best way to use session vars?

Hi, all -- Well, now that I have to change my code around, I suppose I should learn the best way, if there is one in particular, to manage sessions. Should I use $_SESSION for everything or should I use session_start and session_register and friends instead? Is there a clear win with either one? For my needs right now, I need session vars as a password to access protected pages, as a login basically like a password for other private pages, and to remember a variable's value. It should be pretty simple stuff, but I'd love to plan ahead now for one day when I want to be a bit more fancy. TIA & HAND :-D -- David T-G * There is too much animal courage in (play) davidtg@justpickone.org * society and not sufficient moral courage. (work) davidtgwork@justpickone.org -- Mary Baker Eddy, "Science and Health" http://justpickone.org/davidtg/ Shpx gur Pbzzhavpngvbaf Qrprapl Npg!