HOWTO: Internet Transfer Control Using Username and Password

ID: Q173264

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Visual Basic Learning, Professional, and Enterprise Editions for Windows, versions 5.0, 6.0

SUMMARY

When setting the Internet Transfer Control URL, Username, and Password properties programmatically, the order in which you do it is very important. If you don't set the URL property before the Username and Password properties, you will get the following error:

Run-time error '35754'
Unable to connect to remote host

IMPORTANT: In the control shipped with Visual Basic 5.0 (not the Service Packs), the Username is sent as Anonymous if the URL property is not set first (regardless of the UserName and Password properties). So when connecting to an FTP server, you would be accessing the URL with the Anonymous credentials, not with the credentials you intended (according Username and Password Inet properties).

NOTE: The Internet Transfer Control included with Visual Studio 97 Service Pack 2 is unable to make an authenticated connection using the Username and Password properties. For more information, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q173265 : BUG: Internet Transfer Control (SP2) Username and Password

Workaround

This is sample code for setting the URL property before the Username and Password properties so you won't get the error described above: Inet1.URL = "ftp://YourFTPServer" Inet1.UserName = "Username" Inet1.Password = "Password" Notice the URL property is set before the Username and Password properties. Do not specify the URL again in the execute method.

This information is also documented in the Visual Basic 5.0 Readme file.

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

Start a new Standard EXE project. Form1 is added by default.

From the Project menu, click Components and select the Internet Transfer Control 5.0 into the project if it is not already loaded.

Place an Internet Transfer Control 5.0 (Inet1) on Form1 and add the following code:


      Private Sub Inet1_StateChanged(ByVal State As Integer)
       Dim vtData As Variant ' Data variable.

       Select Case State
       ' ... Other cases not shown.
       Case icError ' 11
           ' In case of error, return ResponseCode and

      ' ResponseInfo.
           vtData = Inet1.ResponseCode & ":" & _
           Inet1.ResponseInfo

       Case icResponseCompleted  ' 12
           Dim strData As String: strData = ""
           Dim bDone As Boolean: bDone = False

           ' Get first chunk.
           vtData = Inet1.GetChunk(1024, icString)
           DoEvents

           Do While Not bDone

               strData = strData & vtData
               ' Get next chunk.
               vtData = Inet1.GetChunk(1024, icString)
               DoEvents

               If Len(vtData) = 0 Then
                   bDone = True
               End If
           Loop

          MsgBox strData
       End Select
      End Sub

Place a CommandButton (Command1) on Form1 and add the following code:


      Private Sub Command1_Click()
          Inet1.UserName = "Username"
          Inet1.Password = "Password"
          Inet1.URL = "ftp://YourFTPServer"
          Inet1.Execute , "DIR"
     End Sub

From the Run menu, click Start (ALT, R, S) or press the F5 key to run the program. Click the Command1 button, and you will see error described above.

REFERENCES

Visual Basic 5.0 Readme.hlp file; search on topic: "Internet Transfer Control: Set URL Before Password and UserName"

Additional query words:

Keywords : kbInternet kbVBp kbVBp500 kbVBp600 kbVS97sp1 kbInetDev kbDSupport
Version : WINDOWS:5.0,6.0
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto