Lightning Storm Forums for SharePoint and anonymous viewers and posters.

This article will show you how to enable anonymous users to view forum posts from the Lightning Storm Forums. After setting up anonymous access we'll show you how you can enable anonymous users to create new topics and replies.

As the Lightning Storm Forums for SharePoint use standard SharePoint security, setting up anonymous access for the forums is a case of configuring SharePoint correctly.

1, Navigate to Central Administration for your SharePoint farm.

2, Click on the Application Management tab in Central Admin

3, In the Application Security Section click on Authentication Providers link

4, An important step now, ensure you have the correct web application selected to configure anonymous access. You can select the web application by clicking the Web Application drop down link

5, You may have more than one Zone setup if you have extended your SharePoint site to an Extranet zone for example. Either way click the Zone you wish to configure anonymous access for - this will generally be the Default Zone and Windows as the Provider.

6, In the Anonymous Access section make sure the checkbox is ticked to Enable Anonymous Access

This setting makes the necessary changes for your web application in IIS. We still need to let SharePoint know that we are happy to allow anonymous users to view SharePoint content.

7, Navigate to your SharePoint site that you want to let anonymous users access

8, From the main navigation go Site Actions -> Site Settings

9, Click on the Advanced Permissions link under the Users and Permissions group

10, Under Settings, click Anonymous Access

11, Now choose the level at which you want anonymous users to view SharePoint. For anonymous users to view web part pages where the forums will be added you'll need to select Entire Web site

Now if you close the browser, and open a new instance, you'll be able to navigate to your SharePoint site without having to login. Notice there is a login link at the top right of the screen for when you do need to login again!

Configuring Anonymous Posters for the Forum

If you are running a public facing web site you may want to allow anonymous posters as well as viewers. This is now allowed by changing a poperty within the web part toolbar. Complete the following steps:

1, Add the forums web part to your page

2, Click the Web Part menu and select Modify Shared Web Part

3, In the Web Part properties pane that opens up you'll see a check box for Allow Anonymous Posters. Tick this and click OK.

4, Now if you visit the page not logged in, you'll see the necessary links for creating a new topic or reply. Anonymous users will be asked for a name and email address when they are posting