Hello everyone, noob here. I've done a couple of websites that are just graphic heavy.Those are pretty easy (I'm more of a tech then designer.) But now the company I work for wants to create a website for our remote users that has our company software available 24/7. It's mainly proprietary(sp?) software so we need security and they want to create individual user accounts for roughly 1000 uses. This will probably hosted on one of our servers. What software will I need for the user accounts? What will be some of the possible problems? Any suggestions? Any help, comments, and suggestions are greatly appreciated.

The project is in it's planning stage so we have sufficient time to learn the software and install/test everthing.

What functions do you need the users to perform?

Just basic downloads of the software. We need it to create a log of the itmes they download and have them log in.

OK, I think this is what I need. Be patient with me since I know very little about web security and my HTML knowledge is slightly at average.

1) Apache software/server
2) Some sort of Perl or scripted account manager.
3) A password protector.
4) A clue

Any suggestions?
Free round of drinks on me when I'm finished!

Well, because you mentioned Apache/Perl, I'm assuming you want to go with open source software? Here's what you need in general, all open source and free:

Apache HTTP Server - Used for hosting HTML pages.
PHP/Perl - Binds with Apache in order to create web applications, like what you're trying to do with users (create/manager/etc.)
MySQL - Database to store user/web site information as well as to paths to the files you want users to download.

If you have MySQL and Apache set up, you can program the rest in Perl or PHP. I suggest you apply the correct rights on the files so not just anyone can download them. They'll need to create an account first in order to download them, or any way you prefer.

I would recommend PHP over perl/cgi scripts, whenever you're set up, you can use a site like hotscripts.com or scriptdex.com to find the appropriate script you're looking for (they both have cgi and php scripts)

PHP all the way. ^_^

Yes, this is exactly what I need. I really don't know anything other than HTML but am willing to learn. Even if it takes me a couple of months. My company is sponsoring me so of course I will take advantage of the schooling.

So what I need is the Apache server, then MSQL. What about the security? Does MySQL have reliable securty?

You could purchase software like aMember and use their features, saves you time and ensures you of security (more then when you would make it yourself).