[Zope] storing files on Apache and authenticating

[Laura McCord]

I have accomplished a lot thanks to several of you pointing me in the
right direction. I am using PloneExternalFile and when files are
uploaded by a user they are stored in the /var/www/html directory to be
accessed through the Apache server. I have a cron job that executes a
python script that will delete any Plone External Files that are older
than 5 days. The next thing to do is somehow perform a user
authentication when accessing files through the Apache server. 

Clients are going to access a file that is stored on the Apache server
by an employee. The Client needs to enter their password/username to
access their files. How would this be done if there are going to be
several clients and they cannot have access to each others files? The
problem that I am thinking about is that I would need to know the
directory ahead of time that the employee is going to use to put the
files in. I am certain there are also other issues that I have not
concerned such as how to create the username/passwords. Either have the
employee create them through the form to which they upload the files or
already predetermine what their password is going to be and place it
directly in a .htaccess file.

Any suggestions?

Thank You,
 Laura