.htaccess loop

[riex]

I am having trouble with my .htacces file

it looks like this:
AuthType Basic
AuthName "Password Required"
AuthUserFile /www/msta/members/.htpasswd

<limit GET POST>
require valid-user
</limit>

and i created a .htpasswd file with htpasswd

my problem is that when the user authentication prompt appears I type in my user name and password i just keep getting looped back to the blank authentication prompt.
How can I get the .htaccess file to work properly?

[TRJ]

Is it possible that the path to the .htpasswd file is incorrect? Were you in the members directory when you created it?