Problem Accessing Secure Site with Internet Explorer for UNIX

ID: Q185988

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Internet Explorer version 4.01 for UNIX on Sun Solaris

SYMPTOMS

When you use Internet Explorer 4.01 for UNIX on Sun Solaris to access Web resources that require user login, access may be denied.

CAUSE

The February 1998 version of Internet Explorer 4.01 for UNIX on Sun Solaris does not support Windows NT Challenge/Response (NTLM) authentication. Basic authentication is supported in this release.

RESOLUTION

To work around this behavior, the "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; SunOS 5.5.1 sun4u; X11)" user agent string should be used by the Web server to detect this version of Internet Explorer and and alter the method of authentication to Basic authentication.

NOTE: The SunOS version number and the term "sun4u" in the user agent string varies based on the model of the SPARCstation and version of Solaris that you are using.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about NTLM and Basic authentication methods, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   ARTICLE-ID: Q142868
   TITLE     : IIS: Authentication & Security Features

Additional query words: msieunix

Keywords          : kbenv msieunix 
Version           : UNIX:4.01
Platform          : UNIX
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: May 21, 1998