// local file that should be send to the client $local_file = 'test.zip'; // filename that the user gets as default $download_file = 'your-download-name.zip'; if(file_exists($local_file) && is_file($local_file)) { // send headers header('Cache-control: private'); header('Content-Type: application/octet-stream'); header('Content-Length: '.filesize($local_file)); header('Content-Disposition: filename='.$download_file); // flush content flush(); /* ** You can also remove the following part and ** replace it trough a database command fetching ** the download data */ // open file stream $file = fopen($local_file, "rb"); // send the file to the browser print fread ($file, filesize($local_file)); // close file stream fclose($file);} else { die('Error: The file '.$local_file.' does not exist!'); }