diff --git a/auth/db/lib.php b/auth/db/lib.php
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..5cee2d66fe2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/auth/db/lib.php
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+<?PHP  // $Id$
+       // Authentication by looking up an external database table
+
+// This code is completely untested so far - I'm just jotting down ideas ...
+// Looks like it should work though ...
+
+$CFG->authdbhost   = "localhost";
+$CFG->authdbtype   = "mysql";     // (postgresql, etc)
+$CFG->authdbname   = "authtest";
+$CFG->authdbtable  = "users";
+$CFG->authdbuser   = "user";
+$CFG->authdbpass   = "pass";
+$CFG->authdbfielduser   = "user";
+$CFG->authdbfieldpass   = "pass";
+
+function auth_user_login ($username, $password) {
+// Returns true if the username and password work
+// and false if they are wrong or don't exist.
+
+    global $CFG;
+
+    ADOLoadCode($CFG->authdbtype);          
+    $authdb = &ADONewConnection();         
+    $authdb->PConnect($CFG->authdbhost,$CFG->authdbuser,$CFG->authdbpass,$CFG->authdbname); 
+
+
+    $rs = $authdb->Execute("SELECT * FROM $CFG->authdbtable 
+                            WHERE $CFG->authdbfielduser = '$username' 
+                              AND $CFG->authdbfieldpass = '$password' ");
+    if (!$rs) {
+        notify("Could not connect to the specified authentication database...");
+        return false;
+    }
+
+    if ( $rs->RecordCount() ) {
+        return true;
+    } else {
+        return false;
+    }
+}
+
+
+?>