View Type of Protocol

[czuvich]

Does anyone know how to in ASP.NET (VB.NET) to display the current
protocol being used between a client and server? I noticed that IIS/SQL
Server can use Named Pipes if TCP/IP is not available. Does anyone know
how to programmatically see which protocol is being used? Thanks.

 

[John Saunders]

Does anyone know how to in ASP.NET (VB.NET) to display the current
protocol being used between a client and server? I noticed that IIS/SQL
Server can use Named Pipes if TCP/IP is not available. Does anyone know
how to programmatically see which protocol is being used? Thanks.

It always uses HTTP or HTTPS. The client is a browser and can't use named
pipes.

John

 

[czuvich]

It always uses HTTP or HTTPS. The client is a browser and can't use named
pipes.

John

I see. Well is there a way to programmatically display the protocol
being used between the IIS Server and the SQL Server in a client
browser? I am having an issue where a random NT AUTHORITY problem comes
up. We are using delegation and I am thinking that the Named Pipes is
something that may be causing this problem.

 

[John Saunders]

I see. Well is there a way to programmatically display the protocol
being used between the IIS Server and the SQL Server in a client
browser? I am having an issue where a random NT AUTHORITY problem comes
up. We are using delegation and I am thinking that the Named Pipes is
something that may be causing this problem.

IIS is not involved in this. The connection would be between the aspnet_wp
(or w3wp on IIS 6) processes and the SQL Server.

Use Enterprise Manager and look under Management->Current Activity->Process
Info.

John

 

[czuvich]

Ahhh..That was a huge help, but I was wondering if there was a way to
track that for failed attempts. The manager shows the connections for
successful logins, but I want to see what protocol was being used for a
failed attempt. Is that possible?

 

[John Saunders]

Ahhh..That was a huge help, but I was wondering if there was a way to
track that for failed attempts. The manager shows the connections for
successful logins, but I want to see what protocol was being used for a
failed attempt. Is that possible?

I don't know if it will show the protocol, but make sure you have auditing
turned on in your server properties.

Also, if you're looking into failed attempts, then perhaps the protocol
isn't the problem. What is the nature of the failures?

John

 

[czuvich]

We have turned on auditing, and it doesn't show the protocol
unfortunately. The issue happens randomly. Basically, we have an IIS
server and separate SQL server. At random (couple times a week), a user
will try to hit a database from a web page, and the NT Anonymous logon
error will occur. This error will persist until the client logs in and
out of their computer. No matter what application they get to, if it
hits a database, it will throw that error. IIS authenticates the user
fine. We are using delegation in a windows environment in asp.net. But
as I said it's very sporadic, but once it happens, that user is pretty
much locked out of our system until they log out and log into our
domain. Something tells me it's something to do with Kerberos and/or
the network. Can you shed some light on this? I have developed page
that is supposed to force the user to use Named Pipes and TCP/IP from
IIS to SQL, but the user still gets the same error no matter which
protocol is used. I specified the Network library in the connection
string. Thanks.

 

[John Saunders]

We have turned on auditing, and it doesn't show the protocol
unfortunately. The issue happens randomly. Basically, we have an IIS
server and separate SQL server. At random (couple times a week), a user
will try to hit a database from a web page, and the NT Anonymous logon
error will occur. This error will persist until the client logs in and
out of their computer. No matter what application they get to, if it
hits a database, it will throw that error. IIS authenticates the user
fine. We are using delegation in a windows environment in asp.net. But
as I said it's very sporadic, but once it happens, that user is pretty
much locked out of our system until they log out and log into our
domain. Something tells me it's something to do with Kerberos and/or
the network. Can you shed some light on this? I have developed page
that is supposed to force the user to use Named Pipes and TCP/IP from
IIS to SQL, but the user still gets the same error no matter which
protocol is used. I specified the Network library in the connection
string. Thanks.

I don't know of a better way to see the protocol used. On the other hand,
since you're specifying Named Pipes, and still get the same error, then I
would suggest that the problem does not have to do with the protocol.

I would try to characterize the users who get these errors and the web pages
on which they get the errors. Does it only happen to a subset of users, or
on a subset of pages? If so, then what's unique about those users and/or
pages? I'd be looking for something which prevents those users, on those
pages, at those times, from properly authenticating. Therefore, no matter
how they connect, they are not authenticated and the SQL Server login fails.

Also, you may have said so, but do the login failures appear in the system
event log? In the SQL Server log file? Do those shed any light on the
situation?

John

 

[czuvich]

Thanks a lot for the feedback John. After doing a whole lot of research
on Kerberos and NTLM, I have developed a page which displays some
information about the type of authentication being used. What I have
realized, is that it is using NTLM credentials every so often since for
some reason Kerberos is not available. Since it's passing a hash to SQL
Server, then it's failing every time. Hence, whenever you restart the
client it works again since it reconnects to the DC. What I am still
working on is why it can't get a ticket from the DC... thanks a whole
lot John!