simplest user-auth possible...

I'm trying to make an internal weblike BBS for my company... and I'd like to use PHP... It would be divided in three sections and the 'users' would only have authorization to post on their specific section, but read all... and I of course would be able to do whatever I want... so I'd like to know the simplest way to do user-authorization here... I know nothing about cookies and sessions... and that's exactly why I'm doing this BBS, to learn. when a user logs on... and he posts something... the posted message will have his username, date, and blabla... I don't really wanna control his presence on the BBS... just authorize and control who sent the message in what section... and also control if he had the privileges for it... it's really simple... I just need a very basic example... thanks in advance... ____________________________ . Christian Dechery (lemming) . http://www.tanamesa.com.br . Gaita-L Owner / Web Developer