How can I protect development sites with Basic Auth module enabled?
The steps are as follows:


Modify .htaccess to read DirectoryIndex index.html index.php
Construct your index.html file to show whatever you need.
Modify your robots.txt to disallow any search engine robots to index your site.


Clients can check http://www.example.com/index.php whenever they like, and you can revert your .htaccess and robots.txt when you are done.