easy way to create a username / password login

I have built a website using html and css (in 开发者_如何学编程Dreamveaver CS4) on which I would like to create a section that is only accessible to registered users - users would have to submit their email address and create a password to access the area. I am prepared to take the time to learn with tutorials etc, but I'm a beginner with limited ability of html etc, so I would really appreciate some advice on what would be the easiest way of doing something like this - Drupal? JQuery? I have tried searching online for tutorials but I am getting hundreds of different answers using different solutions and would really appreciate your opinions on how to do this in the easiest possible way.

Many thanks in advance :)

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Just pick a tutorial for a scripting language that your web hosting supports. PHP is pretty common: http://phpeasystep.com/phptu/6.html

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I would suggest using server side scripting for your login.

For this you would need

• A place to store user data
• A script that can validate the user data.

Use whatever scripting language your host supports for this.

You can either use a flat file (text file) to store user data by encrypting it in it or you can use a database (best) You can write a small script that is called when the user logs in and sets the cookie in the browser In the pages that only logged in users can view, you can add a small piece of code to verify from the cookie, if it validates, display the data or display something like Authorized users only.

This is a very basic functionality but if that is all you want, this should do it.

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Well, you'd need a database on the server to store the username/password combinations. That means you'd need some server side language to interact with the database to check for valid username/password combinations, as well as using the server side language to know -when- to check for username/pw (e.g. which page(s) are password protected).

If you're on a Windows server, MS Access is generally considered to be a good starting point for database, but I'd recommend mySQL or SQL Server for the long run.

For language, there's a ton to choose from. ASP, PHP, ColdFusion, etc. I'm a ColdFusion person, so take this with the bias that implies , but I think CF is the easiest for a beginner to learn.