Denying Anonymous Reading in Media Wiki

Seehttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Access_Restrictions Don't forget to add the white-list pages to specify exceptions. Otherwise, no one will be able to read the login page. The following blog had a full example: http://dimer.tamu.edu/simplog/archive.php?blogid=7&pid=4015

In summary, you need to edit LocalSettings.php with settings like those below.

$wgGroupPermissions['user' ]['read'] = true;


$wgGroupPermissions['*' ]['createaccount'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['*' ]['read'] = false;
$wgGroupPermissions['*' ]['edit'] = false;
$wgWhitelistRead=array("Special:Userlogin");


One other note on creating accounts: to create accounts for other users, log in with sysop privileges (that is, login using the account that you created when you set up the wiki) and then point your browser to index.php/Special:Userlogin. This should give you the forms for new account creation.