Apache: unable to use authentification

[Bart-Jan Vrielink <bartjan@vrielink.net>]

Hello,

I'm trying to get Apache (tried the Slink version and the current Potato
version) to use authentification for some directory.
Inside the directory  have the following .htaccess:

AuthType basic
AuthName rinet
AuthUserfile /etc/apache/htpasswd
require user bartjan

When I try to authentificate myself, I get in error.log:

[Tue Aug 17 16:13:20 1999] [error] (13)Permission denied: access to
/rinet/ failed for 10.2.100.11, reason: Authentication failure

Passwd file was produced with htpasswd and does contain the user bartjan.
I tried to authentificate myself numerous times, so mistyping the password
is not the problem.
auth_module is loaded in httpd.conf

The systems I tested on are Slink systems, but with Potato libc6
(2.1.2-0pre2) and a few other upgrades. Kernels 2.2.5 and 2.2.6

Tot ziens,

Bart-Jan