Question

I am unable to get basic authentication working. I simple want to set-up the standard authentication settings where a user can create an account and then have permission to read and edit items based on what group they are in. I've gone through the basic settings in the config web page. I've also experimented with the .htaccess file. I'm not sure if that's required or not, and if it is required, I can't figure out basic formatting (although I think I have the right data in there). As it is set now (with .htaccess disabled), when a user attempts to login they get a 'page can't be found' type error. If they click refresh it gives them a "missing field" screen.

Environment

-- JohnDolan - 06 Apr 2006

Answer

If you answer a question - or someone answered one of your questions - please remember to edit the page and set the status to answered. The status selector is below the edit box.

Hi John --

I'm brand new to TWiki myself, but I have some understanding of Basic Authentication.

Basic authentication means that you are leaving the web server to handle the authentication, and since the .htaccess file is used to signal the webserver that it needs to do this, either it or additions to your httpd.conf file are needed.

When it is working, what will happen is that the browser will pop up a password entry box the first time that a user tries to edit a page. This password is then sent to the server for that page, and for all successive pages on the same server.

Until you have the .htaccess file set up correctly, users will not be asked to log in and they will be presented with an error page when they try to edit something. I'm guessing that the errors you are seeing are (unfortunately) an unrelated problem with your configuration that needs to be solved first. I'd look closely at the error logs for your server, and see if you can decipher which page it is that is not being found.

-- NathanKurz - 09 Apr 2006