Apache authentication trouble

["Mike Glaser" <jurupari@geocities.com>]

I am trying to restrict certain pages on a web site with user 
authentication in Apache and I am in need of some help.

I started by going to the Apache site for help and that led me to this URL: 
http://www.apacheweek.com/features/userauth The document there seemed 
straightforward enough but I am not able to restrict anything yet. Here's 
what I did...

1) created a 'user' file with htpasswd and added one user and entered a 
password. I placed that file in /usr/local/etc/httpd. I had to create a 
couple of those directories, and I did so as root.

2) created a .htaccess file and here is what it contained:

  AuthName "mike-restricted"
  AuthType Basic
  AuthUserFile /usr/local/etc/httpd/users

  require mike

3) For a little more background, here is my directory structure

/home/httpd/html	here resides my index.html file. Server root.
/home/httpd/html/mike  I want this directory and all subs secured.
/home/httpd/html/mike/stuff  a subdirectory to be secured.

4) I added the following to the standard access.conf file found in 
/etc/httpd/conf

<Directory /home/httpd/html/mike>
order deny,allow
deny from all
Options None
AllowOverride AuthConfig
</Directory>

Note: I played around with this a bunch and never noticed any changes.

5) From my homepage (index.html in /home/httpd/html) I had a link on one of 
the pages that would go to the following page:

<a href="mike/stuff/testpage.html">testpage</a>

From what I have been able to determine, that when I click on the link to 
this page, so magical screen should pop up asking me to authenticate myself 
before I get to see that page. Nothing of the sort happens, it just pops 
open immediately.

Can anyone point out what I am doing wrong?? Or point my to some other 
documentation that could walk me through this?? I am using a fairly 
unmodified RedHat 6.0 installation for this web server.

Thanks,
Mike

------- End of forwarded message -------