SharePoint 2010 - Create new user

There is an existing sharepoint 2010 site that a consulting firm did for us. I need to add some users to sharepoint that aren't in AD. Is it possible to have sharepoint manage the users? If so can it easily be setup or do I have to edit configs and what not. I found a few blog posts such as this one http://www.sharepointchick.com/archive/2010/05/0开发者_如何学C7/configuring-claims-and-forms-based-authentication-for-use-with-a.aspx but it seems like a lot of work. I'd rather not use NTLM since the users will change often.

Is it possible to have sharepoint manage the users?

No, you can't just add users directly to sharepoint. SharePoint users must come from some kind of store, AD, ADAM, ADFS, database, or something. Having them in a database is probably your best bet.

If so can it easily be setup or do I have to edit configs and what not.

Unfortuately, to add another user store to sharepoint, you will need to edit the web.configs

I am going to take a guess that you will probably also need to convert you existing web applications from classic to claims

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg251985.aspx

Once you have setup everything, there are many components that can manage the users, open source and paid, or you could roll your own.

eg

http://fba.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=basic%20FBA%20user%20and%20role%20management&referringTitle=Home