php and pre-defined user passwords for protected sub-domain

[williamlsteele]

I've got my php on a site that allows easy subdomain protection. What I am after is the ability to have a user registration that gives some folks (non paying subscribers) the ability to sign up for one area of the protected domains. I also plan to give users user accounts with names and various basic information. Other uses who pay for certain products, will need to receive confirmation and authorization upon receipt of PayPal payments. This is not a simple 1, 2, 3 process, but I am looking for a general idea on how to deal with the two tear password issue.

Thanks,

Will

[coopster]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, williamlsteele.

For basic (read: not very secure) protection you can use something like Apache's Basic Authentication. But for advanced security and control you will want to use your own authorization/authentication system. Since you need to handle the latter anyway you may be wise to use a single approach to handle both.

[williamlsteele]

Thanks. I am building a site with controls that I am not fully comprehending yet, so I might start off with a pared down version of the site for now while I practice and learn more about security issues and how to protect my site. I'll definitely look into the basic admin. I'm not sure how much control I have over the controls to begin with (shared server space).