Joomla custom 404 page with Administrator protected folder issue

Question

I have a custom 404 error set up as per the Joomla docs, so adding ,

if (($this->error->getCode()) == '404') {
header('Location: /index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50');
exit; 
}

to the error.php file in my template folder, which works just fine.

However I am also using Akeeba Admin Tools, and when I password protect the Administrator folder, rather than receive the log in box to access the admin page I am redirected to my custom 404 page, and can't access the admin page again unless I rename the .htaccess file to something else.

Has anyone come across this? How to successfully password protect the admin folder from within Joomla (or using Akeeba), and still have a custom 404 error page?

Joomla Version 3.6.0, Akeeba Admin Tools V. 4.0.0.

Answer 1

Password protecting the backend using .htpasswd is much better than using (Akeeba's) admintools - it is very efficient, and the beauty is that if an IP tries to login 5 times with a wrong password, then that IP gets blocked by the CSF firewall.

I personally don't believe that having to append a hash at the end of the URL to login to the admin will make the website more secure.