Hosting problem, server is setup to prevent directory listing Options

[aod1174]

ok heres my situation. I recently got web hosting from a popular company (not sure I can mention the name). I got the hosting for a game I play. It's a first person shooter that requires several different files. The game allows clients to be able to download the files from an outside (http) source. Now in the past I have set this up with no problems, but this time theres a problem. It seems that the company I used blocks directory listing of files, which is needed for what I want. I called my company asking if they could fix this, all they said was "You need to create a .htaccess file for this to work". That was as much help as they could be. So seeing as I know NOTHINg of .htaccess files I browsed the net.

From what I make of it, I just open up notepad add a line of text Options +Indexes Click SAVE AS and title it .htaccess then upload it and edit the file name, cause windows does not allow blank names, so it becomes .htaccess.txt... Now I did this with no luck, so I'm guessing I am doing something wrong.. heres my questions:

Is that the correct way to make a .htaccess file?

Where should the .htaccess file be placed? The files I need are in a folder, so the directory path would look something like this http://www.anysite.com/Foldername/ And then there should be a list of files and other folders (The file/folder structure has to remain in tact)

Is there an easier way to do what I'm looking to do?

If I haven't made myself clear and you have any questions, please feel free to ask..

Thanks in advance for any help you can be

[Darin McGrew]

Maybe your host has blocked WAD files.

[pandy]

In that case they block .htaccess files too. Seems like an odd thing to do on a Windows server.
http://www.ricksfiles.com/CS/

[pandy]

Hey, put a couple of files of known file types in there and see what happens. Throw in a faked file type too. Rename a text file something.pandy for instance.

[aod1174]

Hey, put a couple of files of known file types in there and see what happens. Throw in a faked file type too. Rename a text file something.pandy for instance.

there is a known file type in there. in cstike/gfx/env there are bmp files.. the "pandy" file is now up as well...

these are the options I'm given for folders "Red Web Browse Write Set Root"

if that helps at all

[pandy]

No, that's a .pandy.txt file. I don't find any BMPs but I found some text files in s ub directory.

I was thinking the server maybe is configured to tell you the file can't be found for unknown file types. I don't know if that's common on Windows. A nix server wouldn't do that.

Anyway, if I'm right you need to tell the server the MIME type of those files. I have no idea about how to do that on IIS. Let's google some.

[pandy]

That was quickly done and it seems I guessed right. Lo and behold "IIS 6.0 does not serve unknown MIME types", http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326965 .
In the article there they talk about the server's main configuration, nothing that I can see about how a single user can do it.

Oh dear. Could you zip the files? That would take care of it. Next time, go with a nix host.

[aod1174]

That was quickly done and it seems I guessed right. Lo and behold "IIS 6.0 does not serve unknown MIME types", http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326965 .
In the article there they talk about the server's main configuration, nothing that I can see about how a single user can do it.

Oh dear. Could you zip the files? That would take care of it. Next time, go with a nix host.

Well I could zip the files, but the problem with that is they files need to be in their original format.. See how it works is this.. I have 2 servers, the server in question and a gaming server. The client connects to the gaming server to play. If the client does not have the map, or any of the files the map uses, they start to download it from the gaming server. Seeing as it's a gaming server, the download takes forever. By adding a CVAR I can redirct the client to the server in question where they can download the needed files in seconds... The clients computer will not download a zip file and then extract it, so the files have to be in their oringial state...

So basicly what your saying is theres nothing I can do? Theres no way to accomplish what I'm trying to do?