Save FTP Passwords in IE7

Summary of Issue

This article supplies information on how to access an FTP site within Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and store the login details.

IE7 does not save FTP Passwords.  Previously in Internet Explorer 6, users were able to browse to an FTP site and a login box would appear automatically requesting for the FTP site login details.

Note: This will be the case as long as ‘enable folder view for FTP sites’ has been checked (default setting). This can be found within the Internet Options, under the Advanced tab.

In Internet Explorer 7 when users browse to an FTP site, the below is automatically displayed:

ERROR
 The requested URL could not be retrieved
 An FTP authentication failure occurred while trying to retrieve the URL: ftp://www.the_domain_name.here
 Cache server sent the following FTP command:
 PASS <yourpassword>
 and then received this reply
 Login incorrect.

Methods to resolve the problem

This is due to a change in the way IE7 handles FTP requests compared to IE6. The ‘enable folder view for FTP sites’ setting has now been replaced with ‘Enable FTP folder view (outside of Internet Explorer)’; again found within the Internet Options under the Advanced tab. Procedure

To be able to view FTP sites in IE7 and save the login credentials, the following method can be used:

1. Open IE7 and type ftp://www.the_domain_name.here into the address bar. Wait till the page has loaded and you see the above error.
2. Now click on the Page option and select ‘Open FTP Site in Windows Explorer’.
3. This will open a FTP Site in a separate window.
On the new Window click on File and select Login As.
4. A log in box will appear where you can provide your credentials. Enter the details and click Log On.
5. You can save the login details by putting a tick beside ‘Save Password’ before clicking the Log On button.