Also, this isn't your only option. Using PHP, you can create a login system using session variables, and stick login-checking code into an auto-prepend file, so that it's automagically require()'d into ever PHP page. The downsides are 1) you need to configure PHP with an auto-prepend file, if it isn't already, and 2) it will only protect PHP files, or files that are processed by PHP in the configuration.