Error 404 not found with .htaccess in folder on XAMPP/Apache

Question

I have a test server with XAMPP (Apache/PHP/MySQL) running on Windows Server 2003.

I always used without problems .htaccess and .htpasswd files. On the site I'm working on I get ERROR 404 (yes! not 403) when trying to open any file inside the directory protected by .htaccess, which looks like:

<Files .htaccess>
order allow,deny
deny from all
</Files>

AuthName "Area riservata"
AuthUserFile \WEB\TEST\keys\.htpasswd
AuthType Basic
require valid-user

I changed the .htpasswd directory to the same of the .htaccess (\WEB\TEST\public_html\admin\.htaccess) file without success!

If I remove the file everything works fine: apache logs and error logs say nothing.

Where is the problem/error?

EDIT

On my DOCUMENT_ROOT (\WEB\TEST\public_html\) I have this .htaccess file. I discovered that when commenting the last line (as following - no redirect to index.php for non file and symlinks) my problem disappear. I don't understand why!

 RewriteEngine On
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/(it|de|fr|en)/(.*)$ [NC]
 RewriteCond %{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/multi_html/%2 -s
 RewriteRule ^(it|de|fr|en)/(.*)$ /multi_html/$2?lingua=$1 [NC,L,QSA]

 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l
 RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-s
#RewriteRule . index.php [NC,L]

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 08 '16 at 22:42

I found myself an answer:

AuthName "Authorisation Required"
AuthUserFile "\WEB\TEST\keys\.htpasswd"
AuthType Basic
require valid-user
ErrorDocument 401 "Authorisation Required"   <-- ADD THIS LINE

Apache had changed this somewhat and specifying the 401 error document is necessary as Apache is looking for it when using .htpasswd.

Error 404 not found with .htaccess in folder on XAMPP/Apache

1 Answers1