Log in all anonymous users as one authenticated user?

Question

I would like to catch anonymous users on our SharePoint 2010 site and automatically log them in as a single specific user. Any ideas?

I can currently intercept the Application_AuthenticateRequest method in the global.asax and from here I can determine if the user is authenticated using: Request.IsAuthenticated

Answer 1

The plumbing to handle anonymous/unauthenticated users already exists within SharePoint...you don't need to re-create it by logging them in to what in affect would be another anonymous (...guest) account.

If you're going to log anonymous users in to let them access the site then just enable anonymous access and go thru and grant them access to the pages, lists, and other site assets you want them to view.

Here's an article on how to set it up: http://blog.drisgill.com/2009/11/sp2010-branding-tip-9-turn-on-anonymous.html

Here's a security planning article from MSDN: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288189.aspx