simple questions on online-folder access....

First:
I know how to "hide" folder contents from occasional browsers by just
putting an index.htm in the folder they aren't allowed to list.
That dummy "index.htm" contains the meta redirect-tag
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0;
url=http://users.somewhere.com/my.location">
where the "normal" entry sits waiting for visitors.

Now my less simple question:
Is there a way to circumvent this and still get a directory listing ?
If any I'd like to know of it (and experiment with it) to try "catch" it
too.....

Second:
I have been experimenting a bit with the tags
<link REL="ICON"
href="http://users.somewhere.com/my.location/burro0_1b2.gif"
type="image/gif" />
<link REL="SHORTCUT ICON"
href="http://users.somewhere.com/my.location/burro0_1b2.gif"
type="image/gif" />
with and without the "image/gif" things, and with and without .ico and in
formats 16x16 , 32x32, and others, colordepths 16 and higher....

None of them "settles" in IExplorer :-(

Any ideas ???

thx