Forms Authentication - 401 error on login page [Answered]RSS

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Last post Jan 23, 2019 05:21 AM by scottmetzger

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scottmetzger
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Forms Authentication - 401 error on login page

Jan 22, 2019 08:25 PM|scottmetzger|LINK
For some reason I can't seem to get Forms Authentication to work properly on my subsite...
```
<authentication mode="Forms">
			<forms defaultUrl="Default.aspx" loginUrl="PKILogin.aspx" timeout="2880" />    
</authentication> 
<authorization>
    <deny users="?" />
</authorization>
```
I get a 401 error with the above setting in my web.config.
However, if comment out the <deny users="?" /> I can get to my login page without issues. But then of course if the user's session times out or they book mark a different page inside my site they are not automatically redirected to my login page.

ASP.net 4.7.2 IIS 7.5

Any ideas on how to solve this?
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mgebhard
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15019 Posts

Re: Forms Authentication - 401 error on login page

Jan 22, 2019 08:31 PM|mgebhard|LINK

How is your "subsite" configured in IIS? Can you explain the design?
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scottmetzger
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8 Posts

Re: Forms Authentication - 401 error on login page

Jan 22, 2019 08:37 PM|scottmetzger|LINK

It is configured as an 'application'.

So, main site is https://example.com
application is mysubsite

so url for is https://example.com/mysubsite
Other susbsites exist https://example.com/mysubsite2 etc.

Each subsite does its own authentication.
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mgebhard
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Re: Forms Authentication - 401 error on login page

Jan 22, 2019 08:51 PM|mgebhard|LINK

scottmetzger

It is configured as an 'application'.

So, main site is https://example.com
application is mysubsite

so url for is https://example.com/mysubsite
Other susbsites exist https://example.com/mysubsite2 etc.

Each subsite does its own authentication.

As understand you are creating applications within a main web application. Each sub application is independent of the others and you're simply sharing the domain name? This new independent application is not behaving like the others?

If so, make sure the new application has its own application pool.
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scottmetzger
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Re: Forms Authentication - 401 error on login page

Jan 23, 2019 02:55 AM|scottmetzger|LINK
mgebhard

As understand you are creating applications within a main web application. Each sub application is independent of the others and you're simply sharing the domain name? This new independent application is not behaving like the others?

If so, make sure the new application has its own application pool.

Correct sharing the domain name.

That may be it. I am sharing an app pool with one of the other web applications. I'll try and get one of the SAs to create a new user and App pool for me.

But I don't think that explains the behavior when I comment out the
```
 <deny users="?" />
```
If I go to https://example.com/mysubsite/PKILogin.aspx the login page loads and allows me to login. Everything seems to work except it doesn't redirect me to that page first.
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Ackerly Xu
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Re: Forms Authentication - 401 error on login page

Jan 23, 2019 04:11 AM|Ackerly Xu|LINK
Hi scottmetzger,

deny users="?" means denying access to all the pages in the current folder and its sub folders.

So it will also deny access to your Default.aspx.

You could add your default.asp. in a sub folder and configure your root web.config as follows. account is the folder where your login page is
```
<location path="account" >
    <system.web>
      <authorization>
        
        <allow users="*"/>
      </authorization>
    </system.web>
  </location>
  <system.web>
    <authentication mode="Forms">
			<forms defaultUrl="Default.aspx" loginUrl="~/account/PKILogin.aspx" timeout="2880" />    
</authentication> 
<authorization>
    <deny users="?" />
</authorization>
```
Or you could create a new web.config in your sub folder where your login page is.(Mine is account).

Then you could reconfigure the newly created web.config as follows. It will rewrite the configuration in your root web.config(web.config in sub folder could rewrite configuration of web.config in parent folder).
```
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
  <system.web>
    <authorization>
      <allow users="*"/>
    </authorization>
  </system.web>
</configuration>
```
Best regards,

Ackerly Xu
MSDN Community Support
Please remember to "Mark as Answer" the responses that resolved your issue.
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scottmetzger
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Re: Forms Authentication - 401 error on login page

Jan 23, 2019 05:21 AM|scottmetzger|LINK
That's it thanks.

I just opened up my login page instead of a whole directory...
```
<location path="~/PKILogin.aspx">
		<system.web>
			<authorization>
				<allow users="*" />
			</authorization>
		</system.web>
	</location>
```