How to stop IIS asking authentication for default website on localhost

Question

I have IIS 5.1 installed on Windows XP Pro SP2. Besides I have installed VS 2008 Express with .NET 3.5. So obviously IIS is configured for ASP.NET automatically for .NET 3.5

The problem is whenever I access http://localhost IE & Firefox both presents authentication box. Even if I enter Administrator user and its password, the authentication fails. I have already checked the anonymous user access (with IUSR_ user and password is controlled by IIS) in Directory Security options of default website.

However other deployed web apps work fine (does not ask for any authentication).

In IE this authentication process stops if I add http://localhost in Intranet sites option.

Please note that the file system is FAT32 when IIS is installed.

Regards, Jatan

Answer 1

This is most likely a NT file permissions problem. IUSR_ needs to have file system permissions to read whatever file you're requesting (like /inetpub/wwwroot/index.htm).

If you still have trouble, check the IIS logs, typically at \windows\system32\logfiles\W3SVC*.