Advice/Thoughts on mySQL authentication setup

[versatilewt]

Ok, I'm building an customer management site, and we have three types of users: contractors/dealers, builders, and distributors

At present, i have a builder_auth, contdlr_auth, and dist_auth table. I do this because I figure the mySQL search time will be lower. I estimate I may have 5,000 users in the system once it's running.

So, here's my question. Does anyone have exprience with a user authentication table in excess of 5,000? I would much rather have one user_auth table, and have a user_auth_Type column that denotes builder, contdlr, or distributor, and then loads the proper materials. Would really save myself some major coding time too.

Thanks for the advice.

[devinemke]

store it all in one table and use an enum field to store the auth_type. create indexes on anything you might specify in the your WHERE clauses (like username, auth_type, etc...)

[versatilewt]

genius!