I wondered if you'd find this. It's all explained in the wiki, but probably lost in the annals of time.

If you set up LDM with all the (default) security settings turned on, then you've told LDM to keep the file location hidden from the end user. To do this securely for 'downloads' (i.e. files with filetypes that appear in your VB attachments table), it reads the file a block at a time and then transfers these blocks to the user.

This process is:

a) very quick if the file is on the same server as LDM and is referenced just using a local filename
b) slow and expensive if the file is on another server, because the code has to physically read the file over the internet and then retransmit it to the user - everything goes over the internet twice
c) somewhere in between if the file is actually on the same server but is referenced using a full url rather than a local filename.

I 'guestimate' that there is a factor of 1000 difference between case a and b.

When you simply type the url into the browser, then the file is obtained directly from the server on which it is held. There is no need to buffer the file somewhere, and there is also no need to involve a php script in the transfer - everything is dealt with by Apache/IIS/etc, which are 'hard coded' for efficiency.

Now, you can tell LDM to behave the same way as Apache, by setting LDM/admin/settings/force_redirect to 1 or 2. This will recover the speed, but it will no longer guarantee that the file location is secure from prying users. Case 2 is the most visible. Case 1 is partly hidden, but the really inquisitive user can discover where the file is held. Case 0 is fully secure at the cost of slow speed and extra cpu and double bandwidth.

Incidentally, if the file type is not in the VB attachments table, LDM always behaves as if force_redirect = 1

So this is the choice you have to make.

I am kind of confused on this. After the install and going to set the local_file_root and local_file_root_prefix. What exactly am i going to put in there.....? I attached an image of the local and icon's not being enabled......I set a path for the icons and they will not appear with ldm. If i go to the icon's through my server and click on the link inside the ldm icons file, i am directed to the icon, but using the same addy inside the ldm setting's page, it keep's saying that it can't find the file......

Andrew, I added this and a little advertising for ya. https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthread.php?t=129933

Meat is good!

Thanks Andrew, I went with option #1. I'll just add some redirect index pages to keep people from indexing the file server.

As well as this 532 where exactly is the php.ini file located......I have looked everywhere that i can think of and i just can't locate it for some reason.
I tried to install a video and it said that it was to large for my php.ini settings.....

PHP.INI I think is a file PER folder on your server. You can adjust it also usually by the PHPMYADMIN settings on your site. I set mine to 80mb I think.

local_file_root and local_file_root_prefix are, if you like, specialised features for people who are running the web site on a server that is fully under their own control. They give you the possibility to increase security, but only if you really understand what you are doing and only if you do have full control of your server. If you don't, leave the settings alone.

Basically, these are used to control how LDM locates the downloadable files which it manages and which are stored on the server itself. LDM by default does a pretty good job of hiding the location of file downloads. However, if you really want to make sure that no-one can get at your files except through LDM, then you use these parameters to tell the program whereabouts on the web server the files are to be placed. All 'lookups' are translated to this part of the file system.

Concerning the icons setting, if you upload the icons into subdirectory ldm_icons of your *forums* directory, then set file_icons_dir to ldm_icons.

or_greg's answer is not quite correct.

php.ini is a file that is used by your web server (e.g. Apache) to control how the server handles php scripts. It sets things like maximum time limits for scripts to execute, maximum file upload sizes, and many other settings.

Where the file is stored depends on the web server and the operating system. For example, with a Windows box running Apache, the file is usually dropped into the windows directory itself.

If you do not have full control of your web server, then you will have to ask the system administrators to edit the file on your behalf. Generally, they will know exactly what you are talking about if you mention 'php.ini' and the specific parameters that need changing.

Andrew, I thought on linux servers you could drop the php.ini per folder and have it be more micro-managed, or, drop it in your root and let it trickle down, assuming you didn't drop another further in your site?