I have a RH7.2 box with apache 1.3.22. /var/www/html is where the html docs live /var/www/html/test is the directory I want to protect I created a user file in my home directory ~/user I use htpasswd -c ~user someone to populate the access file There is an .htaccess file in /var/www/html/test it looks like this AuthName "restricted stuff" AuthType Basic AuthUserFile ~/user require valid-user It quite simply does not work. I read the docs here http://www.apacheweek.com/features/userauth and here http://www.redhat.com/support/resources/faqs/RH-apache-FAQ/c135.html I have tried this in the httpd.conf file # This controls which options the .htaccess files in directories can # override. Can also be "All", or any combination of "Options", "FileInfo", # "AuthConfig", and "Limit" ###AllowOverride None this didn't work ###AllowOverride AuthConfig this didn't work either and yes, I removed the hashes when I tested it. I didn't think it would be this much of a pain.....aarrgh Anthony