[opencms-dev] Authorizing intranet users as guests possible?

[Klaus.Mueller at etas.de]

Dear all,

I'm using OpenCMS 4.7 on W2K with Tomcat 4 standalone to set up an intranet
at the Fachhochschule (our university). I would like  to configure the
OpenCMS system in such a way that it controls read access for  the entire
site. This would allow our students to access the internal site via  the
internet.

I've played around with access control for a while now and I'm kind of
stuck. I can control access to dynamic pages by setting the  page or folder
group to "Users" and changing access rights so that only group members can
read the file.

The problem is, this also means that all of these users now have access to
the OpenCMS workplace. I don't want to see any of them in my workplace. In
fact, I'd  much prefer if they were guests who are not supposed to log in
to the workplace at all.

However, the problem with guests on the other hand is that they don't have
to log in to the intranet either (browsers does not request login). So as
soon as I set the group for all pages and folders to guests they are
visible for everyone. And, of course, this is not  what I'm looking for
either.

I would just like to have an area which has limited access for "the world"
and a workspace which is accessible only for a subset of those who may read
the pages.

Am I making a mistake somewhere? Or has anyone ever successfully set up
something like this?

Your hints and suggestions are more than welcome.

Kind regards,

Klaus Müller