.htaccess with apache2

[Miles Beck]

I have a file I would like to put up on my web server. But I would
also like to password protect the file so that only myself can view
it. This is a list of links I have organized into a html document. I'd
like this to be accessible from my server so I can maintain it in one
place.

The problem is I have never been able to figure out .htaccess and
refreshing or reloading the file will prompt for the password again.

Is there a way to password protect it and also use a session id? This
way I would not have to enter the password everytime I want to reload
the file.

I looked at pages.google.com but you have to publish the file to it
can then be seen by everyone.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

-Miles