Suggestion For File Download Center

General Discussion
1

One of my client has multiple .pdf files which contains their product manuals & brochures. These files are made available to public and there are people simultaneously downloading the files.

Previously my client uploaded those files to cPanel hosting and shared but that made downloading speed slower.

Some pdf files are smaller than 1 MB but some are up to 200 MB.

I need a suggestion / guide that whether Virtualmin has some features to do this or is there some plugin / platform which I can host on my Virtualmin server that preforms this task.

Thanks

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Normally you would just have links on the clients webpage to the .pdf file so it can be downloaded by visitors. I think the document is then served by apache.

you can have a look at file managers:

awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted: A list of Free Software network services and web applications which can be hosted on your own servers

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Wordpress, joomla, project send

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PDF files are just files, like any other. You can upload them anywhere in /home/domain/public_html and link directly to them (unless you have a web app with an .htaccess file that’s sucking up all the requests, in which case, you need to make a directory for downloads and exclude that from the redirect rules). Your client can use any method to upload files using the virtual server owner user, ssh/scp, FTP (FTPS on 20/21, or SFTP on 2222), or the File Manager in Virtualmin. Or they can create an extra user that can upload files, if it needs to be delegated.

If you need them to be password protected or something, that’s slightly more complicated, but you didn’t mention that requirement, so I’ll just assume not.

If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, there are generally plugins for sharing files, as well. There are several for WordPress and it can be done without a plugin, as well. Again, PDFs are just files, there is nothing about PDFs that need special treatment (though maybe your WordPress or CMS needs to be configured to allow pdf media type). That may be more user-friendly, if the user is already comfortable with working in WordPress (or whatever CMS).

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Thanks everyone!
@lawk @shoulders and @Joe

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maybe this. I have not used them but nominet the registrar does.

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Create a clear and safe file download center by following these guidelines:

Organize files properly – Use categories/folders so users can easily find what they need.

Provide descriptions – Add version info, size, and purpose of each file before download.

Use trusted hosting – Store files on secure servers to avoid broken links or malware.

Add checksums/verification – Give MD5/SHA values so users can confirm file integrity.

Keep it updated – Remove outdated files and replace them with the latest versions.

Ensure accessibility – Make the download center easy to navigate on both desktop and mobile.

Add usage/disclaimer notes – Warn about copyright, licensing, or usage limits.

This keeps the download center user-friendly, secure, and professional.

8

@hariiee, is this AI-generated content? *asking for a friend*

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It certainly looks that way. Looking at their other posts, I’m on the fence, but it seems pretty common for their comments to have that “what would an answer look like?” feel that AI comments have.

My finger is twitching on the ban button…

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