Does protecting the Joomla administrator folder with .htpasswd prevent file monitoring?

A common security practice for Joomla web sites is to restrict access to the administrative area with a basic authentication on the /administrator/ folder. On sites using cPanel/WHM, this is sometimes referred to as Directory Privacy.

An .htaccess file is used to indicate what user(s) can access this folder and its contents while the username/password combinations are stored in the .htpassd file. 

Once the .htaccess/.htpasswd combination has been configured, all http and https requests (i.e. loading the folder in a web browser) will require credentials to proceed. 

Watchful does not use http/https requests when monitoring files. Thus, Watchful is compatible with any .htaccess/.htpasswd restrictions you may have in place.

Managing private sites

If you are protecting your entire site with basic authentication, be sure to read our FAQ on managing private sites.