Problems with URL Syntax

25 May 2006 1:12 PM

Jerry Spence1

I am trying to get a jpg image as follows:

Dim Client As System.Net.WebClient = New System.Net.WebClient
Client.DownloadFile("http://root:<password>@192.168.0.99/cgi-bin/video.jpg",
MyFilename)

However I understand that IE no longer supports this 'in-line' presentation
of the username and password strings. Indeed I am getting a "Not Authorized"
error being returned.

Although I'm not using IE directly, are the components (and the security
contraints) of IE still being used in the background?

Has anyone met this before and is there a work around?

Thanks

-Jerry

25 May 2006 2:05 PM

Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]

"Jerry Spence1" <jerry.spe***@somewhere.com> schrieb:
>I am trying to get a jpg image as follows:
>
> Dim Client As System.Net.WebClient = New System.Net.WebClient
> Client.DownloadFile("http://root:<password>@192.168.0.99/cgi-bin/video.jpg",
> MyFilename)
>
> However I understand that IE no longer supports this 'in-line'
> presentation of the username and password strings. Indeed I am getting a
> "Not Authorized" error being returned.

It's nowhere specified that username and password can be embedded inside
HTTP URIs (this does not apply to FTP URIs though), and only some browsers
supported this sort of URIs. However, embedding username and password into
URIs is a very bad idea for security reasons. Instead you may want to check
out the 'WebClient' object's 'Credentials' property which can be used to
pass authentication data to the server.

> Although I'm not using IE directly, are the components (and the security
> contraints) of IE still being used in the background?

No, 'WebClient' has nothing to do with IE. It was simply IE which provided
functionality which was not standard compliant and insecure and has been
abandoned for this reason.

--
M S Herfried K. Wagner
M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>

25 May 2006 2:48 PM

Jerry Spence1

Show quote Hide quote

"Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]" <hirf-spam-me-here@gmx.at> wrote in message
news:%239zoCRAgGHA.1260@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> "Jerry Spence1" <jerry.spe***@somewhere.com> schrieb:
>>I am trying to get a jpg image as follows:
>>
>> Dim Client As System.Net.WebClient = New System.Net.WebClient
>> Client.DownloadFile("http://root:<password>@192.168.0.99/cgi-bin/video.jpg",
>> MyFilename)
>>
>> However I understand that IE no longer supports this 'in-line'
>> presentation of the username and password strings. Indeed I am getting a
>> "Not Authorized" error being returned.
>
> It's nowhere specified that username and password can be embedded inside
> HTTP URIs (this does not apply to FTP URIs though), and only some browsers
> supported this sort of URIs. However, embedding username and password
> into URIs is a very bad idea for security reasons. Instead you may want
> to check out the 'WebClient' object's 'Credentials' property which can be
> used to pass authentication data to the server.
>
>> Although I'm not using IE directly, are the components (and the security
>> contraints) of IE still being used in the background?
>
> No, 'WebClient' has nothing to do with IE. It was simply IE which
> provided functionality which was not standard compliant and insecure and
> has been abandoned for this reason.
>
> --
> M S Herfried K. Wagner
> M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
> V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>

Credentials worked a treat. Thank you so much!

-Jerry