Re: User authentication via web browsers

[Andrew Johnson <anj@ast.cam.ac.uk>]

On Tue, 12 Dec 1995 13:01:20 EST Matt Bickley <bickley@cebaf.gov> wrote:
>The user authentication is done on the server end, so the browser just needs
>to know how to perform the authentication interaction (querying for user
>name and password).  I believe that this is part of the HTML standard...it
>is supported by NCSA's httpd and by Mosaic.

I have used ftp authentification from a web browser in the past - probably 
Netscape but I suspect it's part of the standard so should be supported by all 
browsers.  I think the URL was of the form
	ftp://user@site.name/path/to/file
If the ftpd announces that a password is required for this account, the user is 
prompted for one by the browser.  FTP may be easier to manage than setting up 
passwords using the httpd, and it's more flexible because you don't *have* to use 
a web browser for access.

However, the method I would prefer for source distribution is to encrypt the 
.tar.gz files and make them available over anonymous ftp.  It means we can set up 
mirror sites much more easily without loss of security.  PGP appears to be the way 
to do this, although I haven't played with it myself yet.

- Andrew

  O o ._    Andrew Johnson, Royal Greenwich Observatory
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