How can we setup FQDN to get to a WSS 3.0 sharepoint site on our intranet without getting prompted for username and password?

Question

We currently use the simple url of http://sharepoint within our intranet and users are able to access without having to put in their AD credentials. However, if users type http://sharepoint.domainname.com, they are prompted to login.

I have added an Alternate access mapping and added the FQDN to the Advanced Web Site Identification in IIS. But, we still get prompted. Anyone know how to solve this?

Answer 1

YOu need to add the url to IE's Local Intranet Zone on the clients. That way IE will automatically authenticate when visiting that site. The short url is automatically resolved as being part of your local intranet, so will auth. automatically too.

I suggest adding *.domain.domainextension to that zone. That way any webapp running in your domain will authenticate automatically in IE.

Answer 2

You will need to add the *.domain.domainextension to the trusted internet zone in IE (Push this through Group Policy) as recommended by Colin. This will stop the prompts for browsing but will NOT fix authentication problems with the Office SharePoint Sites library (MySite, Member Sites) for Vista and Windows 7 machines since the WebClient service does not use the same list of trusted sites to determine Intranet or external links.

I've written a guide based on experiences with this problem on my blog here: http://thechriskent.com/2012/03/02/fixing-sharepoint-office-integration-problems/

Basically you will need to add a Multi-String Value under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters key called AuthForwardServerList and set the value to http://*.domain.domainextension