What is Locked Area?

Locked-Area.com was started in 1999 to distribute the software, Locked Area. Locked Area is a piece of user management/password protection software written in Perl for use on Internet web sites which allows the owner of a web site to setup a secure content area on their web site. Using the software the web site owner can then allow visitors to register to access the secure content area. This is very useful if for example, they would like to know who is accessing there web site content. In 2006, Locked-Area.com released OpenCrypt as an advanced alternative to Locked Area, intended to offer a comprehensive range of new options and facilities for the web site owner, including the option to charge web site visitors to access their content. This has proven very popular due to declines in profits from Internet advertising.

How does it work?

Locked Area is written in a programming language called Perl. Perl is widely known as "the duct-tape of the Internet" and is very popular for any web site based task which for example, requires a great deal of data processing. Locked Area also uses a system known as .htaccess Authentication to help password protect secure content areas, this is an authentication system which is part of the Apache Web Server which is currently the most popular web server software for use on the Internet. Using a combination of Perl and HTML, Locked Area provides a simple to setup and use system for web site member's area management.

Locked-Area.com, OpenCrypt.com and DirectoryPass.com are partnered sites which are owned by, ionix Ltd. This is a company which evolved from various businesses belonging to, Neil Skirrow including Locked-Area.com which joined together for a variety of reasons both legal and business/service related.

Started in 1999, Locked-Area.com has been leading in the membership management and password protection software for the Internet market for many years, as part of Locked-Area.com's development, DirectoryPass was released in 2001 as a simple solution for user management, for users who don't require the registration form and management facilities of Locked Area. In 2007, DirectoryPass was released as an Open Source project under the GNU General Public License, within weeks the project had progressed to include more than five translations of the user interface.

Other Products

We specialise in web site user management and security and have a variety of products that may be of interest to you. Take a look at, DirectoryPass and OpenCrypt.