Installing and Configuring your Server Farm to Run Windows SharePoint Services

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Install and configure your Windows SharePoint Services server farm and sites as normal. When you have finished configuring your server farm and sites, select the Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) authentication method appropriate for your client, server, and proxy environment, as described in the Configuring Authentication topic in the Administrators Guide for Windows SharePoint Services.

Of the two types of authentication available to a Windows SharePoint Services environment- Integrated Windows authentication and Basic authentication - Integrated Windows authentication is the more secure. However, some proxy servers and some clients may not support Integrated Windows authentication. If this applies to your situation, then you may also need to enable Basic authentication. Note that Basic authentication does not encrypt your username or password as it is transmitted from the client to the server. If any part of the connection between the client and the server goes over an untrusted network, it is recommended that you use Basic authentication only over an SSL-encrypted connection. Configuring your server farm as described in this section sets up an SSL-encrypted connection.

For more information about authentication choices in IIS, see Setting Web Site Authentication in the IIS 6.0 Administrator Guide.