Having a Web site set up on your XP system and making it easy for users to access that site are somewhat different stories. Unfortunately, most ISPs now allocate IP addresses to clients using DHCP, meaning that those addresses will periodically change, meaning that you would need to inform users of the change every time […]

When IIS is installed, both the Web and FTP components run as services. In much the same way that any service of a Windows XP Professional system can be started, stopped, or paused, the same is true of these services. Under normal circumstances, you don’t even need to use the Services MMC snap-in to configure […]

Once you’ve got all your Web site settings configured, it’s time to change the content of the site from the default pages to those you’ve created. Start by opening the wwwroot directory and deleting all existing files, since you’ll no longer need these. The most effective way to create your own Web pages is to […]

A virtual directory is simply a subfolder of a Web site, but one with a difference – it doesn’t necessarily have to exist within the root of your Web site. For example, if you create folders and subfolders within the C:\Inetpub\wwwroot directory, these automatically become virtual directories of your Web site, accessible by appending /foldername […]

Outside of authentication, the most common way to secure the contents of your Web site is through the use of permissions. As you learned earlier, the Home Directory tab in the properties of a Web site includes a section with 4 permissions listed: Script source access, Read, Write, and Directory browsing. By default, only the […]

One of the most important considerations when configuring a Web site is how the site will be secured. For example, most Web sites allow anonymous access by default, allowing any users to connect without the need to be authenticated. However, IIS does allow you to disable anonymous authentication and require that users supply a user […]

The HTTP Headers tab is another with important configurable properties. The option to Enable Content Expiration enables you to control how long your web pages are cached on client systems or proxy servers before the content is considered invalid. Although not enabled by default, consider enabling this setting and then select an expiry time consistent […]

One of the more important tabs in the properties of the Default Web Site is Home Directory. From this tab you can change the directory that IIS will use as the root of your Web site, or even point the server to a shared folder on another system, such as one not running IIS. Ultimately, […]

The IIS Web Site tab includes core information about the Web site, including the IP address on which the server will respond to requests (all by default), the TCP port associated with the site (80 by default), connection timeout settings, and whether logging is enabled. If you want to change the default port number on […]

Once your Web server is up and running, it’s time to begin configuring settings associated with your Web site. To begin, open the Internet Information Services MMC snap-in from the Administrative Tools applet in Control Panel. When opened for the first time, the tool will display an icon representing the local computer. Expand this icon […]