okay so im making an ajax login system and i am really confused as to what hashing is and how to implement it. And where to find a good script, or should i just use md5 or sha1?
@virtualdAug 22.2006 — #Essentially, hashing takes a secret, and mixes it with a bunch of other crap (usually a key and some other stuff), and obscures it so that by just looking at the result you can't tell what the original thing is. This is cool, except its not quite secure. Go to wikipedia for a better definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hashing
Unless you use SSL, its not going to be 100% secure. Something that should be good enough for most people, could be digest authentication. However, its also weak. Go here for a nice PHP implementation of it: http://www.xiven.com/weblog/2003/07/23/DigestiveBiscuits