Newbie Authentification help!!!

I'm trying to setup a secure area that uses user id/password login form and MySQL database. I would also like to use cookies to set and store as authentification variables so when I have other pages I can check for the variable and redirect them to the login form if it is unset. Here's what I have so far. I've created a form that asks for a user id and password and passes the values onto a main page/index page for the site that validates the values. The SQL query is in the body of the html document. Everything works fine on getting to that one page. Unfortunately I need to have this authentification apply to several pages. How do I set the cookie and when? I've tried several possibilities but everyone runs up against a stumbling block. I can't set the cookie when the query is in the body. I know this is probably insufficient info but any help would be appreciated. Especially if you could point me to a tutorial. Thanks, Tom >>.>>.>>>.>>>>>.>>>>>>>>> Tom Beidler Orbit Tech Services 805.455.7119 (cell) 805.682.8972 (phone) 805.682.5833 (fax) tbeidler@mindspring.com >>.>>.>>>.>>>>>.>>>>>>>>>