Can't get .htaccess to work on Apache under Windows XP

Greetings,

I can't seem to get .htaccess to work on Apache2+ under WinXP Pro.
First I installed and configured Apache and got everything configured
and working properly (nothing's live yet just working off of
localhost). Then I created the two files, .htaccess and .htpasswd,
using the htpasswd.exe application that comes with Apache (I had to do
it this way becuase you can't create a file with a nameless extension
on the desktop). Finally I created two new filetypes for .htpasswd
and .htaccess so I could open them in notepad.

The .htpasswd contains a single user (md5 encrypted) and looks like
this:
stone:$apr1$e50.....$szuwghDBUK3q5SBK6gkAM.

The .htaccess file resides within the subdirectory I want to password
protect and looks like this:
AuthUserFile D:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\.htpasswd
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Member Page"
require valid-user

All relevant lines in the httpd.cnfg file are:
AccessFileName .htaccess
<Files ~ "^\.ht">
Order allow,deny
Deny from all
</Files>

Apache does its job when I attempt to view the .htaccess file I get a
Permission Denied message. But when I browse to the protected
directory where my .htaccess file resides my browser displays the
index page rather than prompting me for a password.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks,
Kevin Stone

make sure u have the AllowOverride directive set.

Go to the subdir u want to protect in your conf file and type AllowOverride
AuthConfig

i.e. to use .htaccess files in the dir called access you would need this in
your conf file.

<Directory "C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\htdocs\access">
Options +Indexes
AllowOverride AuthConfig
</Directory>

hope this helps

Robin

"Kevin" <kevinstone3387@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:66f77f3a.0402262318.138b6055@posting.google.c om...
> Greetings,
>
> I can't seem to get .htaccess to work on Apache2+ under WinXP Pro.
> First I installed and configured Apache and got everything configured
> and working properly (nothing's live yet just working off of
> localhost). Then I created the two files, .htaccess and .htpasswd,
> using the htpasswd.exe application that comes with Apache (I had to do
> it this way becuase you can't create a file with a nameless extension
> on the desktop). Finally I created two new filetypes for .htpasswd
> and .htaccess so I could open them in notepad.
>
> The .htpasswd contains a single user (md5 encrypted) and looks like
> this:
> stone:$apr1$e50.....$szuwghDBUK3q5SBK6gkAM.
>
> The .htaccess file resides within the subdirectory I want to password
> protect and looks like this:
> AuthUserFile D:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\.htpasswd
> AuthType Basic
> AuthName "Member Page"
> require valid-user
>
> All relevant lines in the httpd.cnfg file are:
> AccessFileName .htaccess
> <Files ~ "^\.ht">
> Order allow,deny
> Deny from all
> </Files>
>
> Apache does its job when I attempt to view the .htaccess file I get a
> Permission Denied message. But when I browse to the protected
> directory where my .htaccess file resides my browser displays the
> index page rather than prompting me for a password.
>
> What am I doing wrong?
>
> Thanks,
> Kevin Stone
>