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Password protect folders

You need 2 files, named .htpasswd and .htaccess to password protect a website or folder; password protect with htaccess and htpasswd.

.htpasswd

• Generate content for .htpasswd file. Google around for a htpasswd generator... http://home.flash.net/cgi-bin/pw.pl
• Enter a desired user name and password, hit Go! You get username:passwd, something like John:Asd34Fgh6vBgt
• Save it into a file .htpasswd.
• Each username:passwd combination should have it's own line in the .htpasswd file.
• .htpasswd should not be fetchable with a browser, it should be aside from web folders, hide .htpasswd somewhere in /home/john/

.htaccess

	AuthUserFile /home/john/.htpasswd
	AuthGroupFile /dev/null
	AuthName "foo"
	AuthType Basic
	<Limit GET>
		require valid-user
	</Limit>

Place this .htaccess file in to the folder you want protect, sample: /var/www/sample.com/my-protected-folder/.htpasswd (http://sample.com/my-protected-folder/)

Ensure that the Apache conf file something /etc/apache/apache.conf contains a declaration:

	<Directory "/var/www/sample.com/my-protected-folder">
		AllowOverride All
	</Directory>

Scenario 2, over the console

Create a new .htpasswd file

	$ htpasswd -c /path-to-my-secret-place/.htpasswd name-of-user

Update existing or add users

	$ htpasswd /path-to-my-secret-place/.htpasswd name-of-other-user

Instead of using .htpasswd you can configure httpd.conf or apache2.conf, like this:

	<Directory /var/www/mydomain.com/folder/secretfolder>
		AuthType basic
		AuthName "foo"
		AuthUserFile /path-to-my-secret-place/.htpasswd
		AuthGroupFile /dev/null
		<Limit GET>
			Require User name-of-user name-of-other-user
		</Limit>
	</Directory>

Solving a htpassword problem

• Apache authentication uses the modules mod_auth and mod_access. Usually they are set up and enabled by default install.
• 404 - the folder to be protected is missing or it's name is mispelled.
• 500, internal server error - doesn't find/understand the file .htpasswd, the path may be wrong.
• 401, Authorization Required, but anyway thing doesn't work - .htpasswd is found, digg further, probably Options Indexes, Options -Indexes, Options +Indexes.

Tags: .htpasswd, htpasswd generator, htpasswd tutorial, htpasswd htaccess, htpasswd file, htpasswd example, htpasswd howto.

2010

Web Management - website set up, domain administration, DNS administration, server administration, site maintenance.