401 Error - Unauthorized Access when copying files to a shared directory in IIS

Question

A colleague created an IIS Application using IIS 7.5. They then shared the directory to my user account. When I copy files to that directory (\server\myWebsite), I get a 401 error (Unauthorized access) when trying to access the page. We set up the application using anonymous access. My account has read/write permissions to that directory (allowing me to copy files to it). I get the error with the simplest of web pages. Any ideas how to guide my colleague to setup the IIS/shared directory. Note that when he copies the files on the machine, everything works delightfully.

Thank you, Mike

Answer 1

Check that your share (not just directory) has full permissions (for everyone) and since you are using anonymous authentication that IUSR account has also Read & execute permissions.

Answer 2

How big is the file size? When You use IIS 7+, error 401 Forbidden also occurs when You send file larger than 30MB. Just increate this value by (in this example ~500MB):

<system.webServer>
    <security>
        <requestFiltering>
            <requestLimits maxAllowedContentLength="524288000"/>
        </requestFiltering>
    </security>
</system.webServer>

Most strange thing is, that You'll not receive any additional Log (Event Log or IIS Log) which informs You about file size limit. It just throws 401

Answer 3

That didn't work. I found a work around for now, by just getting on the server and copying the files directly. I'm still looking for the long term solution