.htaccess & .htpasswd

[tjbradford]

hi all i have bought some hosting to dabble with and have discovered that my hoster 123-reg allow the use of .htaccess and .htpasswd , cool right i created the files as follows

.htaccess
---------
AuthName "Password Protected Directory"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile /secure/.htpasswd
require valid-user

.htpasswd
---------
login:1$2C8rxmPUWt2 (loginlease)

I have got a website eg.

http://123.com

if i add the .htaccess to the location

http://123.com/home/

and add the .htpasswd to

http://123.com/secure/

i get prompted to authenticate when

http://123.com/home

however it just keep repeating the same prompt and never accepts my details why is this ?

also i would rather the .htpasswd went inside /home but would that mean i dont have permissions to authenticate then?

i'm really stuck with this one

btw i only have ftp access no shell prompt access

 

[elgrandeperro]

I believe starting with '/', it can only be the full path name. Without a beginning '/' it is appended to the ServerRoot value.

There is no way to append to the DocumentRoot.

So either put the htpasswd in ServerRoot, or figure out the full path name.

 

[tjbradford]

what about if there in the same folder

ie i place both files in a folder called secure
and in the .htaccess file i use AuthUserFile .htpasswd
should that work?

 

[elgrandeperro]

Don't thinks so. That would be .htpasswd in the server root.
This is a security "feature" so users can't (easily) download the htpasswd. I must admit I use the full path for testing.

Somewhere (in your web documentation) there has to be mention of ServerRoot location or how the full path is determined.

 

[tjbradford]

sorted , as expected it required the full root path , after speaking to my hosting they gave me the full path and it now works great

so for anyone who use's 123-reg as there hosting

AuthUserFile /home/vhosts/(your ftp username)/.htpasswd