FP discussion web now asking for username/password

[Doug Mlodzinski]

Our bulletin board / FP discussion web has been running just fine for several
months now. Lately, when a user tries to post, the bulletin board asks for a
username and password. Our host tells me the directory is not password
protected so it must be FP. For the life of me I can't figure out what went
wrong.

Any suggestions out there - other than running real bulletin board software?

TIA
Doug
dougmlod(at)rochester.rr.com

 

[Mark Fitzpatrick]

Doug,
FP doesn't prompt for usernames and passwords unless you set users
up to register, then it takes them to a registration page. The host may very
well be in error because I've seen that happen before. It could be that the
directory FP uses to store the user responses in, such as the _disc folder,
have incorrect permissions. In IIS, for example, every file has user
restrictions and uses an anonymous user called the IUSR. This account
normally has the ability to read everything in the web site in order to
serve the web pages. If the IUSR account lacks write permissions to a
directory, such as the _disc directory, then there's a good probability that
the user will be prompted for a username/password by the web server because
the web server knows the IUSR can't write to the files in that directory and
is trying to ask the user for their credentials in case it's possible for
their account to write to the directory. It could be that the host cleaned
things up, tightened security, or something else without even knowing it
that re-set the write permissions that were needed for the posting.

Hope this helps,
Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP- FrontPage

 

[Doug Mlodzinski]

Doug,
FP doesn't prompt for usernames and passwords unless you set users
up to register, then it takes them to a registration page. The host may very
well be in error because I've seen that happen before. It could be that the
directory FP uses to store the user responses in, such as the _disc folder,
have incorrect permissions. In IIS, for example, every file has user
restrictions and uses an anonymous user called the IUSR. This account
normally has the ability to read everything in the web site in order to
serve the web pages. If the IUSR account lacks write permissions to a
directory, such as the _disc directory, then there's a good probability that
the user will be prompted for a username/password by the web server because
the web server knows the IUSR can't write to the files in that directory and
is trying to ask the user for their credentials in case it's possible for
their account to write to the directory. It could be that the host cleaned
things up, tightened security, or something else without even knowing it
that re-set the write permissions that were needed for the posting.

Hope this helps,
Mark Fitzpatrick
Microsoft MVP- FrontPage

Thanks! I'll get back to our host with this insight.

Doug
dougmlod(at)rochester.rr.com