How does Request.IsAuthenticated work?

Question

MSDN Code Sample Description: The following code example uses the IsAuthenticated property to determine whether the current request has been authenticated. If it has not been authenticated, the request is redirected to another page where users can enter their credentials into the Web application. This is a common technique used in the default page for an application.

This is great but no detail or anything...

What exactly is it checking for? How do I set it to true?

Go the extra mile: Where would I find more detailed documentation about this?

Answer 1

Hi,

There's a quite detailed post by Daniel Kent here. (Snippet)

Request.IsAuthenticated is not just for forms authentciation - it is valid no matter what type of authentication is being used (Windows, Passport, Forms or our own custom scheme)

HttpRequest.IsAuthenticated will be true when the user making the request has been authenticated. Essentially, this property provides the same information as Context.User.Identity.IsAuthenticated.