FTP access for passworded directories using IE or windows Explorer

[spencerbomar]

I have sites elsewhere where you can use IE or windows explorer to allow others to go to your ftp site and login.
EX. ftp.mydomain.com takes them to the ftp directory (Example: "Test" is the name of the directory I set up and the password is "enter") that requires a username and password. A login box appears and they enter the pre-assigned username and password that i have provided to them and then it takes them to that directory to be able to pull files off.

With bluehost, if you enter ftp.mydomain.com and the Anonymous ftp login is not activated that way of entry doesn't work. When you turn on anonymous login (allow), then they see all of your ftp directories without logging in.

I also know that this address: http://www.mydomain.com/test or http:ftp.mydomain.com/test takes them in to the directory and appears to bypass the security feature.

I don't want to require them to use one of the utility programs to access since some of the people who access are not savvy enough to understand that way. I use filezilla for my other sites' FTP access and recommend this to those who need to access the directory I have given them to be able to download files.

Am I missing something as far as being able to access a username/passworded directory with IE or windows explorer? The directories I am setting up are in the public_html directory.

Any suggestions or changes to the way I am doing it?
Thanks!

[spencerbomar]

I setup a subdomain (test) to mydomain.com

test.mydomain.com

I then set it up as a secured directory and set up the username and password of
Example:
Username: test
Password: password

I then went to the subdomain using http://test.mydomain.com at which point it would take me to a page (none exists currently so it took me to a parked page). So I would then have to set up a default page for this subdomain that I could use to link to files in a "hidden" folder in that subdomain.

My files that I upload are image files and I can use Adobe Lightroom or Photoshop to do a quick image gallery to then upload to this subdomain.

But, this is a lot to do to be able to figure out how to allow access using IE or windows explorer to a protected/passworded directory so certain users can download the images.

[Early Out]

Allow indexing on the directory in question (Control Panel, Index Manager), and you won't need to create an index.html page for it. Users attempting to access that directory (with a browser, of course, not Windows Explorer) will be asked for a password, and will then be presented with a list of the files in it.