PHP Download Page

Question

How do these PHP download pages (e.g. somesite.com/download.php?id=somefile) often found work?

I originally thought of a page that does the counter stuff, and then simpl

Answer 1

Generally, these don't redirect to the file's URL. Instead, they use readfile() to directly output the URL from wherever it's being stored (usually, somewhere outside the web root). Solves the direct link, password protection, queuing, etc. issues. Speed limiting would need to be on the web server end.