Controlling Web Page Access With HTAccess

from  http://www.mcs.kent.edu/system/web_help/htaccess/introduction.html

Introduction

HTAccess is a means of providing password-protection for HTML documents and directories on a web server. Once implemented, HTAccess will prompt a user (through the browser) to enter a username and password. The user will only be allowed to view the requested web page if a valid username and password is entered.

HTAccess can be implemented by any user on the system on any directory in the user's public_html directory. Implementation requires only two simple steps:

  1. Creation of a .htaccess file in the directory you wish to protect.
  2. Creation of a .htpasswd file.
The .htaccess file is the control file for the HTAccess interface. It specifies the path to the .htgroup and .htpasswd files, as well as the access instruction (which determines who is allowed to access the web pages in the directory).

The .htgroup files can be used to define groups of people (such as students in a class or other instructors), so that access can be allowed for entire groups instead of by individual user.

The .htpasswd file contains the list of valid user name and encrypted password pairs for use by the .htaccess file.

Please look at the details on file permissions below. Just because you have your web pages protected correctly with HTAccess doesn't mean that you are the only one who has access to your files!