Password-protected WP blog

Hi all,

I want to set up a blog for a project team. I can create .htaccess restrictions via my web host so that they will need to authenticate to see the blog. Will this mess up the rest of WP? I’d like to know before I get it all set up.

I would rather not just use “save as private” posts – I want to be able to restrict all pages in the blog folder from anyone other than those I authorize.

TIA,

-kj-