Members Rank only areas

Question

In my site I have a Staff lounge, But it seems that everyone can see it, whether your a member or now.

Header.inc.php:

$userinfo = mysql_fetch_array(mysql_query("SELECT * FROM members WHERE username='$username'"));
$rank = $userinfo[rank];
$rank1 = $userinfo[rank1];
$rank2 = $userinfo[rank2];
$rank3 = $userinfo[rank3];
$rank4 = $userinfo[rank4];



if (!$checkrank) { $checkrank = 0; }
if (!$rank) { $rank = 0; }
if (!$rank == ' ') { $rank = 0; }
if ($rank < $checkrank)
{

     header("Location: $baseurl/index.php?error=You+can+not+view+this+page.");
}

if ($rank >= 30)
{

    $admin = "<a href=\"$baseurl/staff/admin.php\">Admin</a>";
}

Ranks are 5-30 The higher the rank the more of the staff lounge members can see, However No matter what peoples ranks are everyone can see the page (BUT THE ADMIN AREA, Thats the only thing no one can see other than RANK 30 people)

At the top of each page I have (banners.php):

   $checkrank = 5;

    if ($rank <= 0)
    {
                header("Location: $baseurl/index.php?article=$article&error=Only+SketchedNeo+staff+can+see+this.");

    }

include ($_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'].'/staff/header.inc.php');

A friend and I sat here for hours last night, Changing the $checkrank to 20 and the if $rank 18 and then making her rank to 15 on the database, but she would still see all pages.

My database structure is:

id int(11) 
username varchar(200) latin1_swedish_ci 
password varchar(216) latin1_swedish_ci 
security varchar(200) latin1_swedish_ci 
email varchar(216) latin1_swedish_ci 
ip varchar(200) latin1_swedish_ci 
rank varchar(216) latin1_swedish_ci 
name varchar(30) latin1_swedish_ci 
age varchar(40) latin1_swedish_ci 
gender varchar(40) latin1_swedish_ci 
location varchar(40) latin1_swedish_ci 
helpfaerie int(11) 
profile text latin1_swedish_ci 
about text latin1_swedish_ci 
tasks text latin1_swedish_ci 
joined varchar(216) latin1_swedish_ci 
laston int(200) 
icedmutereason text latin1_swedish_ci 
icedmutedetails text latin1_swedish_ci 
icedmuteby varchar(200) latin1_swedish_ci 
icedmutedate int(200) 
posts int(11) 
signature varchar(216) latin1_swedish_ci 
avatar varchar(216) latin1_swedish_ci 
neohtml text latin1_swedish_ci 
siggy text latin1_swedish_ci 
verify int(11) 
changedpass int(1) 

How can I make it so only members with a minimum rank see pages? I need it to be for example members with rank 17+ can see this page, Therefore members with ranks 16 and Lower are redirected back to the home page.

---

I found a tutorial for ACL (access control list)

Answer 1

You need to prevent any page output after sending redirect headers.

header("Location: $baseurl/index.php");
die();

If you don't stop the script from executing, then the redirect will never happen.