brin,

Agreed, the Provider does add a lot of tables and stored procedures to your database, but it also adds a lots of functionality, which, if you were to implement yourself would take a fair amount of work. I personally like using the Providers, I use them against a MySql Database, and everything just works. As for the built in controls not being to your taste, you can take full control of those, changing their templates as required.

trevorjeaton, if you need to use an existing database, with the built in Membership Provider Model and associated controls, you have no choice but to create your own custom membership provider. This basically means that you have to tell the provider model where it can find all the information it needs, and inform it when authentication has happened correctly.

How many users are we talking about here, and how much other information is there in your exist database? Basically, what I am asking is, can you start again?

Gary