Restricted Pages?

Hi there,
This is a newbie question I know.

Most of my experience in designing web pages extends to basic HTML, and a few things from Dreamweaver, so I don't know how to restrict people from viewing some of my web pages.

I'd really like to develop a login screen that accepts a username and password, and if they check out, then they are allowed to go to the next page, if not, they get access denied.

Currently my website in question is hosted on a Linux box, but I'm not hosting it myself.

I don't particularly need the exact code on how to do something like this, I'm just looking to be pointed in the right direction. Can this be done with some sort of script? If so what scripting language should I use? Are there any resources that would help me out?

Thanks for any info!

 

I don't know exactly how to do this and I'm sure others will tell you. But why do you want restrict access like this? If you don't want your stuff to be seen don't put it on the web?????

 

on linux AND FreeBSD running apache

EASY to follow step by step procedure:

1. create file
.htaccess

content of .htaccess:

AuthName "Restricted"
AuthType Basic
AuthType Basic AuthUserFile /serverpath/to/your/restricted/dir/.users
require valid-user

2. then via telnet - login to your server and execute the following commandline

htpasswd -c .users [user to add]

--->> replace "[user to add]" by actual user name WITHOUT [] - then prompt for password will appear twice !
this for FIRST user, then ...

3. to add NEW additional users proceed as follows:

each ADDITIONAL user execute the following (slightly different commandline)
IF for any reason the file .user is NOT created by the first htpasswd -c .users [user to add] command,
then create it by using

touch .user

or any other means you know

to ADD additional users - execute the following commandline via telnet

htpasswd .users [user to add]

--->> replace "[user to add]" by actual user name - then prompt for password will appear twice !

PLEASE note
all passwords are ONE-way encrypted
YOU have to remember the passwords
else if password LOST
ftp to your server - open .user-file in editor - and delete the one user you forgot password and re-enter same user again ...

the .users - file then has a content per user similar to

iamachildofgod:xf7WsoM/cqV8Y

first part being username - second part encrypted password


why to restrict access

1. ask shawn - the site access to Keyword tracker is restricted
2. i have it on my download page

i offer free download ( sometimes free and sometimes for honest donation )
1 most frequent downloaded file has some 14+ MB
i get MANY hundreds of downloads/months IF i offer that file for free - but even more hundreds of ABORTED downloads each months ..
with zero restriction i could easily exceed my monthly limits of 25 GB - all would be out of control.

people love to grab whatever is free even if they have no use for it ... just for GREED ...
and as soon as they realize that it would cost them some cents for their own download time charged by their own ISP
- they abort
leaving nothing but serverload for nothing - wasted resources - aborted download sometimes makes up to some 90% of download volume on THAT file's total volume.

3. in forum etc restricted access keeps people who have OTHER than honest intentions most of the time out as they fear submitting
name or email address

hence i restrict access to a few sections to keep all as clean as possible and fully focus on productivity.
it works since many years.

 

Thanks very much for the help guys! I will be trying these things soon. In my particular case, there are just some things on my site that I'd like friends family and clients to see, but not the world at large, though most of the site will be public.

Thanks again.