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AuthenticationHeaderValue can not be set

I can trying to set an authentication value just for testing purposes.
I am not using basic authentication but just a String
VC.Request.Headers.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Secret Password");
It gives me this error that is making me pulling my hair off:
The format of value 'Secret Password' is invalid.
Again I don't want to use basic authentication and I don't know whats wrong, help?

The class is "documented" as:
Represents authentication information in Authorization, ProxyAuthorization, WWW-Authneticate[sic], and Proxy-Authenticate header values.
By calling the constructor with one parameter, you're using "Secret Password" as scheme, which can only contain tokens (i.e. no spaces). See RFC 2617 for specification.
You might want to call the other constructor overload:
new AuthenticationHeaderValue("MySuperAuthScheme", "Secret Password");

I think basic authentication generally uses a username:password syntax, so the client-side code might be pre-validating it to stop you sending "bad" data mistakenly to the server, even though that's what you're intentionally trying to do. Try adding a : and see if that helps.

Setting user password using C# does not work, any ideas?

I need to reset a user password. to do so, I use the following code:
DirectoryEntry de = ..
de.AuthenticationType = AuthenticationType.Secure
de.Password = txtPassword.text
de.CommitChanges()
When i run the code - nothing happens. The user password does not change, and no exception is thrown.
if i use the following method:
de.Invoke("SetPassword", .. );
when i run the code, I get a message that says: Please insert smartcard ...
I have admin privilages over the user account.
The user does not have UAV set for smart card.
Any ideas ?

The Password property of the DirectoryEntry class isn't what you think it is. You're not changing the user's password, you're changing the password you're using to access further information from the DirectoryEntry object.
From the MSDN documentation:
You can set the Username and Password properties to specify alternate
credentials with which to access the information in Active Directory
Domain Services. Any other DirectoryEntry objects retrieved from this
instance (for example, through Children) are automatically created
with the same alternate credentials.
With your second method, if you're being asked to insert a smartcard I doubt that has anything to do with the user you're modifying - it's more likely it's asking for your smartcard. If you're not set up to use smartcards either, then I'm really not sure why it's asking you for one at all.
Take a look at this related question and see if the answers there help.

Session not getting retrieved in Facebook C# SDK example

I am a newbie at ASP.net programming. This is in reference to the Facebook C# SDK, I have managed to set up all the steps required for authentication on this SDK. However, I keep getting a null from the following code:
(reference: http://csharpsdk.org/docs/web/getting-started#5)
var accessToken = Session["AccessToken"].ToString(); //This line returns null and crashes
var client = new FacebookClient(accessToken);
dynamic result = client.Get("me", new { fields = "name,id" });
string name = result.name;
string id = result.id;
Just like in the example, I had set up a generic handler to set up the session variable to be stored in the HttpContext.Session object.
I even tried to modify the offending line to directly access the HttpContext and retrieve the access token:
var accessToken = HttpContext.Current.Session["AccessToken"].ToString();
but this yielded the same result.
Have I missed out something in the webconfig or is there some other way I can store the access token when shifting from the handler to the log in page?

Make sure in your Facebook developer settings that you do not have query string selected for your app as auth token paramenter!!!
This is the default mode and this wont work unless you do the following:
http://developer.facebook.com
Open your app page.
Then go Settings --> Auth Dialog --> Auth Token Parameter and select URI Fragment.
100% sure this is your problem. It's not included in any literature I found, and it's a damn shame.

If it is returning null then I would assume that the Session value is not being set - have you debugged to make sure the code which sets the session is being hit?
Looking at the linked article - it uses a HttpHandler to do this bit but does not mention anything about registering it in the Web.Config - have you done this? If not see here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/46c5ddfy.aspx

How to encode the redirect_uri for facebook login

I'm trying to build a login link for facebook and I'm I'm getting errors only in some cases. I'm trying to specify a a querystring parameter in redirect_uri token so that I can redirect them back to a specific area of my site after logging in. Here's what works and what doesn't work.
&redirect_uri=http://mydomain.com/login?returnUrl=returnUrl - works
&redirect_uri=http://mydomain.com/login?returnurl=/return/url -doesn't work
&redirect_uri=http%3a%2f%2fmyagentcheckin.com%2flogin%3freturnUrl%3d%2freturn%2furl -doesn't work
It seems that the / in the querystring are causing it to fail. Facebook returns an error when I try it. Anyone know of a way around this?

Instead of including the returnUrl parameter as part of your redirect_uri value, use the state parameter to store this data.
For instance,
https://graph.facebook.com/oauth/authorize?type=web_server&client_id={appid}&redirect_uri=http://www.yoursite.com/oauth/handshake&state=/requested/page

I have experienced something similar, especially with multiple redirects as above.
My solution is to put the returnUrl into the user's session (or perhaps a cookie), so I don't have to wrestle with double-encoding. For the redirect_url, just omit the querystring.

Try using this API that put together. It will remove the hassle of this for you.
No url encoding necessary.
Sample Authentication
Imports Branches.FBAPI
...
Dim SI As New SessionInfo("[application_id]","applicaiton_secret")
SI.AuthenticateUser("http://[my url]", New SessionInfo.PermissionsEnum(){SessionInfo.PermissionsEnum.email, SessionInfo.PermissionsEnum.read_stream}))
Read the response from the URL you provided above from that page.
Dim FSR = FS.ReadFacebooAuthResponse

When I tried what you do, I got a redirect callback something like this.
http://mydomain.com/login?returnurl=%2Freturn%2Furl&code=...
And I decode the "returnurl" value.
Then it worked fine for me.

Help With Proxy Username & Pass with GeckoFX?

I am trying to set the proxy username and password. I saw this posting (http://geckofx.org/viewtopic.php?id=832) and I thought it might be a similar setting for the username/password, such as :
Skybound.Gecko.GeckoPreferences.User["network.proxy.user"] = (user);
Skybound.Gecko.GeckoPreferences.User["network.proxy.password"] = (password);
But, nothing has worked so far. Can anyone help? I would really appreciate it!!!
I am using VB.net if that helps. Thanks!!

You probably need to set proxy type to 1.
To detect proxy settings automatically, try this:
Uri website = new Uri("http://stackoverflow.com");
System.Net.IWebProxy defaultproxy = System.Net.WebRequest.GetSystemWebProxy();
Uri proxy = defaultproxy.GetProxy(website); //no actual connect is done
if (proxy.AbsoluteUri != website.AbsoluteUri) {
Skybound.Gecko.GeckoPreferences.User["network.proxy.http"] = proxy.Host;
Skybound.Gecko.GeckoPreferences.User["network.proxy.http_port"] = proxy.Port;
Skybound.Gecko.GeckoPreferences.User["network.proxy.ssl"] = proxy.Host;
Skybound.Gecko.GeckoPreferences.User["network.proxy.ssl_port"] = proxy.Port;
Skybound.Gecko.GeckoPreferences.User["network.proxy.type"] = 1;
//0 – Direct connection, no proxy. (Default)
//1 – Manual proxy configuration.
//2 – Proxy auto-configuration (PAC).
//4 – Auto-detect proxy settings.
//5 – Use system proxy settings (Default in Linux).
}

You're trying to set them among the settings. You can access all available settings by typing about:config in the firefox addressbar, and there is no user or password setting there. I assume this is because the usernames and passwords needs to be stored securely.
I think that if you leave them unset when you try to connect to the proxy it'll ask you for them and then store them somewhere secure, and it will then use that username and password automatically.
If you do need to store them manually, I'd suggest that it might be worth to look at the Password Manager, maybe GeckoFX supports some way of accessing that?