Passwords

Hi folks. I have a quetion for you which maybe a little silly as I'm still new here.. I want to build a database in which access will have only registered memebers, so I need to protect it. The database will have over 100000 records and hopefully over 1000 users-visitors. Everyone of them is going to have his own password. I suppose I will have to build a table with usernames and encrypted passwords but what I don't know is how to protect the pages not to be seen without authorization. At first I thought about the .htaccess and .htpasswd files but I'm not sure yet... Can anyone suggest the best way to protect my database? If it is to complicated to be explained in an email please suggest just the functions names and I'll try to find the way... Thanx Achilles