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In certain situations, an organization might want to open a SharePoint site up to anonymous access from the Internet or from other networks. Obviously, some security concerns must be worked through with this, but assuming these concerns have been addressed, two specific tasks must be performed to enable this type of access. First and foremost, anonymous access must be enabled on a Virtual Server level for the Portal or Windows SharePoint Services site collection. In many cases, you as a Site Administrator may not have access to this, so you may have to send the request up to the Portal Administrator. If you do, you must allow anonymous access from Internet Information Services Manager for the Virtual Server on which SharePoint is installed. Once anonymous access has been turned on at the Virtual Server level, the various Site Administrators can then decide whether they want to enable anonymous access for their particular site. If you want to set it up, follow these steps:
Anonymous access can make your life easier by removing the need to specifically define all users who can access a site. You should note, however, that great care must be taken when determining whether to turn on this setting, especially if the SharePoint server is exposed to the Internet, because your sensitive information can be easily exposed to snoops and exploits. |
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