am trying to accomplish below.

In short:

I've designed a website in Flash and Actionscript 3.0. I'm very concerned about the security of the media of my client, specifically MP3s (she's an artist), as well as my original programming scripts.

-I have the information I need to obfuscate my flash .swfs to protect them from decompilers.

Here's where I need some advise:

I want her MP3s to play dynamically on the site - loaded by a URL from within an actionscript object. I do not want someone to be able to put the URL in their browser and steal the MP3s or Hotlink them.

I know I can store the music files in a mysql database, and query the database using php, but I know that this can also be expensive on memory. I also know there's a way to protect directories using Apache (.htaccess?).

Questions
1. Is the above method the most secure and/or most efficient way to secure the files?
2. http://www.w3schools.com/ is a great resource for me to learn PHP and Mysql, but where can I learn the appropriate Apache syntax (e.g. .htaccess)?
3. If you know of a better method, can you point me into the direction of a good tutorial website for it?

Much thanks in advance, these forums are extremely helpful.

Cheers,
Kyle

[Alan]

In order for a browser to play the MP3 file, it will need to download the file into temporary memory. Meaning it can be retrieved using certain browser plugins. Something to be aware of. The usual remedy is to offer low quality and cropped audio clips.

The best resources (and most detailed) are usually the home sites of the technologies. e.g. If you want to learn the most about HTML, the World Wide Web Consortium (http://www.w3.org/html/)'s website is the best resource. The PHP Group (http://www.php.net/) for PHP and the Apache HTTP Server (http://httpd.apache.org/)'s project site for .htaccess. A .htaccess file is an apache web server file executed at runtime.

Not to leave you stranded in the dark, here's a useful explanation on how to prevent hotlinking: http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/apache-mod_rewrite-hot-linking-images-leeching-howto/