in reply to Re^2: About .htaccess
in thread About .htaccess

Did you try using the full path to the .htpasswd file? ("drive:/full/path/to/.passwd").

If I'm not mistaken, security-wise it is a bad idea to put this file in the cgi-bin folder. It should even be put outside your htdocs-folder.

Are you sure that your configuration file is OK and that other cgi-bin scipts run as expected?

Update:If you use relative paths, they are relative to the server-root! This is what the docs for Apache say in that respect:

AuthUserFile Directive

Description:Sets the name of a text file containing the list of users and passwords for authentication
Syntax:AuthUserFile file-path
Context:directory, .htaccess
Override:AuthConfig
Status:Base
Module:mod_auth

The AuthUserFile directive sets the name of a textual file containing the list of users and passwords for user authentication. File-path is the path to the user file. If it is not absolute (i.e., if it doesn't begin with a slash), it is treated as relative to the ServerRoot.

CountZero

"If you have four groups working on a compiler, you'll get a 4-pass compiler." - Conway's Law