Creating and Configuring Websites in IIS 6.0 - Controlling Access to a Web site

Configuring Websites in Windows .NET Server/IIS 6.0

Controlling Access to Web Site

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.

Web Site Information (Web Site Tab)

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

Connection timeout

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.

Enable HTTP Keep-Alives

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.

Enable Logging

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.

Performance (Performance Tab)

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.

Home Directory

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 another computer 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.