I did try setting an unauthorized page and it did not work because I don't fully understand that page (operationally vs. conceptually(, I understood the instructions but the "Repeat the..." etc. is where I get lost

and you have a good point about time etc.
For now the 404 does equally well for my purposes.
I'll come back to this probably next week. I renamed 404 to unauthorized etc.

Thank you for your patience!! Now to get something to eat and find out what ELSE I do not know about MODx that will rear its ugly head at me!!

Thank you, Tom