Membership Validation

From: jesse james 2020 (jessejames2020_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 07/28/04 

Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 06:20:02 -0700

Like most of us, I host with an external ISP, and due to security concerns on their end, I'm not able to create Users or Groups, for membership validation. I have worked around this by using Linux/Unix solutions (.htaccess/.htpassword) in the past, but I would like to consolidate ISPs, and have my regular site and the membership portion of my site on a single Windows 2003 Server (supporting ASP.NET).

To sum up the question more eloquently... How can I programmatically add users, which will allow them to view contents of a specific directory, only after user validation?

Lastly, I have hacked out a fake version, where I check credentials, held in SQL on every ASP.NET page. However, users can still download pictures, Flash files, etc. if they know the path, as these types of files do not include validation logic. So, I'm not looking for something like that, but rather a secure directory, which I can programmatically add users.

Article links, white papers, etc. are welcome.

Thank you in advance.

-Jess