WebClient generates (401) Unauthorized error

Question

I have the following code running in a windows service:

WebClient webClient = new WebClient();
webClient.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(\"me\", \"12345\         


        

Answer 1

Hmm. Lots of answers, but I wonder if answering your last question would have solved everything. "me" is not an authorization type (unless your server has added support for it, of course!). You probably want "Basic".

Also keep in mind that some webservices require you to send the authorization header on the initial request, and this won't do that. Rather it responds with it after getting an authorization required response from the server. If you need this, you need to create your own Authorization header.

String basicToken = Base64Encoding.EncodeStringToBase64(String.Format("{0}:{1}", clientId.Trim(), clientSecret.Trim()));

webClient.Headers.Add("Authorization", String.Format("Basic {0}", basicToken));

And of course as people have pointed out, setting UseDefaultCredentials to true works if you are using IIS (or other windows security aware http server) in a windows environment.