Managing Anonymous Access to SharePoint Sites

From ctowiki

It is possible to make SharePoint sites available for no-login access (the SharePoint term is “anonymous access”). Such access is always read-only in SharePoint.

Contents 1 Creating a subsite with Anonymous (no login) Access 2 Permitting anonymous access to an existing site 3 Special Considerations for MySite 4 Special Considerations for Class Use

Creating a subsite with Anonymous (no login) Access

A user needs to follow the following steps when creating a subsite for anonymous access:

1. Site Actions > Create
2. Provide Name, Description, URL. You may wish to consider a "publishing" site template, which provides some extra navigation and content management features. Select "Unique Permissions" and then select default values for the rest of the settings.
3. Click on the "Site Actions" drop-down menu and select "Site Settings". The "Site Settings" page will appear.
4. In the column "Users and Permissions", click the "Advanced Permissions" link. The "Permissions" page will appear.
5. Click on the "Settings" drop-down menu, and select "Anonymous Access". The "Change Anonymous Access Settings" page will appear.
6. Pick one of the access options (normally, choose "Entire Web Site"; this is required for a "blog" web site, because "Lists and Libraries" won't include access to the blog home page.) Click "OK".

To access the site without sign-in, users will need to know the exact URL, since they can't access a higher-level site then navigate to the subsite. The URL must begin with "https://" (note the "s"), and include the site name. For example, https://mysite.wsu.edu/personal/yeidel/blog.

Permitting anonymous access to an existing site

Anonymous access can also be retro-fitted to a subsite:

1. On the home page of the subsite, click the “Site Actions” drop-down menu, then select “Site Settings”. The "Site Settings" page will appear.
2. In the column labeled “Users and Permissions”, click “Advanced Permissions”. The “Permissions” page will appear.
3. If, under the “Permissions: ” title, the message says “This Web site inherits permissions from its parent Web site”, you will need to change the site to “unique permissions”.
   1. Click the “Actions” drop-down menu, and select “Edit Permissions”.
   2. A dialog box will appear saying “You are about to create unique permissions for this Web site.” Click OK.
   3. The message below the “Permissions:” title should now say “Use this page to assign permission levels to users and groups. This Web site does not inherit permissions from its parent.”
4. Click the “Settings” drop-down menu, and select “Anonymous Access”. The “Change Anonymous Access Settings” page will appear.
5. Pick one of the access options (normally, choose "Entire Web Site"; this is required for a "blog" web site, because "Lists and Libraries" won't include access to the blog home page.) Click "OK".

To access the subsite without sign-in, users will need to know the exact URL, since they can't access a higher-level site then navigate to the subsite. The URL must begin with "https://" (note the "s"), and include the site name. For example, https://mysite.wsu.edu/personal/yeidel/blog.

Special Considerations for MySite

Your top-level "MySite" cannot be enabled for anonymous access. If you follow the procedure for Permitting anonymous access to an existing site above, the changed setting will be accepted, but login will still be required for all libraries, lists, and pages in the top-level site. However, any subsites of the MySite which "inherit" permissions from the MySite will be enabled for anonymous access. Usually the best practice is to enable subsites individually, and leave the top-level site with its default setting of "Anonymous Access: Nothing".

Special Considerations for Class Use

Anonymous access needs to be considered carefully with respect to the privacy requirements of the federal Family Educational Records Privacy Act (FERPA).