I asked about password protection a little while ago, and was directed to .htaccess. Got that sorted. But it doesnt password protect PDF files, which is what I really need. Can .htaccess protect PDFs, or not. If not, any ideas what I could do to secure them?

Cheers, Jonathan.

I think Ive got a lead...

If I put a PDF file in the SAME dir as my .htaccess file, it works. But, if I put the PDF within a sub-directory, it doesnt. Which is odd, because it says here (http://www.freewebmasterhelp.com/tutorials/htaccess/3) that everything below this directory [the dir with .htaccess file in it] will be password protected.

Anyone got any ideas why it isnt working?

Ta, Jonathan.

Does your host automatically create a vanilla .htaccess file in any sub-directories you create? If so that might be your problem.

AFAIK unless you specify otherwise, .htaccess properties apply to all contents of a directory regardless of file-type.

Thats what I thought. But it doesnt seem to be the case.

The host doesnt seem to put any .htaccess files in the subdirs.

What you are experiencing the default behaviour.  You need to turn off .htaccess checking for subdirs with an allowoverride directive.

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/core.html#allowoverride

Thanks, TRB. Im not sure I fully understand, though.

I can see that AllowOverride allows the .htaccess file to override anything set my the server (my host), but what would I need to insert into my .htaccess file in order for it to override any settings and so alllow password protection of sub-directories?

Just "AllowOverride", or "AllowOverride All", or something else?

Thanks a lot.