Configuring Websites in Windows .NET Server/IIS 6.0

Controlling Access to Web Site

Custom Errors

You can configure Internet Information Services (IIS) to send default HTTP 1.1 error messages or custom error messages. Custom error messages can be mapped to a file name or to a URL. The image below displays Custom Errors dialog.

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 Error Properties 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.

Documents (Documents Tab)

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.

HTTP Headers (HTTP Headers Tab)

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.

Directory Security (Directory Security Tab)

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.

Starting and Stopping Web site

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.