Downloading a file from a server that requires a digital certifica

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Not sure this is the right place to ask my question, please bear with me.
After reading the question, if you think there should be a different place
let me know.

I need to automate a daily download of a file from a server that requires a
digital certificate. I installed the certificate so now, when I try to access
the server with IE, a small window pops-up telling me that the "Web site I
want to view requests identification". I am prompted to select a digital
certificate and upon selecting the one I installed I gain access to the
remote folder and see the file that I want to downlad.
At someone's suggestion I looked at WebClient.DownloadFile, but that
obviously fails because I am not authorized to see the content of the folder
and the method will not take me to the UI where I need to select the digital
certificate. I fact I don't even need that step. As I said, I am trying to
automate the download and there should be no human input in the process.
I guess I need to somehow indicate that I want to use the respective digital
certificate when I create the web session. Is there a way this can be
achieved with the WebClient class or I need to look at a different class /
approach?

Thanks in advance for any suggestion and pardon me if this should have gone
on a different newsgroup.

Regards,
Eddie
 
I figured it out. Here is the code that almost does it:


// obtain a collection of certificates
X509Store store = new X509Store("MY", StoreLocation.CurrentUser);
store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly | OpenFlags.OpenExistingOnly);
collection = (X509Certificate2Collection)store.Certificates;
fcollection =
(X509Certificate2Collection)collection.Find(X509FindType.FindByTimeValid,
DateTime.Now, false);

// URL for my file to download
string myFile2Get = "https://www.MySecureWebsite.com/MyFile.txt";

// create the specialized Web Request object
HttpWebRequest objHttpWebReq = WebRequest.Create(myFile2Get) as
HttpWebRequest;

// add the collection of the certificates
objHttpWebReq.ClientCertificates = fcollection;

// default method is GET

// get the response to my request
HttpWebResponse response = objHttpWebReq.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse;

// Get the stream associated with the response.
Stream receiveStream = response.GetResponseStream();
Encoding encode = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("utf-8");

// Pipes the stream to a higher level stream reader with the required
encoding format.
StreamReader readStream = new StreamReader(receiveStream, encode);

The problem I am facing now is not related to this question and will be the
subject of a different post on this newsgroup.

Regards everyone,
Eddie
 
Back
Top