title: Displaying file in IE8 client browser from Windows 2008 R2 web server pointing to remote server
body: <p>The problem involves the following machines on the same domain:<br>
  Server A: Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Standard<br>
  Server B: Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2, Standard (IIS 7.5)<br>
  Client A: Windows XP, IE8<br>
  Client B: Windows 7, IE9  </p>
  
  <p>We have an MVC web application running on Server B. On one of the pages, there are links to PDF files residing on Server A. If accessed through Client B, the PDF is displayed just fine. On Client A however, there is no response when clicking on the link -- doesn't work. The page was originally implemented much differently, but because of problems accessing the file, it has been simplified to recreate how an older application on Server A (it's  being replaced) was doing it (shown below). When I put this test page on another web server running 2003 (Server C), the PDF link works fine using Client A. Company intranet users are all using IE8 for the immediate future, so I'd like to work out the specific implementation below before proceeding to broader browser support.</p>
  
  <p>Test page mark up:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;!DOCTYPE html&gt;
  &lt;html lang="en"&gt;
      &lt;head&gt;
          &lt;title&gt;Marketing - Direct Mail Test&lt;/title&gt;
          &lt;style type="text/css"&gt;
              table tr th { text-align: left; }
              table tr td { text-align: left; }
          &lt;/style&gt;
      &lt;/head&gt;
      &lt;body &gt;
          &lt;h3&gt;Direct Mail Test&lt;/h3&gt;
          &lt;p&gt;Direct mail advertisements that have been mailed to this customer. Click &lt;b&gt;Preview&lt;/b&gt; to view.&lt;/p&gt;
          &lt;table width="700"&gt;
          &lt;tr&gt;
              &lt;th&gt;Start Date&lt;/th&gt;
              &lt;th&gt;End Date&lt;/th&gt;
              &lt;th&gt;&lt;/th&gt;
              &lt;th class="w100p"&gt;Offer Name&lt;/th&gt;
              &lt;th class="nowrap"&gt;File Type&lt;/th&gt;
          &lt;/tr&gt;
          &lt;tr&gt;
              &lt;td&gt;11/13/2012&lt;/td&gt;
              &lt;td&gt;4/1/2013&lt;/td&gt;
              &lt;td&gt;&lt;a href="\\ServerName\ShareName\SomeDirectory\TestFile.pdf" title="TestFile.pdf" target="_blank"&gt;preview&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
              &lt;td&gt;TestFile&lt;/td&gt;
              &lt;td&gt;pdf&lt;/td&gt;
          &lt;/tr&gt;
          &lt;/table&gt;
      &lt;/body&gt;
  &lt;/html&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Does anyone know how this can be made to work for Client A/Server B? Configuring options for IE8 is not a practical solution in this case, as the client company has established a standard image for user's machines.</p>
  
  <p>I have already tried the following:<br>
  - set application pool identity on Server B's web site to domain user account with permissions to the file share<br>
  - set Server B's web site "connect as" setting to domain user account with permissions to the file share<br>
  - under Server B's web site's configuration editor, set useAppPoolCredentials=true  </p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance for your replies.</p>