LWP::Authen::Ntlm(3)

NAME
LWP::Authen::Ntlm - Library for enabling NTLM authentication (Microsoft) in LWP

SYNOPSIS
 use LWP::UserAgent;
 use HTTP::Request::Common;
 my $url = 'http://www.company.com/protected_page.html';

 # Set up the ntlm client and then the base64 encoded ntlm handshake message
 my $ua = new LWP::UserAgent(keep_alive=>1);
 $ua->credentials('www.company.com:80', '', "MyDomain\\MyUserCode", 'MyPassword');

 $request = GET $url;
 print "--Performing request now...-----------\n";
 $response = $ua->request($request);
 print "--Done with request-------------------\n";

 if ($response->is_success) {print "It worked!->" . $response->code . "\n"}
 else {print "It didn't work!->" . $response->code . "\n"}

DESCRIPTION
"LWP::Authen::Ntlm" allows LWP to authenticate against servers that are using the NTLM authentication scheme popularized by Microsoft. This type of authentication is common on intranets of Microsoft-centric organizations.

The module takes advantage of the Authen::NTLM module by Mark Bush. Since there is also another Authen::NTLM module available from CPAN by Yee Man Chan with an entirely different interface, it is necessary to ensure that you have the correct NTLM module.

In addition, there have been problems with incompatibilities between different versions of Mime::Base64, which Bush's Authen::NTLM makes use of. Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that your Mime::Base64 module supports exporting of the encode_base64 and decode_base64 functions.

USAGE
The module is used indirectly through LWP, rather than including it directly in your code. The LWP system will invoke the NTLM authentication when it encounters the authentication scheme while attempting to retrieve a URL from a server. In order for the NTLM authentication to work, you must have a few things set up in your code prior to attempting to retrieve the URL:

•   Enable persistent HTTP connections

    To do this, pass the "keep_alive=>1" option to the LWP::UserAgent when creating it, like this:

        my $ua = new LWP::UserAgent(keep_alive=>1);

•   Set the credentials on the UserAgent object

    The credentials must be set like this:

       $ua->credentials('www.company.com:80', '', "MyDomain\\MyUserCode", 'MyPassword');

    Note that you cannot use the HTTP::Request object's authorization_basic() method to set the credentials. Note, too, that the 'www.company.com:80' portion only sets credentials on the specified port AND it is case-sensitive (this is due to the way LWP is coded, and has nothing to do with LWP::Authen::Ntlm)

If you run into trouble and need help troubleshooting your problems, try enabling LWP debugging by putting this line at the top of your code:

    use LWP::Debug qw(+);

You should get copious debugging output, including messages from LWP::Authen::Ntlm itself.

AVAILABILITY
General queries regarding LWP should be made to the LWP Mailing List.

Questions specific to LWP::Authen::Ntlm can be forwarded to jtillman@bigfoot.com

COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2002 James Tillman. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO
LWP, LWP::UserAgent, lwpcook.