What
do you mean by mixed mode authentication in .NET?
.NET supports
three modes of authentication namely Forms Authentication, Windows Authentication
and Passport Authentication. Your web application should use only one
of these authentication mechanisms. But still .NET provides a workaround
to use both Forms authentication and Windows authentication in the same
web application.
This is done using mixed mode authentication.
When you
use mixed mode authentication in your web application, the decision of
authentication is made based on the User. If the User is an intranet user
belonging to internal domain then windows authentication will be performed.
If the User is an internet User logging from an external domain then Forms
Authentication will be performed.
If you look
at the internal working of mixed mode authentication, Forms authentication
is the base. In case of intranet User, the User is verified using Windows
Authentication and the user information is passed to Forms authentication
and therefore the User will be authenticated via Forms Authentication
as well. However there is an overhead. You have to create two different
virtual directories in IIS for your web application.
