hi, i agree that by default that the .htaccess file didn't work on Debian Sarge. Instead i just copied what was in the file to the main configuration (apache2.conf) and enclosed it in a < Directory > container e.g. < Directory /var/www/www.example.com/web/monitoring > AuthType Basic AuthName "Password Required" AuthUserFile /var/www/www.example.com/.htpasswd limit GET PUT POST require valid-user < /limit > < /Directory > and then I follwed the remaining steps to make the .htpasswd file and it worked perfectly! Thanks for the great Howto!