What is an easy and comparitively secure way to password lock a folder (web folder) so that only people with passwords could access it .... I havent got a default index page there but ill only have some files there that need to be protected and should only be accessed by the one who is meant to.

Any ideas ???
I have one ..... it is that i could use a directory lister script to list all the files under that directory then put a authorisation script on it (include authorisation script in the directory lister script) so that it asks for a username and password .... good idea ??? Secure ?? any way to get by it ??
Dont worry it doesnt have files that are top secret but you know

And i dont have cpanel access to do the cpanel lock thingy Any thing else ???

And oh if you must know .... the above scripts are made in php if it matters
I tried finding .htaccess passwords but i couldnt find/understand them properly.
So what do you think is best ??

http://www.xs4all.nl/~remcovz/htpasswd.html

Try this :
http://www.htmlite.com/HTA006.php