Solution:

Short answer: remove the .htaccess file in your public_html directory:

rm ~/public_html/.htaccess

If that doesn't solve the problem, check for a .htaccess in your $HOME directory, and remove that as well:

rm ~/.htaccess

Note that you probably shouldn't have a .htaccess file in your $HOME directory, as web documents are not served from that directory. Put it in ~/public_html instead.

Long answer: The .htaccess file is used to set up access control and user authentication. The directives in the file like AuthUserFile and AuthName are what is causing the server to ask you for a username and password. Unless you've intentionally set up user-level authentication on your web pages, you do not need any of the Auth* directives that are in your .htaccess file. Use an editor like vi to remove the lines that begin with Auth.

The .htaccess file can also include <Limit> directives to restrict access to your homepages based on the remote hostname or address. The server by default allows world access to reading your homepages. Unless you want to restrict access to you pages, you don't need any of the <Limit> directives.

If you don't need either of the Auth nor the <Limit> directives, you can remove the .htaccess file altogher, or you can simply rename it and keep it for future reference.

Feel free to submit a request for help for any of the following reasons: