Web Applications pt 2
Following on from Thing a Day 23, (http://1jj.uk/spthing023) today we’ll look at Zones and Authentication Providers.
A common reason to extend your Web Application into a new Zone is to specify a different Authentication Provider.
For instance you might want the Active Directory Authentication Provider in the Default Zone, and ASP.NET SQL Membership provider from the Internet Zone.
Each Zone has its own URL.
This means, for example, users visiting intranet.mycompany.local could be prompted for Windows Authentication, whereas extranet.mycompany.com could prompt for a username and password you manage in separate SQL tables.
You could indeed put all these on one Zone, but that means when users first visit, SharePoint will offer your users a choice of how to log in.
To avoid this, use a separate Zone for each Authentication Provider you wish to support.