A broadband and IIS authentication got-ya

author Black Marble calendar Mar 23, 2004 · 1 min read · Uncategorised  ·
Share on: linkedin copy

I came accross a good got-ya when using HTTP over broadband to a Microsoft IIS with active directory authentication, you keep being forced to re-authenticate. However, if you use a dial-up connection or LAN all is fine. We noticed it using Outlook Web Access and Microsoft CRM but it would be the same with any products that require more than anonymous access.

Now it seems that broadband uses a different form of caching to dial-up ISP services, DSL providers use transparent caching servers . The effect of this to convince the IIS server that each client to server request is from a different client, hence all the login dialogs.

The answer is to switch over to a HTTPS connection, the SSL connection allows the IIS server to group the client requests correctly. Just use a self signed certificate microsoft Knowledgebase Article Q228991

Richard