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Password Protecting Web Directories on a Windows Hosting Account

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Last Updated: February 27, 2009 10:22 AM

You can password protect a directory on your Windows hosting account by removing the "Read" directory permission for that directory. The result of removing this permission is that you can only access that directory using your hosting account user name and password.

NOTE: This process restricts directory access to the primary FTP user only.

To Restrict Web Access to a Directory Using the File Manager

  1. Log in to your Account Manager.
  2. From My Products list, select Hosting.
  3. Next to the hosting account you want to modify, click Manage Account.
  4. In the Content section, click File Manager.
  5. Select the appropriate existing directory or Create New Directory.
    1. If creating a new directory, enter the directory name.
    2. Click OK.
    3. Select the new directory.
  6. Click the Permissions icon in the action bar.
  7. Make sure Read is not checked.
  8. Click OK.

To verify your settings, go to www.yourdomain.com/customdir, where yourdomain.com is your domain name and customdir is the custom directory you just created or updated. When the login prompt displays, type your hosting account user name and password to view the contents of your directory.

Additional Resources

You can also use an ASP script to password protect your directory. This would require a bit of programming on your part. See the User Authentication section at HotScripts.com for some examples.

NOTE TO FRONTPAGE USERS: Microsoft FrontPage manages all directory and subdirectory permissions on your Web site. If you created custom directories on your Web site, or you are using another tool to build and or manage your Web site, switching to FrontPage may cause some difficulties. It overwrites all of your directory permissions and may make your site unusable. If you have FrontPage Extensions activated in your Hosting account, you will not have access to the Permissions feature in the File Manager section of the Hosting Control Center.

For additional information on limiting Web directory access, see Removing Web Access to Directories on a Windows Hosting Account.