Thanks for the reply :) -- The logic you described was basically right on the dot with how I am implementing this.
I have the the back-end cgi script to authenticate the user using data in a mysql db. Then once its successful, then it creates a new session with CGI::Session.
What I'm confused about is how to initialize the existence of a session from a user that is trying to view a members area section.
I'm following the coding from the CGI::Session::turtorial doc and its defeating the whole purpose of authentication.