client wants password protection of site

new area for me - please help

[akaTigger]

Hi all,

Please forgive my ignorance here. I've concentrated on the design side of web sites, and am learning other areas of webmastering.

I have a client who wants to put password protection on her site. She wants a sign-up page that does not automatically authorize the viewer to continue to the site, but provides a way of reviewing for legitimacy. In other words, someone can't sign up as 'No One' at 'No Where, USA' and get in. She wants to allow serious viewers in and protect files within the site from being downloaded.

I understand that password protection is setup using .htaccess... What procedure should I follow to put this in place? Please keep in mind that I'm a newbie in this sort of thing...

Thanks for your help.

[Air]

There's a couple of things to consider, if using straight .htaccess and .htpasswd there is no ability for visitors to the site to create their own UserID and Password, unless the .htaccess is combined with some server side scripting. Also search engines will be shut out of the site. Anyway, that's not what you asked for, here's what you asked for ... :)

You can find information on setting up .htaccess authentication HERE [faq.clever.net].

And scripts that can add sign up capability, can be found HERE [cgi-resources.com] by doing a search for ".htaccess password"