The SharePoint Redemption

As much as I fight basic authentication, there are still people out there who want to use it.  SharePoint Enterprise Search can crawl a site requiring basic authentication through the use of Crawl Rules.

1. Browse to the Shared Services Provider page within Central Administration.
2. Click on Search Settings -> Content sources and crawl schedules.
3. I recommend adding the source as a new content source.
4. Once you have created the new content source return to the Search Settings screen.
5. Click on Crawl Rules -> New Crawl Rule.
6. Enter the path this rule will affect.  Using wildcards is the easiest way to make sure the enter server is being crawled with the account specified.
7. Change the crawl configuration to ‘Include all items in this path’.  Specify other settings if necessary.
8. Change the authentication to ‘Specify a different content access account’.
9. DO NOT CHECK ‘Do not allow Basic Authentication’.
    
10. Click OK to save the settings and your new crawl rule will appear in the list.
    
11. Kick off a full crawl of the content source for the rule to take effect.

Simple I know.  But I was hit up for this multiple times so I figured I would write a post on it.

Jeff

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