If you are already setting the username in a cookie
e.g.
[PHP]setcookie("your_cookie", $username, time()+99999999, "/", ".domain.name.com", 0);[/PHP]

Then you can just check it's set:
[PHP]$_COOKIE['your_cookie'][/PHP]

on top of that you can check the username variable, along with passwords, and compare them to the contents of a database for example.

Wouldnt you be able to simply use a include function or some sort, or can you not. I know phpBB does it.

A little example: (try it in http://fpepito.dyndns.org/test.php)

I hope that help you,

pepito

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<?

$myname = $PHP_SELF;
session_register ("session");

if (isset ($session[lang])) {
// if user choice another language, update the session[lang]
if (isset ($lg)) { $session[lang] = $lg;}

echo "Session existe, you have enter: $session[count] times<BR>";
echo "Your actual language is: $session[lang]<BR>";

setlocale ("LC_TIME", $session[lang]);
echo strftime ("%c")."<BR>";

// You need locale file corresponding with the next language
echo "<A HREF=$myname?lg=fr_FR>Utiliser le français</A><BR>";
echo "<A HREF=$myname?lg=en>Use english langage</A><BR>";
echo "<A HREF=$myname?lg=pt_PT>Utilizar o portugues</A><BR>";
// update counter
$session[count] = $session[count] + 1;
} else {
echo "It's the first time that you coming. We will create session:<BR>";
$session[lang] = $HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE;
$session[count] = 1;
echo "<A HREF=$myname>reload</A>";
}

?>