[cobalt-users] .htaccess problem on RaQ3

[Jeff Martin <jeff@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thought I'd ask again, because this is still a problem.

I used to have working .htaccess and .htpasswd files.  They all of a sudden stopped
working.  Now when I have an .htaccess file in a directory like:

AuthUserFile /path/to/.htpasswd
AuthName GoodStuff
AuthPAM_Enabled off
AuthType Basic
order allow,deny
allow from all
require valid-user

I am not asked for a password.  I do not get access to the directory either.  Instead I get
the 401 error message.

I have experimented with permissions, ownership and location of the .htaccess and
.htpasswd files.  The .htaccess file is being read, because if I have redirects or something
else it works fine.  

Does anyone have any idea what could be happening?  Could the box have been cracked
and this feature of Apache tampered with?  If so, is there a module I could replace easily?
One curiosity is that I can login to my web admin.  Doesn't that use .htaccess files?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

-Jeff