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Now that we created a Web site and a virtual directory we will look at some of the
administrative tasks that are required to control the Web site. The settings in
this article apply only to Startvbdotnet Web site which we created in IIS and not to all Web
sites under IIS. The procedure is same if you want to set the properties for all Web sites. If
you want to set the following properties for all Web sites under IIS then you need to right-
click on Web Sites in IIS and select properties from the menu and follow the steps which are
mentioned in this article.

When you right-click on the Startvbdotnet Web site in IIS and select properties, the
properties window that is displayed looks like the image below.

As you might notice from the above image the dialog box displays information as tabs, all of
which are discussed below.




 


 

By defaut, the Web site tab is displayed when you right-click and select properties for any of
the Web sites in IIS. The information under Web site tab is discussed below.

Web site identification

The Web site identification part displays general information like the description of the
Website, IP address and the port number it is using.

Connections

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Connection timeouts are used to reduce the amount of memory resources that
are consumed by idle connections. Time-out settings also allow you to specify how long
server resources are allocated to specific tasks or clients. The default connection timeout
setting set by IIS is 120 seconds which means that when a visitor accesses your site and
has no activity on your site for 2 mins his connection will be timed out.

 

Most Web browsers request that the server keep the client connection open while the server
sends multiple elements like .htm files and .gif or .jpeg files to the client. Keeping the client
connection open in this way is referred to as an HTTP Keep-Alive. Keep-Alive is an HTTP
specification that improves server performance. HTTP Keep-Alives are enabled by default in
IIS.

 


The logging feature allows you to collect information about user activity on your site.
Information such as who has visited your site, what the visitor viewed, and when the
information was last viewed, etc, can be collected with this feature. The default logging
format is the W3C Extended Log File Format. You can also change the logging format based
on your preferences. To change the logging format you need to make a selection from the
active log format drop-down list.

To set how often you want your new log file to be created click the properties button to
open the Logging Properties dialog as shown in the image below.
The Logging Properties dialog shown in the image above allows you to record log
information on an hourly basis or daily or weekly or monthly basis or based on file size. If
you select the Weekly option then a log file is created once every week. You can also
change the location of the log file on your server in the Logging Properties dialog.

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The Performance tab let's you control the performance of your Web site, like, setting the
amount of bandwidth per second and allowing the number of simultaneous connections
accessing the Web site at a given time. The dialog looks like the image below.
Bandwidth throttling

If the network or Internet connection used by our Web server is also used by other services
such as e-mail, then we might want to limit the bandwidth used by our Web server so that it
is available for those other services. If our Web server hosts more than one Web site, you
can individually throttle the bandwidth used by each site. By default, bandwidth throttling is
disabled. If you want to enable it, check the checkbox and enter the bandwidth you want in
kbps.

Web site connections

Connection limits restrict the number of simultaneous client connections to our Web site.
Limiting connections not only conserves memory but also protects against malicious attacks
designed to overload our Web server with thousands of client requests. By
default, unlimited connections are allowed. If you want to limit the number of connections
then you need to select the "Connections limited to" radio button and enter the number of
connections you want to access your site at a given time.

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The Home Directory tab in the properties dialog for the Web site is displayed below.

As you can see from the image above, the content for this Web site comes from the local
path on the server. If you want the content for this Web site to come from
anothercomputer located on a network you need to select the radio button which says "A
share located on another computer" and enter the computer on the network.

Redirecting

Sometimes when your site is experiencing technical difficulties or if you are doing
maintenance you need to redirect visitors to another site or to another page informing what
is going on. IIS lets you redirect a Web site to a different file or folder on the same
machine or to an URL on the Internet. To configure redirection you need to select the "A
redirection to a URL" radio button under the home directory and choose the redirection
option you want to use and specify the path as shown in the image below.
You can also configure your own custom error messages. To do that, click the HTTP
error that you want to change, and then click Edit to open the Edit Custom ErrorProperties
dialog as shown in the image below.
To configure your own custom error, in the Message Type list box, click either File to
return a custom error file or URL to direct the request to a custom error URL on the local
machine.

Note that you cannot customize the following errors: 400, 403.9, 411, 414, 500, 500.11,
500.14, 500.15, 501, 503, and 505.

 

 

 

The Documents dialog is displayed in the image below.

Enable default content page

The enable default content page lets you designate the default page for your Web site. You
can specify names such as index.aspx, default.aspx, login.aspx, etc. To add a new type you
need to click the Add button and add the file which you want to be displayed to your users
when they first enter your site.

Enable document footer

The enable document footer option lets you add a HTML formatted footer to each and
every document on your site. By default, it is disabled.
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The HTTP Headers dialog looks like the image below.

Enable content expiration

By default, this is disabled. If you enable content expiration and set a date then the content
on your site expires after the set date. If you notice from the above image, the content for
Startvbdotnet is set to expire on Tuesday, Februrary 23, 2010 at 12 AM.

Content rating

Content rating allows to classify your site from four predefined values which are Violence,
Sex, Nudity and Language. By default, content rating is disabled. To enable content
rating, click the edit Ratings button to open the Content Ratings dialog as shown in the
image below.
In the Content Ratings dialog, enable the checkbox which says Enable ratings for this
content and select a category under which your site falls and drag the track bar to indicate
the level of the rating. You can also include an email address for contact and set an
expiration date for this content as shown in the image above.


 

 
 

The Directory Security dialog looks like the image below.

Authentication and access control

Authentication and access control allows us to setup access to our site using Authentication
Methods. If you click the Edit button the Authentication Methods dialog that is displayed
looks like the image below.
By default, the enable anonymous access checkbox is checked which means that your site
will be accessed by everyone using the IUSR_COMPUTERNAME (default IIS account). If you
want to enforce restrictions and want users to be authenticated before they access your site
you need to set it in this dialog.

IP address and domain name restrictions

The IP address and domain name restrictions allows us to grant or deny access to users
based on their IP address. If you click the Edit button the IP Address and Domain Name
Restrictions dialog that is displayed looks like the image below.
By default, all computers will be granted access. If you want to deny/block a particular user
or a group of computers then you need to select the Denied access radio button and click
the Add button to open the Grant Access dialog as shown in the image below.

If you want to block a single computer enter the IP address of the machine and click OK. If
you want to deny a group of computers then select the Group of computers radio button
and enter the network address and Subnet mask number to deny that group. If you want to
deny users based on a domain name the select the Domain name option and enter the
domain name.



 



You can start and stop a Web site in IIS manager. To start a Web site, select the Web site,
right-click on it and from the menu select start/stop as shown below.
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