htaccess Elite

Hi all,

I am a member of the Civil Air Patrol, and just designed the website for our new unit. I would like to include a password protected section, and was told by the state webmaster that .htaccess would be the easiest way to do it. Luckily, I have a friend who is familiar with Unix/Linux, and was able to create the files for me.

Problem is, they're not working. Each squadron is run as a subdomain off of a state (or, in our terms, wing) website, i.e. http://sq714.XXwg.cap.gov. I was given instruction by the state webmaster for my wing that squadron webmasters (like myself) do not have access to the root directory, and should simply enter the root in the .htaccess file as "../". (If I were to use a folder titled login, it would read as "../login/.htaccess".

I tried this, and it's not workin'. I'm waiting for a response from the state webmaster, but would like to see if anyone can provide a bit of guidance. I know my description might be a little hard to understand (I'm quite new at this), so bear with me please.

Thanks!