Use the tools on this page to create a password protected directory in your Spectrum account.

Placing a password on your World Wide Web pages is a multi-part process. Most of these steps are not difficult to accomplish.

First, all files that you want to be protected by password should be in a separate subdirectory on Spectrum. You may want to create a directory called "vault" or "notes" in your Web page storage area for the pages you want behind a password. Most FTP programs will allow you to create new subdirectories in your account area.

You probably want something like this in your directory...

index.html
/vault/subpage1.html
/vault/subpage2.html
. . .
/vault/subpage8.html
/vault/subpage9.html

Then, create a file called ".htaccess" in the passworded (vault) directory that contains:

 ---
require valid-user
AuthType Basic
AuthName TROY
AuthUserFile /full//unix/path/.htpasswd

----

The file name MUST be .htaccess (yes, it starts with a period) and this file MUST be in the same directory with the files that are to be protected. (You probably do not want to put this in your primary Web area because this would result in your entire Web area being protected.)

Both files (.htaccess and .htpasswd) must be PURE TEXT or ASCII files. You CANNOT use your html editor to create these files. Most word processing programs allow you to save text as pure ascii. One of the problems I frequently see is that the program used to create the .htaccess file wants to add a ".txt" at the end of the file name. If this happens, the password protection will not work. The name must be .htaccess and nothing else.
 

The AuthUserFile show above is the file containing the actual password needed for your file and it must include a full UNIX path to that location. For security reasons, the full UNIX path for faculty Web pages on Spectrum is not published here. Troy University faculty members may contact the Academic Webmaster to obtain this information.
 
The AuthName above contains the text people will see in the password entry box when they attempt to gain access to your page. It is best to keep this as short as possible. It is possible to place more than one word on this line by using quotation mark. For example:

     AuthName "Dr. Padgett's JRN 4425 Notes"

will display the information above in the password box when users try to access the page.

The actual file containing the password is an encrypted file. The tool at the top of this page will help you create the text for the file storing your actual password.

In the example above, the name of the file holding the encrypted password is ".htpasswd". If you want to call the password file some other name, you will need to change the information on the AuthUserFile line in the .htaccess file.

Having said all of the above, you can password your pages yourself OR you can identify the files you want passworded and the directory you created  (or you want us to create for them) and the Academic Webmaster will create the passworded area for you.