Setting up secure downloads

Hi,

I’m trying to setup a download outside of my public_html folder and having difficulty setting it up. This is so I don’t have my downloads (which people buy from my site) in the wp-uploads folder.

I was provided with my host name and server name by my hosting company.

I made a folder in my root directory called downloads. I created a few different subfolders in that folder, like free//psds/aifiles/vectors etc. Each file is insize a .zip and named like fire_vector.zip. I uploaded all my files via FTP.

So anyway, everytime I put in my file URL, it says it’s invalid. I have it set like this:

File Name: Fire Vector
File URL: serverhostname/myhostusername/downloads/vectors/fire_vector.zip

I’ve also tried downloads/vectors/fire_vector.zip and tried putting file name as fire_vector.zip. Basically NOTHING has worked so far.

What am I doing wrong?