Can Search Engins View Closed Forums

[mindhunter77]

I was curious to know that if you have a forum closed off to normal viewers, such as I have a section that will require registration before viewing. Does that also block search engines from indexing the content?

I would like to still have people regiter to view that area but I do not want to stop search engines from spidering it.

Make any sense?

[DoB Rhapsody]

I believe google has an option to input a username and passowrd so that the bot can login and index pages. Don't take my word for it though. Someone else who is more familiar with bot crawling, post here!

[Marco van Herwaarden]

SE bots will always view your board as a guest.

Showing different content to a bot and to regular visitors is considered cloaking and can get you removed from the SE's.