I am using Magix web hosting. The "categories" are not exactly helpful for this "product".

As posted in another forum question (which I found yesterday but now can't find again), the 2 files .htaccess and .htpasswd can be used to provide password protection to an area of a web site. The file .htaccess needs to specify the full path name of the file .htpasswd. Most server software does not recognise relative path names in this context. That's why I need to know the full path name on the server.

I hope this explains it better. Thanks for your interest. Andy.

Hi Andy,

I am curious as to how to do this and once you find out, it would be helpful to tell us all about it.

That said, you may want to look this up in the Xara community site. Here is the link to one thread about .htaccess and .htpasswd:

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?57715-Password-protected-pages&highlight=htpasswd

unless George can help.

Good luck,

Hi Andy and John,

Ok now I get it.  Magix hosting does not give you a choice to host on a specific server ie Linux or Windows, etc. as far as I know.  So that makes it difficult to password protect a specific page.  Since I assume that you are using the Xara product to create your site and Xara does not offer this because it has no HTML capability or password functionality, you are going to need to go to a host that does, or look at a web creation application that will provide this functionality.  I had never thought of this before because none of the sites that I create for clients have ever needed this.  This is a really good question now that I understand what is required because one day I am sure that a client will ask for it.

I don't host any of my sites on Magix for two reasons.  First, they are far too expensive, and second they are very bad about letting you know that your account and your domain name for that matter are about to expire because they use a third party to host and register the domains that you buy from them. 

I really like many of the Magix producs, but I do not use their services such as domain registration and hosting.  The company just does not get it for this segment of the business they are trying to persue.  I would go to someone like Godaddy or Tucows for hosting and registration services.  Sorry if this is not the answer you were hoping for but you can transfer your domain name to these companies and get them out of the clutches of Magix and get a lot more flexibility.  I have not used Tucows but have heard a lot of good things about them, I pretty much use Godaddy exclusively and have zero complaints about them.  Not having tried to protect a specific page, I cannot say how you would do it, but if it can be done at the server level, Godaddy or Tucows are likely your best bet.  I know for a fact that Godaddy allows you to host on a Linux Apache server or a Windows server (your choice).

George

Hi George and Andy,

Until I get into something serious, I will stick with Magix because right now for me it is free, for one year. I will watch for the anniversary so as not to get caught short.

I found another thread on Talkgraphics and one solution may be to look at the CoffeeCup programs indicated in the thread. I used their jukebox and after a lot of headache I asked for help on their site. The answer was very simple and the feedback very fast. Thus I am impressed with them.

I think part of the problem is that the host would need a pw database or something, and AFAIK Magix doesn't have this.

Here is the link to the Talkgraphics question about passwords. There is one message about using pw's with Magix onlne, but the user did not appear to come back with a solution.

http://www.talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?59004-Login-and-password-for-website-users-on-xara&highlight=password

Anyway, check it out.

Using .htaccess is relatively simple - there are plenty of tutorials which Google can find. You put a file called .htaccess into the folder you wish to protect and specify a username. You include a full path name to another file, .htpasswd, which contains the encrypted password users will use - this file you hide somewhere which isn't obvious, to hide it from being hacked. So all you need to do is FTP up 2 short files - provided you can find the full path name. The usual trick for finding the full path name is to run a simple PHP script which calls phpinfo(); - but Magix doesn't offer PHP! There's no database involved in the method - Apache and other server software understands the .htaccess mechanism.

BTW John - where does Magix hide the fact that web hosting ends after 1 year?

Regards, Andy.

Hi

Password protecting folders is not difficult.

You need to create two text files .htaccess and .htpasswd - note these are file extensions, there is no filename.

Using Notepad create two files htaccess.txt and htpasswd.txt with the require parameters - see this article for the specifics.  Note you cannot create the .htaccess and .htpasswd extensions in Windows programs

Use a FTP program, such as Filezilla, with the FTP settings for your site - details here item 2 - upload the two files created above into the folder that is to be protected.

Using the FTP program rename the uploaded files on the remote server, putting a  .   (period) at the beginning of the file name and remove the  .txt   file extension.

Job done

HTH

John

Pipped to the post by Andy

Hi Andy,

As indicated by John Baker, protecting folders is not difficult....ok, not difficult for him. I haven't gotten there yet. I looked at the CoffeeCup site for Web Access Manager and they show the tree structure as to where to put the pertinent files. "Website Access Manager is a full-featured .htaccess generator — a high-tech solution that protects your website and keeps unwanted visitors out." And they show a table comparing their 2 tools, this one and Password Wizard.

Here is the link:

http://www.coffeecup.com/website-access-manager/

They have a trial download. Take a look and just seeing how they do it might help you out.

Regards,

Andy,

The bottom of the line web hosting is unlimited. This is the 500Mb option. If you have any other option there is a monthly fee. So in principal, you will not lose access after one year if you have free web hosting. However, if you also have a domain name that you got through Magix, then you have a one year contract for that. Same with Album Premium - one year only. You can check what you have by logging in to the Online site and looking at Contracts under My services in the right hand window. I have both an album and a domain name, so I have to make sure I renew.

Thanks folks for your help so far.

Regarding CoffeeCup, it looks like it uses the same technique John I and outlined - here's an extract from the "Server Requirements" page:

In order to run the server compatibility check, your server should also have PHP 4.7 or higher installed. PHP is not necessary for password protection, but it is used to check the server to ensure that it is running a compatible web server. Please note that if you are using a Microsoft-hosted server, you won’t be able to use this program.

Magix doesn't support PHP! So I don't think CoffeeCup will work.

Andy.

Hi

Have a look at this article section 2 - it gives more detail and offers a link to a good tool to create the htpasswd file for you.

John

Thanks John - I have the htpasswd file already created from my previous web host - what I need is a path name to put in .htaccess.