best practice for accessing a network share from IIS

[Paolo Liverani]

Hello, I have a web application (ASP.NET 2.0) which should allow
authenticated users (via forms authentication) to download files that are
stored in a network share in the same domain (windows 2000). I am byte
streaming the content of the files so that clients do not connect directly
to the file server but only to the web server (Windows 2003).
The "network service" user (the default one for IIS 6) does not have right
to access network shares so I need to know which is the best way (the one
with the least privilege) to configure the security settings for the
application to work correctly.
Thank you, Paolo

 

[Dominick Baier]

You should use UNC paths from ASP.NET (\\server\share)

Network Service appears remotely as MACHINE$ - give this account read ACLs
for the share.

 

[Paolo Liverani]

Hello Dominick,
perfect: your suggestion works like a charm.
Thank you very much, Paolo