I am accessing BLOB's from SQL server, and sending them down using
response.contenttype (where the content type is set to one of the DB fields)
and response.binarywrite (using the BLOB). It works fine for most file types
as long as authentication (we are using forms) is disabled. If forms
authentication is enabled, the user receives the login screen in their
(excel, word) document rather than the requested file, even if they are
logged in. You cannot use the login form from within Word or Excel. If
authentication is turned off, these routines work fine.

Also, certain file types don't want to open in their respective
applications. For instance, pdf files want to open in VS.NET even though the
adobe splash screen pops up for a second, Zip files don't open at all, jpegs
open in the browser just fine, powerpoint opens in the browser fine
regardless of the authentication state.

This is very strange. Any ideas?

David