Active Directory is a database based system that provides authentication, directory, policy, and other services in a Windows environment LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) is an application protocol for querying and modifying items in directory service providers like Active Directory, which supports a form of LDAP. Short answer: AD is a directory services database, and … Read more
If you work on .NET 3.5 or newer, you can use the System.DirectoryServices.AccountManagement namespace and easily verify your credentials: // create a “principal context” – e.g. your domain (could be machine, too) using(PrincipalContext pc = new PrincipalContext(ContextType.Domain, “YOURDOMAIN”)) { // validate the credentials bool isValid = pc.ValidateCredentials(“myuser”, “mypassword”); } It’s simple, it’s reliable, it’s 100% … Read more
CN = Common Name OU = Organizational Unit DC = Domain Component These are all parts of the X.500 Directory Specification, which defines nodes in a LDAP directory. You can also read up on LDAP data Interchange Format (LDIF), which is an alternate format. You read it from right to left, the right-most component is … Read more