Re-authentication upon opening PPT files over https sites

[Guest]

From a new browser session, a user is prompted to enter his credentials via a
popup Windows NT Challenge Window after trying to access a secure website.
Upon retrieving a PowerPoint file by clicking on the hyperlink, a download
window appears. If the user chooses to open the file, he will be asked to
re-authenticate after the download. This re-authentication occurs only upon
retrieving PowerPoint and Excel files and occurs once per session.

On the second prompt, if the user chooses to cancel the authentication
request he will be prompt again and after repeating this 2 more times, the
document will finally open. If the user chooses to enter a dummy user name
and password 6 times, the document will also open.

We can reproduce this re-authentication with all Office 2003 SP1
installations.

ANY HELP would be apreciated.

 

[raphsof]

From a new browser session, a user is prompted to enter his credentials via a
popup Windows NT Challenge Window after trying to access a secure website.
Upon retrieving a PowerPoint file by clicking on the hyperlink, a download
window appears. If the user chooses to open the file, he will be asked to
re-authenticate after the download. This re-authentication occurs only upon
retrieving PowerPoint and Excel files and occurs once per session.

On the second prompt, if the user chooses to cancel the authentication
request he will be prompt again and after repeating this 2 more times, the
document will finally open. If the user chooses to enter a dummy user name
and password 6 times, the document will also open.

We can reproduce this re-authentication with all Office 2003 SP1
installations.

ANY HELP would be apreciated.

I faced the same problem. My conclusion is that it has to do with
authentication for a request to the server to ask if the server
supports web authoring, as indicated by:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=838028

Unfortunately i found no real solution for this problem.

 

[Steve Rindsberg]

First off, thanks for posting that link. Very useful info.

This part didn't help?

"You may be prompted for authentication when you open Office files. This
behavior occurs if the Web server requires authentication to process an OPTIONS
call to the URI of the folder. Changes to the server configuration can
typically be made to avoid this problem by giving anonymous users browse
permissions to the folder. Browse permissions are also know as list
permissions. The prompt for authentication is expected if the server requires
authentication."

The article also mentions a registry section where server/authentication info
is cached. If the local user hasn't sufficient permissions to write that info,
it might cause repeated authentication demands.

It might be useful to try the same URL while logged in as a Power User or
Admin.