Password Protect a directory in cPanel
Password protecting a directory limits the right of entry to specific components of your website by compelling the incoming visitors to enter a valid username and a password. This password process is also known as as a sort of “Authentication” procedure.
When you use this feature, steer through the directories by clicking the folder icon that is positioned adjacent to the directory name. By clicking the name of the directory, you will choose the directory for password protection. In the same way, any other subdirectories that are inside the chosen directory will also be password protected by this process.
Steps to Password protect a directory in cPanel
In order to log in to your cPanel account, just enter the website ‘URL’ and add “/cpanel” at the end of the ‘URL’. Now, you will be taken to the login screen. Here, enter your web hosting username & password to access your cPanel.
The demo presented here has assumed that the user had already logged in his cPanel. So, let's move on to the process of password protecting a directory as visitors require passwords to view web pages that are inside.
1) Once you are inside the cPanel, scroll down the page to spot the “Password Protect Directories” icon under the Security section. Click on the “Password Protect Directories” icon. A dialogue box for “Directory Selection” appears.
2) Pick the directory which you want to begin with and click the ‘Go’ button. Now, you will be taken to the “Password Protect Directories”.
3) Choose the directory that you wish to password protect by clicking the name of it. In our case, we are choosing the “newfolder” directory. You will be taken to the section that’s titled as “Security Settings”.
4) Now, check the 1st check box that is titled as “Password protect this directory”. Now, go to the “Name the protected directory” entry box and enter a name for the directory. In our case, the name “newfolder” is entered. This is the name all visitors will notice. The name can appear as anything, regardless of what the directory is named.
5) Click the ‘Save’ button. Now, the directory is protected and it needs a password to enter it through a browser.
6) Since a confirmation page follows this, Click the “Go Back” button whenever you are ready. We should generate one or more users and allocate passwords to them to access the directory. Obviously, all users can use the same username & password. However, you may also opt to add additional users which you can do whenever you wish.
7) Now, scroll down to the section that’s named as “Create User”. In the Create User section, enter a username that your visitors use to access the directory contents. In our case, the username is given as “newuser”. This new user's name will be added to the list box under the heading “Authorized Users”, where it can be taken away later on.
8) After that, enter the new password in the space given and confirm the new password once more. Pay heed to the password strength meter and always attempt to achieve a Very Strong result.
9) Click on the ‘Add/modify authorized user’ button to add the username & password. Now, the protected directory has 1 user who has access to it. A confirmation page follows which fine points the username & password that you have just added. Repeat the same process for all the other users for whom you wish to grant access for.
10) Click on the “Go back” button now to add more users (if needed). In the password protect directories page, you can view the active user for this directory and can either add or delete users from this page whenever you wish to.
Okay!! We have reached the end of the tutorial. Now, you know how to password protect directories and also to assign users to the passwords from this video tutorial.
