Making a password protected web page on www.bio.fsu.edu

Department of Biological Science

at Florida State University

Making a password protected web page on www.bio.fsu.edu

These directions assume you all ready have setup a regular web page on www.bio.fsu.edu.  For directions on doing that please see How to build and upload a webpage on www.bio.fsu.edu.

Folder and directory mean the same thing.

For purposes of directions the name of the protected folder will be : "secure_folder".  You can name it anything you wish.  Just substitute your name for "secure_folder" in the directions below.

For purposes of directions the name of the password list will be: "password_list".  You can name it anything you wish.  Just substitute your name for "password_list" in the directions below.

Terms inside of <>'s should be substituted with actual values (don't type the <>'s).

<authorized_user_name> = name you want the user to use to get into your web page

<authorized_user_password> = password you want the authorized user to use to get to your web page

<your_userid> = your userid on epsilonbio.fsu.edu

Make a folder to store your userid's and passwords and create the password_list file.

This folder should NOT be off of your public_html folder.  It should be (directly) off of your home folder.

  • Launch a ssh session to epsilon.bio.fsu.edu.  Your session should start in your home directory, you can verify this by typing "pwd".
  • Create a password folder by typing "mkdir http_pws".  The name of your password folder will be http_pws.
  • Change directory to the http_pws folder by typing "cd http_pws".
  • Create the password_list file by typing
    "htpasswd -c password_list <authorized_user_name>".
  • Enter <authorized_user_password> when prompted (twice).
  • Add more (other) users (if desired) by typing
    "htpasswd password_list <authorized_user_name2>".

Make the folder to be password protected off of your public_html directory and create the proper .htaccess file.

  • Change directory to your public_html folder by typing "cd ~/public_html"
  • Make your folder by typing "mkdir secure_folder".
  • Change directory to the new folder by typing "cd secure_folder".
  • Edit a file name ".htaccess" using your favorite unix editor (pico or vi most likely) and insert:

          AuthName "Any blurb you want, gets displayed in login dialog box"
            AuthType Basic
            AuthUserFile /users/<your_userid>/http_pws/password_list
            Require valid-user