FP 2002 & Understanding Permissions

[Cliff]

OK, I'm looking for help understanding permissions.

What's the difference in the Security Tab under My Computer (where you can
set permissions) and the Permissions section in Front Page under TOOLS,
SERVER, PERMISSIONS?

I'm having some trouble with a discussion form and I'm looking at
permissions but I'm not sure which permissions at which to look.

Under My Computer, on the folder that contains the WEB, I see that my
IUSR_SERVERNAME hase read and write permission on the folder to which the
form is posted.

In FP, I see that the IUSR_SERVERNAME has only browse, not contributor
rights. I see that a user with contributor rights can post to discussions.

I'm just not clear on the diff between the two permissions.

Thanks

Cliff

PS: I hope my post is different enough from my other post to warrant a diff
post.

 

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

Cliff,
They are both inter-related. FP doesn't have a special permissions
database or anything like that. Instead, it simply sets the NTFS permissions
on the web server to what it needs. These are the permissions you see when
you examine the properties of a directory or file.

The IUSR_machinename account is your default anonymous user account.
FP will show it as having Browse access only because that is all it needs,
it should not be a contributor as that opens you to attack. The directory
that a form posts to will have it's permissions adjusted so that the IUSR
account can post it's files to it.What exactly though is the error that is
generated by the web server when a user attempts to post a file.

One thing to make sure of though, are users posting to a discussion
group on the machine you are working on, or on a server that you are not
accessing directly. I ask this because the permissions used on a development
machine don't transfer to the server itself and clarifying this can ease up
a lot of confusion as many people attempt to adjust their local permissions
thinking this will effect the server's permissions.

Hope this helps,
Mark FItzpatrick
Microsoft MVP - FrontPage

 

[Cliff]

OK, that clears things up a little. If I understand you, when I set basic
permission in FP, I can see the results of this when I look at the
permissions of that directory. Is that correct?

When an anonymous user tries to post to my discussion, thay are prompted for
a username and password. After looking at all this, examining permissions,
etc, I cannot determine why this is happening.

On my web server are six sites I can work with. Just for kicks, I built a
discussion under one of the sites that has never had on and that same thing
happens. Trying it on a third, same result. As all my WEBS are on my D:
drive, I suspect the entire drive has some permissions issues.