[newbie] Apache help

[Jon Doe]

Ok, I have got apache running, put in my own index.html and it works! But how 
do I link to files I want to make availible? I made a directory 
/var/www/media but if I link a file that is there, I just get an error 
message when i click on the link, my link is:
http://ip number/var/www/media/file.zip is this because of directory 
permissions?