Host Named Site Collections - log on twice?

Question

I have a question regarding Host Named Site Collections and the log on process. I'm using SharePoint 2010.

Let say I have a web application (https://mainsite.com) hosting a site collection. Under that web application I have another site collection (https://mainsite.com/sites/ASiteCollection). I configure that other site collection to be access with .https://MySiteCollection (using Host Named Site Collection).

If I access the first site (https://mainsite.com) and log on, will I have to log on a second time when I'll access the second site (https://MySiteCollection). It's a different URL but the same web application. What will be the user experience?

Note that these sites are access from the internet and NTLM authentication is used.

Thank you.

Answer 1

This is actually a browser issue not a SharePoint issue. It is a different domain so the browser will see it as two completely independent web sites and will thus prompt for authentication on each one.

One solution would be to call your mysite something like 'http://mysite.mainsite.com' and then put *.mainsite.com as an Intranet site in the browsers security settings. Unfortunately, if the browsers accessing the site are uncontrolled then that is not really an option.