My b2evolution Version: 3.3.1

After combing through the forums[1] and official documentation[3] trying to figure out how "protected" pages are supposed to work, and not finding a solution or good explanation, I'll contribute to the noise and hope that perhaps a better description will filter out here! The site is at carymathews.info.

My goal is to post protected (personal) information (resume/CV, school transcripts, etc.) within a b2evolution blog. I don't want the general public to have access to this information, but would like to generate temporary (30-, 60-, or 90-day duration) username/passwords to distribute as needed. The recipients would be able to use those username/passwords to authenticate to b2evolution and then see the protected information. However, I do not want these users to be able to modify any data.

The steps I've taken so far are to create a new user group "Readers" and to select the "No Access" to the Admin area radio button under the user permissions screen. I've created a user as a member of the "Readers" group, "Joe". Under the "Blog Settings" -> Features Tab, I've enabled "Use Advanced Permissions", to allow me to customize the access permissions for the "Readers" group and members of that group.

Under the Blog settings -> "Users" tab, I've chosen the "Advanced" layout which allows me to customize individual permissions for groups. Here I've selected "Is Member" and "Publ" (Permission to read Protected Posts") to allow members of the "Readers" group to read posts saved as "protected". After selecting the "Update" button at the bottom of that page to save the selected settings, I've created a page[2] (title: "Resume") and saved it as protected.

When I access the site as a anonymous browser, my protected page does not show up -- which is the expected behavior. After clicking on the "Log in" link provided, and using the username & password set up for "Joe" above, I get redirected to the frontpage, but the protected page still does not show -- which is the unexpected behavior.

After completing the above steps, what am I missing? I'm not afraid to start wading through PHP code, but since this is supposed to be advertised behavior, I wanted to make sure I completed all the proper & supported steps first.

Thanks in advance!

[1] Lots of discussions have covered this topic:
http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=15215 -- how to make use of post statuses (Draft, Protected, etc.)
http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=19868 -- limiting access to a specific set of users not working
http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=19109 -- The "Publish Now" button overrides the "Protected" radio button
http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=13788 -- howto keep web spiders from indexing particular blogs in a multi-blog configuration
http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=19848 -- request to fine-tune user access
http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=19976 -- how to turn on adv. group/user permissions
http://forums.b2evolution.net/viewtopic.php?t=17485 -- howto require all users to login prior to viewing blog
¥åßßå has at least twice referred people to the site http://b2evo-archived.waffleson.co.uk/2008/12/protect-your-blogs/ which states:

It's dead simple really, first go grab the plugin from BOPIT, unzip it, upload it, meander into admin and install it .... that was the hard part. For any blog that you wish to protect just put am:protected in the blog notes field and press save ...... and that's it! Instant protected blog ;)

but the plugin to grab is not named or linked to directly -- users have to install the BOPIT plugin first and then know that the title of his post ("Protect your blogs") is the name of the plugin. But this raises the question, do users need a plugin to accomplish something that the blog (supposedly) already has built in?

[2] I understand the distinction between posts and pages, and intentionally want to protect a Page in this manner. If "protection" applies only to posts and not pages, this should probably be documented somewhere and/or the "protected" option not be available when creating pages.

[3] From the Manual:
http://manual.b2evolution.net/Users_Groups_tab
http://manual.b2evolution.net/User_groups -- default group settings
http://manual.b2evolution.net/Users_%26_Groups_tab -- empty (URL encoding problems? "Users_&_Groups_tab")
http://manual.b2evolution.net/New_users -- howto create new users

EDIT: added additional forum discussions on protected pages, descriptions of discussions, and minor formatting changes.
EDIT: added links to relevant pages of the b2evolution Manual