Looking for a basic db-driven username/login template

[Mavent]

Hello all;

I have a client that has a members area.  He asked me to password protect it, which I did simply by assigning one static password.  Now he wants a full username/login system where the member can set their own password, which I have never done before.  I assume I'd just set up a Table with three fields, (one for name, one for password, one for the type of access they have) then check against it for access, but experience has taught me that whenever something seems simple, it's actually very complex. 

 

Do any of you know of any good premade templates for this kind of thing?  Ideally it'd be session-based (obviously).  I found one system here: http://frozenade.wordpress.com/2007/11/24/how-to-create-login-page-in-php-and-mysql-with-session/  but it's several years old, and the misspellings in the comments tend to scare me away a bit. 

 

Thanks for any help you might be able to provide.

[batwimp]

Uhhh... yeah, don't use that tutorial. This entry right here would scare me away permanently:

 

$password = '';                // Your database password. If your database has no password, leave it empty.