Secure a text file

Hi all,

What I have is a text file -- email list that is stored on the internet server. I have tried to encrypt the file but failed to decrypt the file correctly. So my question is what is a better way, beside using database, to store such a file and/or trying to do such a thing?

Also is true that if I put a file, i.e., text file, on the server, anyone can
look/copy/download it if they write program to scan/open the directory?

Thanks for reading and hope someone can help.

Regards,

http://uk.php.net/mcrypt

read into this shows about how to perform 2 way encryption

If your file is on an Apache web server and you are trying to secure it from different web surfers, then you can use htaccess. The file itself would not be encrypted, but the user would need a valid login to gain access to the directory.