Membership area opinions and advice request

Hi Folks,

I’m setting up a WordPress site that will consist of public viewed pages and restricted pages that people need to login or register to view.

I came across a thread the other day (which I now can’t find!) that suggested a separate installation of WordPress in another directory for the membership part of the site, along with the use of a plugin called “members only”.

I quite like the sound of this, and although it will require two admin control panels, I like the idea of the separation as the site will be quite large.

A couple of issues I’m not sure about and would appreciate some advice. Will the “members only” plugin handle registration for new users and send them an email with their login details, or will I need to include my own form?

My ideal setup would be a login page for the members area that existing members can enter their details – plus a link on the page that takes them to a form for registering a new account if required. Some sort of account detail reminder facility would be good as well if that’s possible. The login details would then be emailed to the registered user.

The other question I would welcome advice with is that the home page link in the members area will need to point to the home page of the public site. Is it just a matter of excluding the normal link produced and hard coding a link for the other public site?

My php skills are a bit shakey, so hope someone can advise if there is a plugin solution for my needs!

Many thanks,

Myles