If you are using an Apache webserver, you can use .htaccess with basic auth to require people to enter a password before they ever see the forum installation.
http://www.apacheweek.com/features/userauth
Not sure how to do it on a Windows server.
erkk – sounds complicated! Thanks for your response, anyway, Chris. Always appreciative.
It’s not difficult on a Linux server. It looks more complicated than it is.
I am wondering how you are going to get the authorized user the password to the forum area, so they can create their accounts?
Yeah – good point. They’re now talking about having a section of the forum password-protected. Think I’ll just tell them it can’t be done. Thing is, I have seen password-protected sections on vBulletin forums. Maybe an idea for a future bbPress plug-in?
Well – you can have specific forums restricted to certain users right now with a plugin. It’s easier than using .htaccess.
https://bbpress.org/plugins/topic/hidden-forums/
That’s not what you asked initially though.
require a password before someone can register and see the forum
Both are possible, the first request just doesn’t make any sense unless there will be a company wide memo with the username and password on it. If it’s truly for internal use only, just put it on an intranet rather than the Internet, or use .htaccess to restrict by IP address rather than passwords. If you have a fixed range of IP addresses, you could allow only those to access the bbPress forum.
You can do both.
Hidden Forums could be modified to require a password but it’s not something I’ll be doing anytime soon myself. Others are welcome to hack it of course.
