Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Office documents prompt for password in anonymous SharePoint site

Problem: In a SharePoint site published in the Internet as anonymous, opening Office Documents in Internet Explorer prompts for password. Pressing the Cancel button opens the file.

Solution: You can check the solution in http://www.objectsharp.com/cs/blogs/max/archive/2008/04/21/enabling-anonymous-access-on-moss-2007-wss-3-0-web-applications.aspx. We implemented it but after a while (may be weeks) the problem rose again. Trying to implement the same solution again did not work.

Our environment uses Microsoft ISA Server 2006 as firewall so we configure the http filter on the web site publishing rule so that it do not allow the verb OPTIONS. After that, the problem was solved. Using this approach, our internal users can still use the advanced features that are disabled when you implement the solution in the link above and our external users can open the files without the prompt.

1 comment:

  1. I have seen this problem happening when the user is using Vista and Office 2007.
    You can add the site to the trusted sites (and check automatically detect settings).
    That usually works.

    I like your solution better because the client doesn't have to do anything.

    Chris
    http://chrisbarba.wordpress.com

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