C#® Developer's Guide to ASP.NET, XML, and ADO.NET

Forms Authentication

The previous section showed how easy it is to use Windows authentication in ASP.NET. ASP.NET provides another security mechanism as well: forms authentication. Why would you want to use it? One reason is because Windows authentication, although easy to use, makes a couple significant assumptions.

Windows Versus Forms Authentication

For one thing, Windows authentication assumes you have a scalable Windows domain implementation already in place. However, this is not always a safe assumption. Many Web site administrators prefer not to go to the trouble of designing, implementing, and maintaining the Active Directory implementation on which domain-based security rests. Others may not have the expertise or budget to figure out ...