How to generate an 401 error programmatically in an ASP.NET page

Question

As you can see this is a question from a non web developer. I would like to have an ASPX page which, under certain circumstances, can generate a 401 error from code. Ideally

Answer 1

I think I still prefer:

throw new HttpException(401, "Auth Failed")

I don't think the Response.StatusCode method triggers custom errors defined in the web.config file, e.g.

Throwing a new exception definitely triggers custom errors.

Also, you might be using an application-wide error logging facility, like ELMAH or something, and I don't think the Response.StatusCode method would be logged there, either.

Note: I see now the question said that, ideally, the standard IIS error page should be shown. Obviously, the custom error pages are not wanted. I would use the Response.StatusCode method in that case.