creating a database for a login page

[buffi]

Sup all
I am new at all of this. I have a host and i made a small website. But since i want only members to be able to watch its content i want to create a login entrance. Like once a member who has access (has both user and pass) and he wants to log in he needs to enter the user and pass and click on the login bottom.
the login boton is rooted to a file called. validate_user.php

but how can i add members???

and how do i creat a database for that??

thanks
i hope i was clear

[Shrike]

In a very very basic way:

db table users
------------------
user_id (prim. key auto inc)
username
password

<?php
/* Create an HTML form with two fields, named username and
password. Point the form action at a PHP file containing a function
similar to this */
function addUser(){
  $sql = "INSERT INTO users VALUES (null, '".$_POST['username']."', '".$_POST['password']."' )";
  mysql_query($query);
  echo "accepted new user details: ".mysql_insert_id().", ".$_POST['username'].", ".$_POST['password'];
  exit;
}
?>

You would want to flesh out the above to make it do want you want to do.