Authentication issue

Hi,

I have a secure area for my Website. Its a folder in web server( for example

"http://www.mysite.com/Securefolder/"). INorder to View the folder user must register with

the site. When a user register a new entry is made to ".htpasswd" file in the secure folder

and the username and password is mailed to user.

Here the tough part come. I charge Some amount for registration. Normally what users do is

one will register and pass the username and password to others and they can also access the

secure area. I want to prevent this


So I thought about two options

1. Cookie
2. IP address tracking.



We cannot relay on cookie because , it can be get deleted at any time. The second is IP

address and its also cannot be relayed as most of the users don't have a static IP



CAn Anyone tell me a Possible solution for this issue?.


Thanks in Advance ,


Regards,

KOCHI

It depends what the contents of the secure folder are. For instance, if you're offering downloads from the secure folder it might be worth registering each download in a database and not allowing multiple downloads for each file, that way if someone is silly enough to give away their password they will find that they lose their chance to download.

Other than that... I don't really know any alternatives, as you've already said the two main choices are too flawed to be viable. Exactly what's in the folder?