Before you start you will need a text editor programme (like Windows Notepad or Simple Text)

An htaccess file is a simple ASCII file, created with a text editor like NotePad or SimpleText. Many people seem to have some confusion over the naming convention for the file. .htaccess is the file extension. It is not filename.htaccess or somepage.htaccess, it is simply named .htaccess.

In order to create the file, open up a text editor and save an empty page as .htaccess. Chances are that your editor will append its default file extension to the name (e.g. for Notepad it would call the file .htaccess.txt). You must remove the default .txt or whatever file extension it applies.

1. Create a file called ".htaccess" using a text editor, the contents of your .htaccess file should look something like this:

Create this file and upload it to the web folder that you want to protect.

2. Create the password file. You must use the same filename which you specified in your ".htaccess" file above for "<pwd file>". Your password file will look something like this:

admin:Dj30hf/3kHduhf

The username is specified on the left of the ":" and the password is on the right of the ":". Notice that the password must be encrypted. Use the box below to generate the encrypted password for use in your password file:

Instant Password Encryption for use with .htaccess files

3. Once you have created your password file, upload it to the folder you specified in your .htaccess file as "AuthUserFile". When you attempt to connect to that folder using your browser you should now see a box appear requesting a username and password for access to this folder.