Logging On to / Off the Portal

You access your portal from an Internet browser. For the supported browser versions refer to the NetWeaver Product Availability Matrix (PAM) service.sap.com/pam.
Depending on the way that your administrator has configured your portal, one of the following scenarios occurs once you have launched your portal:

Portal for Anonymous Users
If your portal supports anonymous users, you see a portal that displays content approved for anonymous users.
User and Password
If your portal does not support anonymous users (default setting), the portal Welcome screen opens, displaying the Logon dialog box, a link to SAP support services, and a link to the user registration form.
You can log on to the portal from any client machine, with the user name and password you use to access the company network, as defined in the corporate server. Contact your administrator if you have any problems or questions.
Single Sign-on (SSO)
If your administrator has set up your portal for client authentication, you can log on using a client certificate.
Your administrator informs you if a client certificate has been obtained for you.
If the certificate has not been mapped to your user ID, you need to do so the first time you log on to the portal.
Dial-up
To access the portal through a dial-up connection you need the relevant URL for logging on.

Procedure
Logging On

1. Click the portal desktop icon or URL provided by your administrator to open the portal browser.
2. In the displayed portal, do one of the following:
¡ In a portal configured for anonymous users, to access your content as an authenticated user, click the Log On link in the masthead to display the Welcome screen. In the Logon dialog box, enter your User Name and Password, and click Log on.
To view the content assigned to anonymous users you do not need to log on to the portal.
¡ In a portal not configured for anonymous users, in the Logon dialog box of the Welcome screen, enter your User Name and Password, and click Log on.
¡ In a portal configured for SSO, if your administrator has not mapped your client certificate to your user ID, you must do so.

Mapping a Client Certificate
A client certificate allows you to log on to the portal using a secure protocol (https) without having to enter your user ID and password.
Call up the portal using a URL starting with https://... . The logon dialog box is displayed. Enter your user ID and password. Your certificate is mapped to this user ID.

Logging Off
If you want to end your portal session, we recommend that you click Log Off in the masthead, and not simply close your browser. Closing the browser leaves the portal still working, until it times out.
When working in a browser that supports multiple tabs, such as Internet Explorer 7 or Mozilla Firefox, if you close a tab in which a portal is running, the portal session is saved. If you then open the portal in a new tab, you are already logged on and need to first log off if you wish to log on with different credentials.
When the portal closes it redirects you to either the portal Logon dialog box or an external page that was associated to the portal.
If you are in the portal as an anonymous user, you do not see a Log Offlink in the masthead. In such a case, to terminate your portal session, close the browser.