The default behaviour for public internet facing websites should allow for anonymous access, but in reality, SharePoint does not accept anonymous access by default.
So how can you set up the SharePoint site to accept both anonymous access and domain credentials ? In fact, it is very easy.
It might not matter much, but for clarification : In my case, I’m running Sharepoint (WSS 3.0) on Windows 2008
While creating the Web application and the top level site collection, I configured the site to be allow for anonymous access. If you forgot about it, see below (section on “Central Administration Website)
In the IIS site settings, under “authentication“, the “Anonymous Access” setting is enabled.
Next, I connected to this site and logged on with an admin account. Anonymous access is not enabled yet at this point, so you’ll have to specify a username/password with admin rights to the site.
If you did not allow Anonymous access while creating the site, go to the Sharepoint Central Administration website and open the “Application Management” tool.
Open “Authentication Providers” under “Application Security”. Select the Web application that needs to be modified. Next, click the “Default” zone and enable the “Enable anonymous access” checkbox. Click “save“.
This will only enable you to enable anonymous access in your Sharepoint site. It will not enable anonymous access to the site by default, so you’ll have to grant access manually on the site level.
To do so, open the site, log on with admin rights.
Next, go to the “site actions” button and choose “site settings”
Open the “Advanced Permissions” section under “Users and Permissions” and click “Settings” > “Anonymous Access”
Choose whether to allow anonymous access to the “Entire Web site” or just to “List and Libraries” and click OK to save the changes
Now, close the browser and connect again. You will be automatically logged on as “anonymous”.
You can still use the “sign in” button in the upper right corner to manage the site.
Nice huh ? But what about allowing anonymous people to post comments ?
Well, that’s easy too.
Log on with your admin account and click on “Manage comments” (under Admin links)
Go to “Settings” and choose “List Settings”
Click on “Permissions for this list”
Click on “Settings” and choose “Anonymous Access”
Select the type of access anonymous users will have in the comments area, and click “OK” to save the changes.
That’s it – you’re all set
Some links to other websites that talk about (anonymous) authentication to Sharepoint sites are :
http://weblogs.asp.net/bsimser/archive/2006/09/25/Enabling-anonymous-access-in-SharePoint-2007.aspx
http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/articles/HowToConfigPublishingSiteWithDualAuthProvidersAndAnonAccess.aspx
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