trying to login into https web site via <WhatEverWorks>.net

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Gill Bates - 30 Jul 2004 06:21 GMT

I'm trying to login to a banking site
(https://www.providentconnection.com) using vb.net. I've tried many
variations of WebClient and HttpWebRequest; none of which I've got to
work. My latest version is:
        Dim myWebClient As New WebClient

        Dim nvc As New NameValueCollection

        nvc.Add("Login", username)
        nvc.Add("Password", password)
        nvc.Add("ValidationReq", "1")
        nvc.Add("WhichBrowser", "IE")
        nvc.Add("pgBrowserVersion", "4")

        url = "https://www.providentconnection.com/Login.asp?Login=plugh&Password=xyzzy&Validat
ionReq=1&WhichBrowser=IE&pgBrowserVersion=4"

        myWebClient.Headers.Add("Content-Type",
"application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
        ' Upload the NameValueCollection.
        Dim byts() As Byte = New Byte() {}
        Dim responseArray As Byte() = myWebClient.UploadData(url, "POST",
byts)

        Dim sw As New StreamWriter("trace.html")
        Dim rspTxt = "Response received was :" +
Encoding.ASCII.GetString(responseArray)

I've tried the name value pairs, and the url (?) encoded formats w &
w/o HttpWebRequest and WebClient.

The content of the login page is:
<link href=styles.css rel="stylesheet">

<html>
<head>
<meta NAME="GENERATOR" Content="DreamWeaver">
<title>Login to Provident's Commercial Internet Banking</title>
<link href="stylesnav.css" rel=stylesheet>

<body background="images/top/topbkgd.gif" class=body2 topmargin=0
leftmargin=0>
<table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height=80 width=100%>
<tr>
    <td width=160><img src="images/top/logo.gif" height=100
width=180></td>

    <td width=100%><img src="images/top/title.gif" height=100></td>
</tr>
</table>
<center>
<form name=RequestForm onSubmit="return CheckBlank()" method="POST"
action="login.asp" >
<table width=400 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0>
    <tr><td colspan=2 class=information>Please enter your User Name and
Password below:</td></tr>
    <tr>
        <td class=informationb>User Name:</td>
        <td><input class=input type=text name="Login" size="10"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
        <td class=informationb>Password:</td>
        <td><input class=input type=password name="Password" size="10"></td>
    </tr>
    <tr><td>&nbsp</td></tr>
    <tr><td>&nbsp</td><td colspan=><input class=buttons type="submit"
value="Login" name="submit"></td></tr>
</table>
</center>
<input type="hidden" name="ValidationReq" value="1">
<input type="hidden" name="WhichBrowser" value="IE">
<input type="hidden" name="pgBrowserVersion" value="4">
</form>
</body>
</html>

<script Language="JavaScript">
document.forms["RequestForm"].elements["Login"].focus();

function CheckBlank(){
    if (document.forms[0].Login.value == "" ||
document.forms[0].Password.value == ""){
        window.alert("Please enter a valid user name and password");
        return false;
    }
    else{
        document.forms[0].WhichBrowser.value = navigator.appName;
        document.forms[0].pgBrowserVersion.value = navigator.appVersion;
        return true;
    }
}
</script>

All I ever get in response, is the same page. No error, no nothing...
If I try with a browser and enter "bad" values for user/pw; i get a
slightly diff version saying bad user/pw (this I'm not getting with
the vb.net code)

Any help would be appreciated!! kinda on a tight deadline here...

Gill

Reply to this Message

Nick Malik - 30 Jul 2004 14:58 GMT

not sure why your URL is coded for GET call while your are obviously trying
to do a POST call.

The receiving end may be confused by that.

Also, since this an HTTPS session, and the server is probably load balanced,
you will need to get the Login page, collect the cookies, and send them back
on the POST request and all subsequent requests. This is nearly always a
requirement, because load balancers can provide the SSL decoding most
efficiently when they can piggyback a session variable to determine which
system is connected once SSL is stripped off.

Hope this helps,
--- Nick

> I'm trying to login to a banking site
> (https://www.providentconnection.com) using vb.net. I've tried many
[quoted text clipped - 11 lines]
>
> url = "https://www.providentconnection.com/Login.asp?Login=plugh&Password=xyzzy&Va

lidationReq=1&WhichBrowser=IE&pgBrowserVersion=4"

> myWebClient.Headers.Add("Content-Type",
> "application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
[quoted text clipped - 80 lines]
>
> Gill

Reply to this Message

Gill Bates - 31 Jul 2004 02:46 GMT

Indeed; it helped enormously!

I now have a working prototype; it was the Cookie that did the trick
I had played around with the code until it was pretty screwed up in
the GET/POST ing; that's now taken care of.

For any other poor souls; here's the working code (needs polish)

Thanks so much!!

        Dim cookieJar As CookieContainer = New CookieContainer
        Dim webReq As HttpWebRequest
        Dim webResp As HttpWebResponse
        Dim sr As StreamReader
        Dim sw As StreamWriter
        Dim payLoad As String
        Dim txt As String

        webReq = CType(WebRequest.Create(New Uri(urlString)),
HttpWebRequest)
        webReq.CookieContainer = cookieJar
        webReq.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials
        webReq.UserAgent = "BGClient"
        webReq.KeepAlive = True
        webReq.Headers.Set("Pragma", "no-cache")
        webReq.Timeout = 5000
        webReq.Method = "GET"

        ' get login page
        webResp = webReq.GetResponse

        sr = New StreamReader(webResp.GetResponseStream)
        txt = sr.ReadToEnd.Trim
        sr.Close()
        webResp.Close()

        webReq = CType(WebRequest.Create(New Uri(urlString & uriString)),
HttpWebRequest)
        webReq.CookieContainer = cookieJar
        webReq.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials
        webReq.UserAgent = "BGClient"
        webReq.KeepAlive = True
        webReq.Headers.Set("Pragma", "no-cache")
        webReq.Timeout = 5000
        webReq.Method = "POST"
        webReq.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"

        payLoad = "Login=gill&Password=bates&submit=Login&ValidationReq=1&WhichBrowser=Microsoft+Internet+Explorer&pgBrowserVersion=4.0+(compatible;+MSIE+6.0;+Windows+NT+5.1;+.NET+CLR+1.1.4322;+.NET+CLR+1.0.3705)"

        webReq.ContentLength = payLoad.Length
        sw = New StreamWriter(webReq.GetRequestStream)
        sw.Write(payLoad)
        sw.Close()

        ' post login parms
        webResp = webReq.GetResponse

        sr = New StreamReader(webResp.GetResponseStream)
        txt = sr.ReadToEnd.Trim
        sr.Close()
        webResp.Close()

> not sure why your URL is coded for GET call while your are obviously trying
> to do a POST call.
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> >
> etc....

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trying to login into https web site via <WhatEverWorks>.net

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