Apache/Digest Authentication/Password files

[Don Russell]

I want to set up a directory on my Apache server so that if I'm home 
(i.e. on the same LAN as the server) I don't have to enter a 
userid/password to access it. If I'm on the outside, I want to be prompted.

OK, that's the easy part. :-)

I'd prefer to use Digest instead of Basic authentication, and I'd prefer 
to be able to use my own userid/password that to create yet another 
password file some place.

Is there a way to tell Apache to use the system userid/password file? 
 From what I've determined so far, this is not possible... I have to 
create a new password file just for this purpose... is there a way to 
keep the two in synch? If I change my password for logging on to my 
userid on Linux, I'd then like that new password to work for logging on 
to the web page from "outside".

Thanks for any pointers?

FC6 with Apache 2.2.4-2