6.7 IIS Authentication method comparison

Table 6.4 contains a comparison of the different IIS authentication protocols based on some key features.

Table 6.4: IIS Authentication Method Comparison

	Basic Authentication	Digest Authentication	NTLM	Kerberos	Certificate-Based	Passport
Protocol based on Open Standard	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Relies on Windows accounts	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No*	No†
Delegation support (credential forwarding)	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
Supports non-IE browsers	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes
Requires SSL	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No
Requires Windows 2000 or later clients and servers	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Supports authentication through firewalls and proxies	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes

* Can be mapped to Windows accounts

† Same as previous footnote.