You receive a "The server couldn't log you on" error message when you use an Office 2003 program to connect to a Windows SharePoint Services server

Consider the following scenario. You use a Microsoft Office 2003 program to connect to a Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) server. You connect to this server by using Integrated Windows authentication over a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection. The SSL connection connects through a proxy server. In this scenario, you may receive the following error message: Note Integrated Windows authentication uses the NTLM protocol.

This problem occurs because the Web Extender Clients (WEC) components in Office 2003 do not fully support the connection scenario that is described in the "Symptoms" section. Typically, a proxy server supports Integrated Windows authentication.

To work around this problem, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, click Run, type %SystemRoot%\system32\inetsrv\iis.msc in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. In Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, expand ServerName, and then expand Web Sites.
3. Right-click the Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) Web site that has been extended by using WSS, and then click Properties.
4. Click the Directory Security tab, and then click Edit.
5. Under Authenticated access, click to clear the Integrated Windows authentication check box, and then click to select the Basic authentication check box.
6. Click Yes if you receive a warning message.
7. Click OK two times.

Note The Basic authentication method is considered a less secure authentication method than the Integrated Windows authentication method. However, to help enhance security, you can use basic authentication over an SSL connection that encrypts the whole connection in extranet environments. The Basic authentication method sends the user ID and password in an unencrypted format if the following conditions are true:

• You enabled Basic authentication for HTTP access to the IIS Web site.
• The user connects to the IIS Web site by using an HTTP connection instead of an SSL connection.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.