When you use Internet Explorer to connect to a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site that requires authentication, you may not be able to connect to the site and you may receive the following error message:
The page cannot be displayed
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When you connect to an FTP site, Internet Explorer first sends anonymous credentials to see if a connection can be established. In most cases, Internet Explorer can connect using anonymous credentials. However, if the FTP site requires credentials, Internet Explorer prompts you for credentials again because the anonymous credentials that are sent by Internet Explorer are not successful.
If the
Show friendly HTTP error messages option on the
Advanced tab of Internet Options is turned on, Internet Explorer does not generate an
Authentication dialog box for you to enter the correct user name and password. Because you are not prompted to reauthenticate to the FTP site, you cannot connect to the site and you receive the error message that is described in the "Symptoms" section of this article.
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To work around this problem, use either of the following methods:
| • | On the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, click Internet Options, click the Advanced tab, and then click to clear the Show friendly HTTP error messages check box.
-or- |
| • | Force all Internet Explorer client computers to go through a proxy server when they connect to FTP sites that require authentication credentials higher than anonymous credentials. |
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Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.
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