How to password protect a webpage?

Answer 1

It depends on how fancy you'll want to get and which web server you are using.

HTTP supports a variety of user authentication protocols, with the most common one being "Basic" (which isn't particularly secure, unless you are using SSL)

With the Apache web server, you would create an .htaccess file containing directives for authentication. Can be as simple as specifying a password or as complex as user groups and authentication based on the users IP number.

For more than you ever wanted to know about password protecting web pages using Apache:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/htaccess.html

If you will be having a lot of members, or wish your users to be able to change and manage their own passwords, etc.. you need something called "user management". This is basically software that runs on your website that allows people to manage their own accounts. (often including subscriptions and password reminders)

Here are a couple:

Amember:

http://amember.com

GenieGate:

http://www.geniegate.com/

(Full disclosure, the author owns GenieGate)

To use these packages, your web server has to support the correct server side language. In the two examples listed, this means PHP. (Very common on todays hosts) other languages to consider are Perl or perhaps ruby.

For full blown user management, you'll probably need a database as well, currently, mysql seems to be the most popular, but postgresql is also quite good. Look for sqlite to become more popular as well.

If all you wish to do is password protect a directory so that only you and maybe a handful of others can access it, an .htaccess file is the way to go. (NOTE: make SURE your password file is stored OUTSIDE of web space, this is a very easy mistake)