Keeping track of who user is logged on as in forum

[BIOSTALL]

Hey, i have a forum.

The first step, before viewing or posting in the forum is to log in. Now, the trouble i am having is how do i keep track of who the user is logged in as. Like on this forum, you log in and it knows who you are but then next time you come to the site, you have to log in again. I need something like this.

I'm guessing i need to use something like sessions or cookies or something but i'm not quite sure how to achieve this. Just wondering whether someone would mind pointing me in the right direction?!?

Thanks in advance, BIOSTALL

[jami3]

I would recomend setting a cookie and if it gets rejected having a session as a backup
something like this
http://www.daydreamgraphics.com/d/tutorial/list/2/80

i would comment on a code that uses cookies aswell however i dont want to go into massive amound of detail
http://www.daydreamgraphics.com
the membership tutorial login is an example of this