Patent ID: 7793342

Claim:
A method implemented in a computer-readable medium and to process on a transparent proxy, the method for single sign-on with basic authentication, comprising: receiving a request associated with a user to access an origin server, wherein the request is received by the transparent proxy; determining if the request is associated with authentication information; issuing an error to a client to be processed by the client, if the request cannot be associated with the authentication information, and wherein in processing the error the client provides the authentication information; and authenticating the user for access to the origin server and to one or more additional origin servers using the authentication information, and wherein authentication to the one or more additional origin services use different authentication information and the transparent proxy automatically supplies that different authentication information in response to the authentication information indicating that the user is authenticated to the transparent proxy and thus capable of being transparently authenticated to the origin server and to the one or more additional origin servers by the transparent proxy having access to the different authentication information, the transparent proxy knows how to discern and associate the authentication information with the different authentication information for purposes of providing user access to the origin server and the one or more additional origin servers, and wherein the transparent proxy services multiple additional users for single sign-on functionality each user associated with a different client and wherein the transparent proxy processes outside of the client and different clients, wherein the transparent proxy performs authentication for the user and for the multiple additional users and the transparent proxy is integrated to process outbound network traffic associated with the client of the user and the different clients of the additional users, and wherein the transparent proxy is not known to the client or the different clients, and wherein when the client, or the different clients, accesses a link, a routing or switching device redirects the link to an address associated with the transparent proxy.