Htaccess The .htaccess file provides the ability for information protection on the HTTP server. That means that access control via the HTTP protocols are controlled on all the page information and data within a directory. This protection is generally done by a user name and a password schema. What does that mean for you? It means that you can provide limited access to the pages under a directory structure by allowing only certain people and certain action within the directory structure. This requires the use of two files. The first is the .htaccess file that lives in the directory where the access will be granted or limited. The second is the .htpasswd file which can live in any location within the server. The full Unix pathname is required to define the file and its location.