macOS Safari and Windows networks

[floyde]

My current employer has an ASP .NET web app that is accessed by several Mac users. The app was tailored to (barely) work on IE5 Mac, but they have finally decided to switch to Safari (thank God) to allow further development.

The problem is that this app uses Windows domain authentication, and I haven't been able to make Safari work with IIS's current configuration. When I try to access the page I get a prompt for me to type my credentials (which are required by the app) and then I get this error (which is totally false btw):

HTTP 403.9 - Access Forbidden: Too many users are connected
Internet Information Services

On my Powerbook, the web app works fine on Firefox, Netscape, Camino and IE5, but not on Safari . Does anyone have experience with this? Does Safari even support Windows authentication? thanks

 

[aegisdesign]

I don't think this has anything to do with Windows authentication. IIS throws a 403.9 error on non-server editions of Windows when you've more than 10 connections to it. That's right TEN!

Different browsers use different methods to optimize their connection performance and I'd guess Safari is firing off more connections than you have configured on the server.

See http://support.microsoft.com/?id=262635

Google for 403.9 and you'll find tips on hour to hack IIS up to max of 40 connections.

 

[floyde]

Thanks aegisdesign, I think you're right about the connection limit. However, I did the 40 connections hack and, apparently, it's not enough!

The application is poorly coded, there are frames nested inside frames, which are inside other frames, and inside each frame there is a .aspx file. There are probably a million connections going on for each request .

So I installed the app on a Windows 2003 server machine (I was using my XP laptop as a server before) which has unlimited connections, but I can't make it respond to Safari. I'm not getting 403's anymore, but I'm not getting the page served either. I can ping the machine and I can also get the app working on Firefox, but no luck on Safari yet. I'm very confused right now...

 

[aegisdesign]

Ouch. Sounds like a nasty app.

Have you tried switching off 'Keep Alive' in the server settings? That'll close the connection as soon as it's finished with. It'll slow things down a little but not importantly so if you're web app is an intranet application. If it's external to the world on the internet that's not ideal for performance, but then if you cared about that you'd not be using IIS there anyway....

 

[floyde]

Still no luck I think I'm going to recommend switching to Firefox instead, or rewriting the app

 

[floyde]

Well it seems that Safari doesn't support Integrated Windows Authentication after all. I created a small Hello World ASP .NET app and I only got it working on Safari with basic authentication.

A google search revealed that, in fact, Safari doesn't have that feature implemented. My problem right now is that I don't have a reputable source to confirm this. The Apple Developer's website doesn't seem to have this information and what I found on google are mostly old posts on discussion forums. Does anyone know where I can find complete Safari specs? thanks