Is there a way to exclude a category from search?

[JamieD]

I would like to know if anyone knows how to exclude an entire category from the search results?

I've also noticed that even private and password protected posts will show up in search results if you happen to type in a search term that is in the title of these posts? Is there an easy way to exclude these from search results?

I've seen this suggestion from another post, but haven't tried it yet:
http://www.wprecipes.com/how-to-excl...search-results

It looks like it works for individual posts or pages, but I'd like to find something that will do this for an entire category. Any help would be appreciated!

Jamie