Firstly I'm pretty new to this and didn't set up the site that is in use at our company. Also I may be getting confused over what a "site" is I've been asked to set up the access so that a few key users can perform all tasks and everyone else (authenticated users) can read only apart from one site when he'd like them to be able to contribute. Is this possible? As from what I can see I can set authentication for the Home (and hence all other sites) but not on sites individually where the Site Permissions lists the usernames inherited from Home but does not allow them to be clicked on to edit them.

Hi, Welcome to sharepoint world @@@ You can maintain the user permission from farm level to item level in sharepoint. I believe you have created a site collection from central admin and you have also created some subsites inside your site collection. Now you want to give contributor right for your subsite then you can click on your subsite-->go to site action menu--->click on Site Settings-->Click on "Site Permissions"-->Add user by clicking "New" menu and select the contribute permission. Now this new user will have contributor right of your subsites. In a same way you can add more users and assign the permission accordingly. You can also create user group and assign the contribute permission for this group and add user inside the group. Here is very good articles about sharepoint permission for your understanding: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-server-help/CH010124858.aspx Let us know if you have any issueCheers, Hemendra-MCTS "Yesterday is just a memory,Tomorrow we may never see"