The 'User Authentication' setting in Internet explorer is very important especially when you have network devices like routers that prompt you to enter the username and password to access the firmware. when you enter the IP address or the URL of the device's page, you will be prompted to enter the username and password. If you enter the wrong username / password more than 3 times, you will get an "error 401 - unauthorized access" but this happens sometimes even before prompting for the credentials.