WWW Clients Using Basic Authentication May Fail with IIS 1.0

  - Microsoft Internet Information Server version 1.0

SYMPTOMS

World Wide Web (WWW) clients may fail to authenticate with an Universal Resource Locator (URL) that requires Basic Authentication on Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS). In some cases, the WWW client may access violate when required to use Basic Authentication.

CAUSE

IIS does not supply a Realm for Basic Authentication. Some WWW clients require that a Realm be returned from the Internet Server to accept the servers Basic Authentication challenge. The following WWW clients do not require a Realm:

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 1.5
• Netscape 2.0

• NCSA Mosaic (any version)
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 1.0
• Netscape 1.0
• Spry Mosaic (any version)
• IBM WebExplorer (any version)
• PCN (any version)
• Lynx (any version)

RESOLUTION

Microsoft has modified Internet Information Server 1.0 to send a Realm with all Basic Authentication challenge messages. By default, the Realm returned is the "host" (host header, DNS host name, or IP address), or you can set the Realm in the Registry.

To specify the Realm returned, use the following steps to edit the Microsoft Windows NT Registry:

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system- wide problems that may require you to reinstall Windows NT to correct them. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use this tool at your own risk.

1. Obtain and apply the Realm fix for IIS version 1.0.

2. Run Windows NT Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).

3. From the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE subtree, go to the following key:

         SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\W3SVC\Parameters
   

4. Click Add Value on the Edit menu.

5. Use the following values:

         Value Name: Realm
         Data Type:  REG_SZ
         String:     <Specify the Realm to return>
   
   

6. Close the Registry Editor.

7. Stop the World Wide Web Publishing Service.

8. Start the World Wide Web Publishing Service.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Internet Information Server version 1.0. This problem was corrected in the latest Internet Information Server version 1.0 U.S. Service Pack. This problem was also corrected in the latest Windows NT 3.51 U.S. Service Pack. For information on obtaining the Service Pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

   S E R V P A C K