Configuring IIS for a Web Site on Windows 2000

Travis Bragg

First, we need to confirm that IIS (Internet Information Services) is properly installed on your system. The ones that you need include HTTP, NNTP, SMTP, and FTP. We install these by going under control panel and choosing Add/Remove Programs. Then Add/Remove Windows Components. Then, double click on IIS to verify which components are installed. We can add any from the list that we want to install as well.

Now we will discuss the steps needed to set up a Web Server.

Open up Internet Services Manager under Start/Programs/Administrative Tools.

First, right click on the computer name and choose New and then Web Site. This launches the Web Site Creation Wizard.

Now we need to decide a name for the website. Enter an appropriate name and click next.

You will have to enter the appropriate IP address for which to reach the web site at. The default setting (All Unassigned) will work fine as long as you are only hosting one site. The TCP port should be 80 by default. The Host Header should be the name of the site you wish to have. For example, www.ist.com. By default hte Host Header is blank, which will be fine for a single web site.

Now we need to specify the location where the web site files will be located. For example, this may be in the WWW folder. Keep the Allow Anonymous access to this Web site checked, so that user can access your site.

The next screen allows you to set some access permissions for your site. By default, Read and Run scripts (such as ASP) are checked. Keep them check and click next.

Now click finish to finalize the wizard.

We have our website set up now. We must now set the properties we wish to have for our site and any other access permissions we wish. On the left hand side of the window it shows the description name that you chose for your site. Below, my site is called Sample Site. You can click the plus sign to expand the list to show you what folders are in the main folder you chose. In the picture below, there are three folders (downloads, private, and protected) in the main folder.

On the right hand side, it shows everything that is in the folder. This includes not only folders, but files as well. This example shows the file default.htm.

To set up certain properties for your site, we must right click the web site description on the right and choose properties. A window will pop up like the one below.

Under this window we can change many things including the description for the site, the IP address it is assigned to, etc. If we go under the Documents tab, it shows the default files that load when it is access. Windows default is Default.htm. If you want to have another one as the default, simply remove the unwanted ones and add your own. If you do not want a default file to open at all, just uncheck the Enable Default Document.

Another important part is under the Directory Security tab. Here we can set up the access that we want for our site. Under anonymous access and authenitcation control we can click on Edit to bring up the different types of authentication methods as pictured below.

We can have the Anonymous access box checked if we want anyone to access our site. This is the default setting. If we want to have some type of authentication, we have to uncheck that box and choose what type of authentication access we want. By default, the Integrated Windows authentication box is selected.

The other setting we can use to restrict access to our site is to go to Edit under the IP address and domain name restrictions under the Directory Security tab as pictured below.

By default, everything will be granted access to your site. To change this we can simply click Add and choose any computer, group of computers, or domain names that we want to block. This also works the other way. By clicking on the Denied Access radio, everything will be denied that tries to access your site. If you want any computers to have access to it then you can click Add to give the computers access that you wish.

Another thing that you can do for your site is to set it up as directory browsing. This is done by going under the Home Directory tab and putting a check beside Directory browsing. You will also need to go under the Documents tab and remove all the default documents or simply uncheck the Enable Default Document box. This enables the viewer to see all the files that are inside the folder. The website may look something like the one pictured below.

Under this site pictured above, we can download the files shown by clicking the links.