squid authentication

[Kevin O'Connor]

 I've tried the squid site and seen this problem reported but have seen no fixes 
or causes listed so though someone here might know.
squid runs fine but we now need user authentication. 
Using htpasswd I've created the password file reconfigured squid to use an 
external authenticator and created the acl. When a client tries to supply the 
username and password pair the following error pops up on the proxy server
2001/10/22 12:48:30 ROUTER squid[287] WARNING: authenticator #1 (FD 
16) exited 
2001/10/22 12:49:10 ROUTER squid[287] WARNING: authenticator #2 
(FD17) exited 
i've also tried using the -d switch to htpasswd incase it's a problem with crypt() 
but get the same result all suggestions including forget it and go down the pub 
will be appreciated
Regards

-- Kevin O'Connor 
Ziptek Technologies Ltd.