System Authorization Plug-ins

Windows Media Services authorization plug-ins control a user’s access to content. Authorization, unlike authentication, protects specific resources in a Windows domain. While authentication validates a user’s access to a network or part of a network, authorization sets permissions on files, folders, and other network resources.

You can enable most authorization plug-ins at both the server and the publishing point levels. The exception is the WMS IP Address Authorization plug-in, which can be enabled only at the server level. If you enable one authorization plug-in at the server level and another for a publishing point under that server, both authorization plug-ins are used in authorizing a user, first at the server level, and then at the publishing point level. If you enable multiple authorization plug-ins for a server or for a publishing point, all plug-ins are used in the order in which they are displayed in the list on the Properties tab for the server or publishing point in the Windows Media Services snap-in. If any plug-in denies access to a user, the current authorization process terminates, and the server checks whether another authentication plug-in is enabled. If other plug-ins are enabled, they are used in subsequent attempts to authenticate the user and the authorization process is repeated.

An authorization plug-in is a specialized form of an event notification plug-in. Windows Media Services includes the following authorization plug-ins.

See Also

Concepts

Creating Authorization Plug-ins

Programming Custom Plug-ins

Programming System Plug-in Properties

System Plug-ins