Unable to restrict access

[Rushtafari]

I am administering a Web server that has about ten individual user accounts. I would like to create a directory in each of their public_html directory called "restricted." Any material inside that directory should be unviewable from anyone trying to access them. (Once I get that working I will consider slight modifications per my specific needs.)

Now, this is a common question and I found lots of help, but nothing seems to actually work.

The first thing I tried was to use the httpd.conf file to do the job. But that was somewhat confusing. (If someone can tell me how to do it, I would appreciate it because I would rather use this approach.)

I then tried using an .htaccess file. So in one of the public_html directories I performed the following commands:

$ mkdir restricted
$ chmod restricted
$ cd restricted
$ vi .htaccess

I then inserted the following text into .htaccess.

<LIMIT GET POST>
order deny, allow
deny from all
allow from none
</LIMIT>

I then changed the permissions:

$ chmod 644 .htaccess.

That didn't work. I can still view documents placed inside this directory.

So I figured that there must be something in httpd.conf that is overriding my .htaccess commmands. I found some items that looked like the culprit, so I made the following change:

AllowOverride All

I figure this allows my deny and allow commands in .htaccess to be executed.

So I restarted Apache and, again, the Web page keeps appearing.

So what am I forgetting? Anyone?

 

[Deleted]

Create an .htaccess with the contents below. Place this in the directory you want to protect.

Order Allow,Deny
Deny From All

Anyone trying to access anything from that directory will see

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /path/to/directory on this server.

M. Brooks
X Concepts LLC

http://xconcepts.com

 

[Rushtafari]

Didn't I already do that?

 

[Deleted]

Did you try what i put up.. It works..

Just put this in the .htaccess file and no more..

Not this:

<LIMIT GET POST>
order deny, allow
deny from all
allow from none
</LIMIT>

Do this:

Order Allow,Deny
Deny From All

M. Brooks
X Concepts LLC

http://xconcepts.com

 

[Rushtafari]

I did, and it still doesn't work.

Here are some command captures that should indicate if I am doing anything wrong.

$ pwd
/home/jwalkup/public_html/restricted
$ ls -l .htaccess
-rw-r--r-- 1 jwalkup fac 32 Feb 29 12:15 .htaccess
$ more .htaccess
Order Allow, Deny
Deny From All

Now, you can go to this page for yourself:

http://faculty.natuniv.edu/~jwalkup/restricted/oma.html

The file "oma.html" will almost certainly appear. It does on my machine.

It can't be a caching problem, because oma.html is a file I just uploaded before doing this test. I also viewed it in IE (which I almost never use) and it showed up.

Any ideas? This is really buggin' me, man!