Including the username and password in a link

There may be times when you want to grant viewers access to a password-protected site but you don't want them to have to enter the information in the Password dialog box. Fortunately, you can include this information directly in the link itself.

For example, let's assume the page www.freelyenter.com/secret.htm is password protected. Also assume the username is semiprivate and the password is 48thRg. To include all the information the viewer would need to successfully enter the site, you would create a link using the following address:

http://semiprivate:48thRg@www.freelyenter.com/secret.htm.

To add a little bit of security to this page, you might opt to hide the link in the browser's status bar. That way, the username and password wouldn't be obviously visible in the browser.