C#® Developer's Guide to ASP.NET, XML, and ADO.NET

Structure of Configuration Files

As mentioned earlier, ASP.NET configuration files are XML documents. The root node of the document is always called configuration. Within the configuration node are a variety of nodes and subnodes that contain additional settings; these are grouped into section handlers.

The next few sections describe the default section handlers in the System.Web section of a Web configuration file. Because each Web.Config file ultimately inherits its settings from Machine.Config, the descriptions apply to both files.

Authentication Settings

Authentication refers to the process whereby a user is granted or denied access to the page based on security credentials.

ASP.NET supports three authentication modes:

• Windows authentication ...