Setting up the System

1. Set up the passwords
2. If you don't have them yet, create the three password files:

  htaccess.txt

  htgroup.txt

  htpasswd.txt

3. Create the contents for the three password files and copy these contents into them.
4. Copy the three password files into the directory on your Web server that you wish to password-protect.
5. Rename^* these files on your Web server as follows (notice the full stop as the first character of the new names):

  htaccess.txt  -> .htaccess

  htgroup.txt   -> .htgroup

  htpasswd.txt  -> .htpasswd

Note: most FTP programs (like WSFtp) give you the possibility of renaming files on your Web server.

pAuth

Setting up the passwords

Using the setup applet below, you have to set the following:

• The Web directory name to be protected This has to contain the whole path of the directory on your Web server. This path will be different for each server, but it could look, for a directory called my_secret_dir, like this:

   /X11/users/my_username/public_html/my_secret_dir

Important: the directory path on your Web server will not be the same as the 'path' within the Web address (URL) of the directory that you can see within your Web browser (eg. Netscape Navigator). You can see the directory paths on your Web server, for example, when you use an FTP program to transfer your files to your server. The FTP program WSFtp, for example, shows the path within a box in the top right area of its window. If you are unsure about the directory paths on your server, you can always ask your ISP's Webmaster.

 

• Name for the protected area or topic. This 'name' can contain several words. It will appear within the password request box, as part of the 'prompt' for the user. If you don't specify a name, then the name of the protected Web directory will be used for this purpose. The figure below illustrates where the name of the protected area will appear. In this example, this is the name of the protected Web directory, testpwd, and it appears above the box for the User Name:
 
• User Name - Password pairs
• Adding User Name - Password pairs

Type in a user name and a password (neither the user name nor the password can contain spaces. In the current implementation, a password can contain up to 8 characters - lower and upper case letters and numbers). Click on the button Add. Type in the next user name and password and click on Add again. Continue until you have set all user name - password pairs you want to set up. Important: in the evaluation version of pAuth, although you can create as many passwords as you wish, only the single-number password 0 will work. The licensed version allows you creating as many passwords as you wish.

 

• Modifying User Name - Password pairs

If you wish to change a previously set user name - password pair, you can scroll back to it by clicking, repeatedly, on the button '<'. Make your change and then click on the button Change. You can scroll forward using the button '>'.

 

• Clearing all User Name - Password pairs

If you wish to clear all passwords you have set up since you started your session with the setup process, then click on Clear all. This, naturally, will not affect passwords you might already be storing in your htpasswd.txt file.

pAuth

Creating the contents for the password files

Click on the button Create Contents for Password Files below.

 Then,

• Copy^* the contents of the top text area into the text file called htaccess.txt
• Copy the contents of the middle text area into the text file called htpasswd.txt
• Copy the contents of the bottom text area into the text file called htgroup.txt

Notes:

• Lines within the bottom text area can be wider than what you see of them. Take care while selecting the contents of the text area that you select the whole of it, not only the visible parts.
• If necessary, you can edit the contents of the files, after you have copied the text area contents into them.
• If you wish to add new user name - password pairs to an already existing htpasswd.txt file, then
• create the new pairs one after the other, as shown above, click on the button Create Contents for Password Files, and append the contents of the middle text area to the contents of the htpasswd.txt file.
• paste the user names (with spaces between them) after the already existing user names within htgroup.txt
• copy these two files (you don't have to worry about htaccess.txt, it can stay the same) into the protected Web directory (and change their names there as shown above)
• If you wish to remove a user name - password pair, then remove the user name - password entry from htpasswd.txt and the user name from htgroup.txt, copy these files into the protected Web directory and change their names as shown above.