This plugin works well for me! Am using it with Sidebar Login - anyone can see my homepage; you must log in to see the rest of the site. It does take a little work to configure it.
Question: My site is running on the slow side and I wondered if there was a caching plugin that worked well with Private! WordPress Access Control Manager for public and private areas--I guess it would have to use encryption?
Thanks
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/private-wordpress-access-control-manager/
