How to restrict file download via direct link via httacess?

Question

PHP

You need to restrict access to download the file.
Apache is on the server.
They don't want to install the XsendFile module.
It is not possible to download large files through php.
Here I sketched out such a method using the restriction through .httacess.
How to improve or suggest an alternative?
Thank you.

if( $logged_user ) {

          $htaccess = 'RewriteEngine Off\n';
          $htaccess .= '<FilesMatch "\.(zip)$">\n';
          $htaccess .= '	order deny,allow\n';
          $htaccess .= '	allow from ' . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] .'\n';
          $htaccess .= '	deny from all\n';
          $htaccess .= '</FilesMatch>';
          file_put_contents($htaccess_file, $htaccess);

          header("Location: $url");
          header("Status: 303");
          exit();
        }

Answer 1

Hide the files in a directory and close access to it through ".htaccess". Give the files themselves through the interpreter.