Publishing to .htaccess protected folder

I need to .htaccess protect my entire WordPress blog from the public, and still allow myself access to login to the wp-admin pages and update, post, etc.

When I password protect the directory it, of course, works as expected for the public, but I no longer have access to the admin area (i am kicked out to a 404 error page with no prompt to login via htaccess user/password. Does anyone have a .htaccess hack to help me?

I also want to redirect the 401 and 404 error pages to a custom error page so I can redirect the public in a courteous manner. I have tried this (http://developedtraffic.com/2007/05/27/wordpress-admin-password-protection-404/)and have had no success.

Thanks, Ben