Apache .htpasswd autht fails

[The_Bell]

I am running an Apache web server and I added this .htaccess file ina dir I want to be user/password restricted:

[rac]

This is probably not going to be very helpful, but a couple of security notes: I would recommend not surrounding require valid-user in a <Limit> directive: there's no benefit to doing so, and it will leave other methods unprotected. Secondly, I don't recommend storing passwords in any form underneath ServerRoot - put them someplace totally outside the accessible directory.
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For every higher wall, there is a taller ladder

[mglauche]

have a look into the .htpasswd file and check if it looks like:
<username>:<crypted password>

also . double check that apache can read the .htaccess file ! (if you did create it as root, perhaps it got 640 or similar permissions, and apache/nobody can't read it)

[mglauche]

oh, another good thing to look at might be the apache error log usually in /var/log/apache/error.log