[Zope] Password screens

Friends of Zope, I am needing a password screen so that certain users who can edit a database can "log-in" to Zope and others do not. Has anyone done this? If so how does one achieve this? Can Zope use CGI-BIN or SSI includes scripts/programs as the password screens. My system is Redhat Linux 6.0/mysql 3.22/zope 1.10..3 Also, Zope seems to be slow(at times) when accessing records on mysql. Are there any performance tricks that can be utilized? Thanks in advance for any help!