[TYPO3] RealURL and HTTP Authentication

[Jeff Segars]

I've been experiencing some strange issues with RealURL (specifically 
mod_rewrite) and HTTP Authentication through additional .htaccess files 
so I'm hoping someone else has experienced the same issues and is 
smarter than me :)

I'm using the standard .htaccess file for RealURL in the main directory 
of my site.
> RewriteEngine On
> RewriteRule ^(typo3|typo3temp|typo3conf|t3lib|tslib|fileadmin|uploads|showpic\.php)/ - [L]
> RewriteRule ^typo3$ typo3/index_re.php [L]
> RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
> RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
> RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l
> RewriteRule .* index.php [L]

In a subdirectory, I require authentication to access the folder and 
this authentication is setup through a separate .htaccess file. When I 
remove the .htaccess file from the main directory, I am prompted for a 
username and password.  When I enable the main .htaccess file, I instead 
get a 404 page.  It seems like this is because the RewriteCond rule 
decides there is not a file when it gets the 401 header.

I've tested this on several servers with the same version of Apache and 
in some cases it does work while at other times it does not.

Has anyone else seen similar issues?

Thanks,
Jeff