We have a web site that people connect to and download documentation
very frequently, but we don't know who these people are.  We would
like to, with minimal inconvenience to users, get their name, company,
and e-mail address.  This would be for the purpose of sending regular
e-mails updating the "download people" of enhancements to our
products.  Once they enter their information, any return visits would
not require re-entry of the same information.  Re-entry of username and
password is acceptable.  Somehow the previously entered information
would be remembered.

There must be some software that one can purchase or open source
software that manages this type of thing.

Thanks

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Clarification of Question by vijay20-ga on 27 Nov 2004 14:06 PST

Verio.com hosts our web site.  Any software that is recommended should
be compatible with this web hosting service.

You cannot do that, unless you hack them, or trick them in to
downloading spyware, and a lot of other things, but its all illegal so
I advise you not to do so.

to askarz-ga, i don't think asking them to "log in" and enter a
"password" prior to downloading is illegal.

You don't say what the server environment is. Is it Apache? Microsoft
IIS? Roxen? Netscape Fastrack? And the operating system? Linux?
Solaris? Windows?

But whatever the server environment is, they generally all have the
capability to password protect a directory tree(s), and to do it in a
bunch of different ways. What you'll need to do is the following:

1) configure the server to require a valid username/password for your
documentation directory
2) create a form on your site for the downloaders to enter their vital
stats (name, desired username, password, email, etc...).
3) create a script to validate that information (has the username been
used before, is the email address correct, is the password too easy to
guess, etc..)
4) have the script slice and dice the username and password into
whatever format your web server's authentication method uses
(database, .htpasswd files, cookies, etc...)

after that you should be able to sit back and let the downloaders go
at it. Other than fixing forgotten passwords and checking logs for
brute-force password guessing attacks, it should mostly run itself.