ssi or htaccess - password

Hi. I am relatively new to the world of SSI.

I would like to password protect a selected directory and found the .htpasswd script on this site.
This script requires .htaccess to activate SSI on the server - however, SSI is already activated on my server.

What do I do to use the .htpasswd script on my server - ?

If I install .htaccess in a selected directory will it cause any server problems?

Is there a more appropriate password script?

Thank you for your thoughtful response.

:) charles

.htaccess tutorial (http://javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess.shtml)

And specifically

Password Protection via .htaccess (http://javascriptkit.com/howto/htaccess3.shtml)

Go here to make both the .htaccess and . htpasswd files.

http://wolfpower.netfirms.com/cgi-bin/htpasswd/htpasswd.pl