.htaccess = .WWWaccess ?

Greetings All,

 I m working with the CGI for authentication.

OS:SunOS 5.8 Generic_117350-34 sun4u sparc SUNW,Ultra-80
Server:Apache

I m trying to authenticate the website with CGI. i m using the
file .htaccess.AllowOverride All is set like this.but still i m not
getting autnticated.
but if i use .WWWaccess file i m getting authenticated.but i m not
able to check the user using ldap server.when i searched through
internet i could not get any details about the .WWWaccess file. can
any could help me i this.

File configuration.
bash-2.05b$ more .htaccess
AuthType Basic
AuthName  Cisco-CEC
AuthUserFile  /isaac/www/cgi-bin/pkolanda/authen/.htpasswd
AuthGroupFile /dev/null
Require valid-user

i used the same config to both the files.For the .WWWaccess is
authenticating but .htaccess is not. i want to check for user
validation in ldap server.
how can i proceed and what could be the problem?

thanks in advance
Prakash