<p>Let's examine each of those directives individually. The <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/core.html#authtype">AuthType</a></code> directive selects
that method that is used to authenticate the user. The most
common method is <code>Basic</code>, and this is the method
implemented by <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_auth.html">mod_auth</a></code>. It is important to be aware,
however, that Basic authentication sends the password from the client to
the browser unencrypted. This method should therefore not be used for
highly sensitive data. Apache supports one other authentication method:
<code>AuthType Digest</code>. This method is implemented by <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_auth_digest.html">mod_auth_digest</a></code> and is much more secure. Only the most recent
versions of clients are known to support Digest authentication.</p>
directive sets the path to the password file that we just
created with <code>htpasswd</code>. If you have a large number
of users, it can be quite slow to search through a plain text
file to authenticate the user on each request. Apache also has
the ability to store user information in fast database files.
The <code class="module"><a href="../mod/mod_auth_dbm.html">mod_auth_dbm</a></code> module provides the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/mod_auth_dbm.html#authdbmuserfile">AuthDBMUserFile</a></code> directive. These
files can be created and manipulated with the <a href="../programs/dbmmanage.html">dbmmanage</a> program. Many
other types of authentication options are available from third
party modules in the <a href="http://modules.apache.org/">Apache Modules
Database</a>.</p>
<p>Finally, the <code class="directive"><a href="../mod/core.html#require">Require</a></code>
directive provides the authorization part of the process by
setting the user that is allowed to access this region of the
server. In the next section, we discuss various ways to use the
