HttpWebRequest DefaultNetworkCredentials give error 401

Question

Im trying to request a url that require windows authentication using HttpWebRequest, I was using

request.Credential = New NetworkCredential("username", "password");

everything was working find until I decide not to hardcord the username and password, and switch to

request.Credential = CredentialCache.DefaultNetworkCredentials;

then i got 401 unauthenticated error. I checked my user with

WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent();

It returns my username correctly, but the

CredentialCache.DefaultNetworkCredentials;

return me empty string for username, domain... pretty much everything is empty string.. Too bad that the HttpWebRequest.Credential is expecting ICredential means i can't set WindowsIdentity.GetCurrent() to it.

Is there anyway that i could pass my current login user to the HttpWebRequest.Credential??

Is CredentialCache.DefaultNetworkCredentials; the correct way? or im just missing some settings?

I had read through some artical like this one http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms998351.aspx.

It is either too long and too complicated for me to understand or it doesn't work. Im new to this, hope to get some straight foward answer here.

Answer 1

If you are using basic authentication, then this will not work. See this question: HttpWebRequest with basic authentication fails with 401 erorr for DefaultNetworkCredentials

And this microsoft article states, that DefaultCredentials just apply to NTLM, negotiate, and Kerberos-based authentication. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.credentialcache.defaultcredentials.aspx

For information purposes this is an article explaining the authentication methods in short: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms789031.aspx