.htaccess to block off the whole site

blackhorse

I have some web sites on php (Codeigniter). I want to turn them off just for now (these are web sites for internal usage, and they are not indexed by google etc. So I don't have to worry about SEO etc.).

I am thinking just add this line, require valid-user, in the beginning of .htaccess to turn the whole site off. (all these CodeIgniter sites have .htaccess already)

Later on, if I need to turn these sites back, I can turn it back by comment out or remove this line.

This line, require valid-user, is telling that we need password to access the sites, but I am not giving any AuthUserFile. So it will block off the whole site. This approach is feeling like a trick. Is there a better way to block off the site?

Thanks!

Derokorian

You could use Deny From All in your .htacess

blackhorse

thanks!

Derokorian

Another thought - tho you didn't seem to ask for more ideas, is to use mod_rewrite to redirect ALL requests to a landing page of some sort (Like an under construction page or not in service, whatever) and then comment out that rule when you're ready to bring it back up. The only reason I suggest this is Deny From All will block requests but not give any reason why, where as the landing page could tell them why its not available.

RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /

# Use this to send all requests to landing page
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ underconstruction.html [L]

#Normal rewrite rules below, will only be processed when the previous rule is commented out
RewriteRule ^([^/]*)/(.*)$ index.php?action=$1&args=$2

HTH