Hi. This is long, but it works!. after much research and trolling the web and giving some credit to apollo hosting who got me going in the right direction, here's what DOES work:
go to the root web in FP (e.g. http:/
do file-new-folder to create a folder and name it (mine is staff only)
right click it and click on "convert to web", making the folder a full fledged sub web.
double click on the sub web to enter it, then click tools-security-permissions
click "use unique permissions for this web" and click apply
click on "users", check the button with "everyone has browse access", and click on add
add a user, give them a name and password, and CHECK "administer, author and browse this web", click OK and then click apply.
you should see the new name come up on the user list with full access.
you can now add ALL of your users, just typing them in and giving them admin, author, and browse priviliges and just hit the "apply" at the end of the list.
they will now ALL appear in the user list.
now, highlight each one individually, click edit, and change their access to "browse only".
then, still in the users screen, change the bottom choice to "only registered users have access", apply, and OK and you're done.
now fire up the browser and go to the new web (
and you'll get a password challenge to get in. type in correct password and you get......a page that says you dont have access! this is because you've created a new WEB but have forgotten to put an index page in it. so make a new page called index.htm and stick it in there and you're off.
there HAS to be an easier way, since this seems to be a bit of a kludge, but this DOES work. In my case, if I didn't give everyone admin, author and browse privileges initially, fp wouldn't let me get their names in as users (this is ONE of the parts that no one seemed to know).
this is hopefully easier with fp 2002!
ront