Knowledgebase

Password protected web pages can easily be achieved using a process called User Authentication. With User Authentication it is possible to set up a directory which once accessed will require the visitor to fill in a password form,specifying their Username and associated Password. There is no back door to get round the password dialogue, if any file is called that is within your directory that has been protected by User Authentication the visitor will need information provided by you (a UserName and Password) to access the particular page they are after.

Password protected web pages require two files to be created a .htaccess (Authentication File) file and a htpasswd (Password File) both of which are shown below.

Authentication File
First you need to write your .htaccessscript. Copy the script between the lines below and edit to suit your needs. Explanations of each line also follow below.

AuthType Basic
AuthName Your_Site_Name
AuthUserFile /usr/home/username/password_file

require valid-user


EACH LINE IN DETAIL
AuthType Basic - This line requires no editing and should be left as it is.
AuthName - This can be whatever you want it to be, for instance the name of your web site
AuthUserFile - This must be the complete path to the file containing the usernames and corresponding passwords. This will be mentioned later.
require user - This is where you specify the users that you want to have
access to your protected directory. For example require user Fred Sally John George
Next save the above as htaccess.htm and upload via FTP to the directory you wish to protect. Be sure to upload in ASCII mode. Once htaccess.htm is in your chosen directory rename it to .htaccess

You now need to Telnet to your web space. Log in with your username and password.

After you have logged in change directory to the directory that contains your .htaccess file ( cd yourdirectory )

Now type chmod 755 .htaccess
This will change the Unix file permissions of the file, enabling it to be used on your web site.
Password File

Still at the Unix Prompt of your chosen directory type:
/var/www/bin/htpasswd -c passwordfile username

If you had named your passwordfile SomeFiles and your username was Fred you would type:
/var/www/bin/htpasswd -c SomeFiles Fred

Note: The password file name used in creating the password file as shown above is the same password_file that is mentioned when you created
your .htaccess file
You will now be prompted to enter a password for the username specified and then re-enter the information to confirm your entries.
Remember that Unix is case sensitive so you must re-type exactly.

Finally, enter addtional UserName/Passwords to your htpasswd file as shown below:

/var/www/bin/htpasswd passwordfile UserName

Note that the [ -c ] part of the original line is not included as this is purely for creating new password files.

Also note that additional users specified in your htpasswd file must also be specified in your .htaccess file.