HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name is Empty

Question

I have a Silverlight application (using MVC) and when i\'m building in visual studio, using Visual Studio Development center, there\'s no problem, the HttpContext.Curr

Answer 1

The browser will only detect your username if the IIS server is on the same domain and the security settings within your group policy allow it.

Otherwise you will have to provide it with credentials, but if it is not on the same domain, it will not be able to authenticate you.

Answer 2

I also had this problem recently. Working with a new client, trying to get a an old web forms app running from Visual Studio, with IISExpress using Windows Authentication. For me, the web.config was correctly configured

However, the IISExpress.config settings file had:

<windowsAuthentication enabled="false">

The user account the developer was logged in was very new, so unlikely it had been edited. Simple fix it turned out, change this to enabled=true and it all ran as it should then.

Answer 3

Try enabling basic authentication and disabling the other authentications in IIS, then try launching the application. The application will ask for windows credentials. Enter the same and the app should be able to get the name under HttpContext.Current.User.Identity.Name.

Answer 4

Also, especially if you are a developer, make sure that you are in fact connecting to the IIS server and not to the IIS Express that comes with Visual Studio. If you are debugging a project, it's just as easy if not easier sometimes to think you are connected to IIS when you in fact aren't.

Even if you've enabled Windows Authentication and disabled Anonymous Authentication on IIS, this won't make any difference to your Visual Studio simulation.