I want to construct a web site with registration capability

[Bus429]

I want to construct a simple web site for our housing estate management company. I want to allow access to residents only based on user names and passwords that I nominate.
I can't quite understand how to accomplish this using Front Page - the explanation on Help is very complicated.

Can anyone assist?

[Stoney X]

Bus429, I'm not familiar with Front Page. A quick google turned up this page. It appears that you secure pages based on the location on the server, so you will place your sensitive pages (your resident specific stuff) in a sub-directory and apply the security to that. Sounds like a .htaccess file to me which explains the note on the page about needing the web-hosting service help in setting it up.

Regards
Stoney

[HelenD]

The first thing you will need to do is find out details of what the server that will be hosting it will allow as registration pages will almost certainly need to use front page extensions. Many ISP's dont support Front page extensions.
The other thing you need will be somewhere to store the usernames and passwords for comparison, options include configuration files, registry and databases.
If you are requiring registration to access areas of the site security becomes a big issue, get it wrong and you might as well have not botherd creating the registration system. Ideally the passwords should be stored as a hash with a method that will has the users entered password and compare it against the stored hash.
You may be better creating asp pages or aspx pages, I cant offer any advice on asp but I know aspx pages are hosted in IIS and need the .NET Framework there are plenty of options for securing aspx pages and I can offer further advice on this if you decide to go down that route.

[Bus429]

Thanks, Stoney and Helen but, Helen, youv'e lost me completely...

[joe2812]

Might I suggest a program such as Dreamweaver...more advanced but there's loooooooads of tutorials on how to use it and set up log-in's.

It's got a 30-day trial from www.macromedia.com and you can then buy it. Or pick it up from somewhere else...(make of that what you will!)

Excellent utility though, especially with the help and communities for support
Macromedia have always been very helpful.

Try your local library too for some beginner books which may cover the topic specifically - it's worked for me on more than one occasion!

Best of luck!

[amanoffewwords]

How 'bout using a content management system such as Mambo - people can register themselves + you can approve them for access.

Gives you loads of options re features such as guestbooks/forums/document handling/downloading of files/calendar etc....and good community support too.


http://www.opensourcecms.com/ has a list of CMSs - some more difficult than others (stay away from typo3 unless you want an ulcer!)

Mambo lives here: http://www.mamboserver.com/ with loads of mods here http:www.mamboportal.com and support here: http://www.mambers.com/

Hope this helps,

Cheers
Charles

[HelenD]

I am not sure how I lost you but any system that requires usernames and passwords will need a means of evaluating the details user enter to check they are a valid user. All users who cannot be validated should be redirected to the login page to provide valid credentials before they can access known user pages. The evaluation will be carried out using server sided scripting, not all ISP's support scripting and some will only allow certain kinds of scripts. The stored credentials you validate against need to be securly stored if not an experienced hacker may gain access to the credentials and impersonate a valid user. Storing passwords as a hash helps since the hash is an encrypted version of the password that cannot be decrypted.
Hope this helps to clarify things further.

[Bern Oulli]

Have you tried Bravenet? They do lots of free web tools, including a password gate. The penalty you pay is a bit of advertising on the relevant page. See http://www.bravenet.com/webtools/passwd/index.php
for the details.