MVC5 - Keep getting HTTP Error 404.0 - Not Found error on Authentication using Identity

Question

Upon reading multiple forums with (kinda) the same issue, but none of those suggested answers fixing my problem, I ended up with my own post.

As the title says, I am having problems with firing my application (on localhost for testing) using Identity authentication.

The error I keep getting:

HTTP Error 404.0 - Not Found

The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.

Detailed Error Information:



Module
   IIS Web Core 

Notification
   MapRequestHandler 

Handler
   StaticFile 

Error Code
   0x80070002 



Requested URL
   http://localhost:xxxx/auth/login?ReturnUrl=%2F 

Physical Path
   c:\users\xxxx\documents\visual studio 2015\Projects\MyProject\MyProject\auth\login 

Logon Method
   Anonymous 

Logon User
   Anonymous 

Request Tracing Directory
   C:\Users\xxxx\Documents\IISExpress\TraceLogFiles\MyProject

The code I used is as follows:

The startup class in the App_Start folder

public class Startup
    {
        public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app)
        {
            app.UseCookieAuthentication(new CookieAuthenticationOptions
            {
                AuthenticationType = "ApplicationCookie",
                 LoginPath = new PathString("/auth/login")
            });
        }
    }

The FilterConfig class also in the App_Start folder:

public class FilterConfig
    {
        public static void RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilterCollection filters)
        {
            filters.Add(new HandleErrorAttribute());
            filters.Add(new AuthorizeAttribute());
        }
    }

The registerFilters in the Global.asax

protected void Application_Start()
        {
            AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
            RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
            FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
        }

The controller is Called Auth (AuthController) with the actionresult Login (and added the view for it). Nothing special here since I was already getting the error.

In the web.config I added the line in appSettings:

 <add key="owin:AppStartup" value="MyProject.App_Start.Startup"/>

I have no clue what I am doing wrong, perhaps some IIS config that is wrong? Or is it really the path that is giving the errors?

These are the things (taken from several other posts) which I have already tried

• Adding <add key="autoFormsAuthentication" value="false" /> and <add key="enableSimpleMembership" value="false"/> to the WebConfig file.
• In IIS setting the Anonymous Authentication to Application pool identity instead of Specific user

My IIS application pools look as follow:

Answer 1

After some meddling and looking at other Identity posts I found out that the error message I am getting is because I have set the URL in RouteConfig to empty.

I had it like this:

 routes.MapRoute(
                name: "Default",
                url: "",
                defaults: new { controller = "StartWeb", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
            );

while it should be like this:

routes.MapRoute(
                name: "Default",
                url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
                defaults: new { controller = "StartWeb", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional }
            );

When changing it back to the default the error was gone.