PHP & MySQL Login System with Personalised User Areas etc.

Hi all.

I have numerous questions to pose, the answers to which will hopefully allow me to move forward with my web design project.

I am looking to create a website, which allows users to register with the site and have a login; (this must extend beyond simply choosing a username and password, there will be other required fields, acceptance of terms and an address, phone number etc. section). I will be using PHP and MySQL to create the login system. I have found numerous online tutorials on how to create the databases and the simple code, so that is not the real issue.

Things I want to include but don't know how and can't find tutorials for:

1. A 'Remember Me' function, which sets a cookie and allows users to remain logged in.

2. A personalised user area, in which account information can be edited and updated. There will be multiple links on the user's welcome page as well as numerous pieces of information, which I will need to be able to update easily.

The links will include:

Account Management
File Downloads

I need to know how to create easily manageable content for both myself in terms of updating, and for the end user in updating their details.

If anyone can point me in the direction of tutorials which would tell me how to achieve the above, reccommend a different way of doing things, reccommend software etc. please do. I am not expecting someone to generate all the code I need and paste it into a reply. I really want to avoid using pre-generated scripts as well, as I want to learn how to do this, not just edit someone else's crap or just upload a bunch of files and use an online UI to generate all the stuff I need. The reason for that being that once I have created this functionality for my own website, there is a distinct possibility that it will need to be recreated on behalf of clients, who would be less than impressed if they were to be charged for me re-hashing a third party script or online application.

Thanks in advance for any replies.