[Xitami] Password Protect Xitami site ????

[d calif]

Total newbie question
How do I password protect entire site , when user arrives at 
webpages\index.htm he has to put in a password, before anything loads.

I am assuming there is a way to do this via Xitami like the Xitami private 
directory user/pw setup.
I would prefer to do this via Xitami and not a cgi script, but if Xitami 
can't handle it then a script recommendation would be appreciated.

Also thanks to everyone for the smtp server, dynamic IP client, etc,  
recommendations.
Special thanks to Charles Schmidling, I am attempting to setup Mercury.