How to Password Protect a Web Page

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How to Password Protect a Web Page

Written by: MissP 637 views

There are many, many ways to protect a page on a Website with a password. Many of which will depend on your platform/programming language. The following steps are unspecific.

Steps

Find out what your web host has provided you. If you are using a free host, there is a good chance that you will not be able to password protect your pages.
E-mail your web host and ask them what they recommend. Many web hosts are run by experienced webmasters and will be more than willing to help. They will also know details about your hosting setup.
Search your question. If you’re running PHP/Apache on Linux, go to Google and type “how to password protect page php linux” or something along those lines.
Look into using server side tools, like .htaccess and .htpasswd files, php pages, or perl scripts. NEVER trust anything that is supposed to password protect a page that runs on the client side, as these are the easiest to bypass, and usually only restrict users from viewing the secure page by not giving them a link straight to it. This is not adequate protection for any web page.

Tips

Test out your password protection. Try to break into it, or have a friend with hacking/programming experience try to break in.
Make sure you understand as much as possible about how your password protection works so that you can identify any holes.
Create a log of login attempts/successes/failures, if possible. Include date and IP address. This will help you identify attacks (successful or otherwise) on your password protected page.

Warnings

If you are an inexperienced Webmaster, do NOT trust important data with your password protection scheme. Many simple/common password protection techniques on the Internet are vulnerable to experienced hackers.