Custom login page and redirection

Hello all,

Here’s a description of what I want to achieve:

1. All users viewing the front page when entering the site
2. Rest of the content viewable only to logged in members
3. If a non-logged in user clicks on a link from the front page it should take him to a custom login page that I am making(not the default wordpress one)
4. After logging in from that page the user should be redirected to the page initially required
5. Of course if the user logs in directly from the log in form of the front page he should be able to go anywhere

I know there are plenty of sites using that mechanism, a very typical example are forums where if you click on posting something without being logged in, it takes you to a login form and then directly to the “New Post” form.

I tried using a plugin called Members Only which I modified a bit to allow me to show the front page but I couldn’t get the redirection to work properly. What I want to ask is if someone has already done that and how you go about it. It would save me a lot of time from reading and modifying plugin code.

Thanks.