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Logging in to HTTPS interface of Serv-U server

I am trying to connect to a corporate ftp server via code (C#/VB). It has been set up to run in a browser using SolarWinds Serv-U software so that users can access it via a browser. The address is in the form:
https://ftp.example.com
From here they are presented with a login form (part of Serv-U) in which they enter their u/p and log in.
I have been trying to use HttpWebRequest class to log in, but each time I get an '401 Unauthorised - not logged in' error. In the web request I set the credentials:
Dim loginUri = New Uri("https://ftp.example.com")
Dim loginRequest As HttpWebRequest = DirectCast(WebRequest.Create(loginUri), HttpWebRequest)
With loginRequest
.Accept = "*/*"
.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
.CookieContainer = New CookieContainer()
.Credentials = New NetworkCredential("user", "pass")
.Method = WebRequestMethods.Http.Get
End With
Dim loginResponse As HttpWebResponse = loginRequest.GetResponse()
I'm not even sure if this approach is possible; there are quite a number of cookies set by the browser during the login process which is not a desirable thing to replicate in code.
I've done a fair bit of searching on the subject and haven't found any definitive answers. Should I just push back on the sysadmin to set up a proper ftp server over SSL? It is a requirement that we use :443 as many firewalls block 21 (& 22).
Thanks - Z

Redirect from controller to external url using basic authentication

I have a portal in ASP.NET MVC3 that in some specific operation I need to open in a new tab a external portal, developed from other team, that requires basic authentication.
I know that we have the redirect method in the controller that allows to redirect to any URL. But I don't know how to pass credentials to this.
I was trying something like this:
var request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(redirectUrl);
request.Method = "GET";
request.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
request.PreAuthenticate = true;
var cred = new NetworkCredential("user1", "pass123");
var cache = new CredentialCache();
cache.Add(new Uri(redirectUrl), "Basic", cred);
request.Credentials = cache;
var response = (HttpWebResponse) request.GetResponse();
return Redirect(response.ResponseUri.ToString());

There are two ways to get credentials from the browser to the server. They can go in the URL or they can go in an authorization header. The URL method is pretty easy to implement, see this SF question. For the authorization header, Wikipedia has instructions on how to construct it but I'm not sure how you can cause it to be sent for a page request (as opposed to an Ajax request where it's possible).

Restful, Proxy and webapi

I'm developing a consumer app for a publically avalible rest webservice.
I'm having 2 problems: My proxy and the service authentication.
i cant seem to get past my proxy, actually i do have a valid credential to get by it, but i dont know where or how to provide it!
And second, i also dont know how to responde the basic authentication challenge issued by the web-service...
I do can use it via browser, but i cant get it working on my c# app. Heres the code so far:
HttpClient cli = new HttpClient();
cli.BaseAddress = new Uri("http://myserver.com/");
HttpResponseMessage response = cli.GetAsync("api/service1").Result;
textBox1.Text = response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
the result in textBox1 so far is always a 407 error... Can anyone help?
Edit1: Authentication on the webservice is of the type BASIC!
Edit2: clientHandler.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("user", "P#ssw0rd"); does not work... server returns "This request requires HTTP authentication"

Proxy information needs to be configured on the HttpClientHandler object which can be passed into the HttpClient constructor.
var clientHandler = new HttpClientHandler();
clientHandler.Proxy = new WebProxy("http://proxyserver:80/",true);
var httpClient = new HttpClient(clientHandler);
For credentials I do something like this...
var clientHandler = new HttpClientHandler() {PreAuthenticate = true};
var credentialCache = new CredentialCache();
credentialCache.Add(new Uri(Host), "Basic", new NetworkCredential(userName, password));
clientHandler.Credentials = credentialCache;
By setting this up this way, whenever you make a request to any URI that is below the "Host" URI, HttpClientHandler will automatically set the correct authorization header.
Also, be aware there is an alternative handler called WebRequestHandler that can be used instead of HttpClientHandler that add in extra stuff that is only available on the Windows OS like WinINet proxy and Pipelining.

web service - 400 bad request

i want to consume a php Webservice from C# which is protected by htaccess.
i added the Service by adding a web reference in my VS 2010.
mywsfromwsdl myws = new mywsfromwsdl();
System.Net.CredentialCache myCredentials = new System.Net.CredentialCache();
NetworkCredential netCred = new NetworkCredential("user", "pass");
myCredentials.Add(new Uri(myws.Url), "Basic", netCred);
myws.Credentials = myCredentials;
myws.PreAuthenticate = true;
tbxIN.Text = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?> "+
" <test> "+
" <parm1>4</parm1> "+
" <parm1>2</parm1> "+
" </test>";
tbxOUT.Text= myws.func1(tbxIN.Text.ToString());
The VS shows an error called 400 Bad REquest my last row.
If i delete the .htaccess File on the server, the pgm works fine, but i cant delete. because other PHP User use the Service.
Can anybody tell me how to send the Credentials correctly ?
By jo

Sometimes C# and Apache clash a bit: in this case, it might be that your client is expecting a 100 Continue response due to authentication being active, but the server doesn't send it.
This kind of behavior is toggled by this line:
ServicePointManager.Expect100Continue = false;
Add it before executing the request.
It's also worth pointing out that when 400 bad request happens, you might find some useful details in server's logs.

According to MSDN you shouldn't need the credential cache:
// Set the client-side credentials using the Credentials property.
ICredentials credentials = new NetworkCredential("Joe",SecurelyStoredPassword,"mydomain");
math.Credentials = credentials;
Have you tried this method instead of the cache object? More info can be found here.

C# Network credentials not being passed to server?

Edit: Using:
byte[] authBytes = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(user + ":" + password);
wr.Headers["Authorization"] = "Basic " + Convert.ToBase64String(authBytes);
Seems to work fine.
I have an application that communicates with a CMS. I'm currently trying to get this client to be able to upload text/xml data to the CMS using a "POST" method.
I can pass this through using curl perfectly fine:
curl -u user:password -H "Content-Type:text/xml" -d "<element>myXML</element>" serverURL
However, trying to use the HttpWebRequest in C# I can't get the server to return what I want it to. So I fired up Wireshark and had a look at what was actually being passed through, and it's pretty much identical except for the fact that when using curl I can see:
Authorization: Basic <a bunch of hex>=\r\n
Credentials: user:password
In the HTTP header fields, while in the output from my client, these header fields are simply not present. ("Credentials:" isn't actually there in plain text, it's a subtree of "Authorization:" - so I'm not sure where it's getting it from, but the username and password are correct.)
The C# code I'm trying to use to set the credentials for the webrequest is something like this:
NetworkCredential myCred = new NetworkCredential(
user, password, serverURL);
CredentialCache myCache = new CredentialCache();
myCache.Add(new Uri(serverURL), "Basic", myCred);
HttpWebRequest wr = (HttpWebRequest) HttpWebRequest.Create(serverURL);
wr.Credentials = myCache;
I've tried just setting the credentials like this too (and without specifying serverURL):
wr.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(user,password,serverURL);
But that still doesn't make it show up in wireshark. Does anyone have any idea if:
A) That authorization information should actually be in the HTTP header for this to work, and
B) If it is - then how do I make C# put it in? I only seem to be able to find decent examples using the default credentials, which doesn't apply to what I'm doing.
Thanks in advance.

.NET's WebRequest has an infuriating default behavior where it only sends credentials after receiving an HTTP 401 Not Authorized response.
Manually adding the credentials header (as you've done) seems to be the best solution available.
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