Web Authentication

["pimp mastermind" <gbchustla () gmail com>]

I have Slackware 10.1 runing. I am using it as a router and
fileserver. I use Apache 1.3 for web access. I have some web
directories which i want to secure more strongly than with htpasswd
but i dont know any other ways of authentication. Also a lot of my
scripts in those directories are wirted in PHP Perl and CGI scripting.
I need to find a better way of authentication? Does any one knows any
better way of authentication?
Thank you all in advance for your help

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