Create web page registration/login - help!

[#1]

Dear All
Well I looked into this about 5 years ago and failed. I'm trying again but getting no further forward. I think it's probably a simple task but I don't know what I'd doing wrong.
The plan is that I have a website in my webspace on plus.net.  I want to restrict access to some of the sections and thus want to use a register/log-in approach. I seem to have trouble getting my PHP to talk to the database and I don't know why.
The site is built using an old version (2004) of Dreamweaver which came with a tutorial book which walks through building the relevant forms and then linking to the database. I've tried following the guide but despite inserting the server details (rumpus), username and password (as given when I created the database and table) dreamweaver can't connect 'due to an unknown error' (helpful!). So from that side I don't know what I've done wrong.
To tackle things a different way, I downloaded the scripts from http://www.html-form-guide.com/ added the personal data and installed them into my CGI space. However, trying to run the 'register' option (which allegedly creates the table in the database first time around) yield the error "Automated submission prevention: case 2 failed" and nothing is created in the database.
I'm just not sure where to start to get this thing up and running. Can some kind person point me in the right direction please?
Many thanks
Si

[#2]

Right, I've made a small amount of headway with the html-forms stuff which seemed to be a permissions thing. However I still have no idea why I can't get dreamweaver to play!
My next job is to work out how to link the forms to my pages. That's a job for tomorrow!
Si

[#3]

From a quick look through a downloaded copy of the code I assume you are using I think that error message is built into form submission as a spam trap. I think it means a special field is/was empty, perhaps something like a captcha that a human can complete but spam-bot wouldn't (just a guess). So the process stops before trying to connect to the database.
Do you recall seeing anything like that on the form?
I was wondering whether to ask about file and directory permissions - have you set PHP files to 0700 and directories to 0710? Other files should be 0640 (probably the FTP default).

[#4]

I installed the form on my ccgi space to try it out and it worked OK.
Could be awkward if anyone forgets their password, it's encrypted for storage and there is no provision to reset it. 
The input field I mentioned in my previous post is not visible to human users, it's intended to trap bots likely to be reading the code.

[#5]

Hi
Thanks for the comments, I think it just threw me as I expected the form not to work at all if the permissions were wrong. I've fiddled with them now, although I may double check them bearing your comments in mind in case they're too high!
Yes, I'm thinking about the password reset issue Just happy to have got something working for the time being! That's a weekend job.........
Si