Deep Virtual - IIS Tutorial - IIS 5.5 Default Configuration

Access IIS configuration from Start > Programs > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Services and Applications > Default Website > Properties.

Freshly Installed Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 Professional do not show Administrative Tools under Programs, although they are in fact installed. To show Administrative Tools in your Programs menu, Right Click on your Start Menu Toolbar and select Properties. Select the Advanced tab. Check the box to Display Administrative Tools.

If you have multiple domain names pointed to and served by a single instance of IIS on one physical machine then you will configure these from the Advanced button near the top of the the Web Site tab in the Web Site Identification section.

To customize your HTTP Access Log, click on the Properties button near the bottom of the Web Site tab in the Enable Logging section. The complete list of available log fields are show below right.

The New Log Time Period section is where you set the schedule or file size criteria for the rotation of the HTTP Access logs.

The Extended Properties tab is where you select the specific fields you want in your HTTP Access log.

ISAPI Filters add or modify a wide variety of functionality to IIS and are addressed via the ISAPI tab.

The Home Directory tab is the most important tab with respect to Web Applications.

The Configuration button in the Application Settings section reveals important settings such as Session Timeout, Application file extension handling DLLs, Application error message detail level or customization and more.

From the Documents tab you could add the some additional default documents. When a URL is requested which is only a path up to a directory name, IIS will look for files of of one of these names inside that directory and serve it. In the case of multiple files in that directory which match these names, the position in the list indicates priority and the topmost one in the list which is found will be served. Although not shown, IIS should handle the well known index.htm and index.html.

It is not adviseable to use the Enable Document Footer feature since that would be best handled by Design or Content Production groups for the greatest aesthetic control and those groups often do not have direct access to IIS Configuration.

From the Directory Security tab you configure the global settings for Authentication of users attemtping to access any protected areas of your site(s) as well as the effective Windows User of all Anonymous access.