website Setting Up the IIS Web Server - The Basics

website Setting Up the IIS Web Server - The Basics

IIS is the Web server for XP and Windows. Web server installation and administration is relatively simple, mainly setting up directories accessible to the Internet.

• Installing IIS - IIS is not normally installed on XP systems. To install:
  1. Insert XP installation CD.
  2. Start | Setting | Control Panel | Add or Remove Programs | Add/Remove Windows Components
  3. Check Internet Information Services (IIS) and click Next. The Windows Components Wizard should start.
  4. When IIS is installed, go through the tests and configuration below this section.
• IP address or host name - At IUS, the IP will be dynamically and automatically assigned. All machines are known locally (on themselves) aslocalhost. IUS machines also have a name assigned that is accessible Internet-wide. To connect to the Web server on the same machine and get the default page, in a browser enter:

http://localhost

To find out what the Internet name or IP of a Windows machine use:
• ipconfig /all
from the command prompt. You should see something like below.

C:\ ipconfig /all Windows IP Configuration Host Name . . . . . . . . . : LF111-201.ius.edu DNS Servers . . . . . . . . : 129.79.1.1 198.88.18.1 0 Ethernet adapter : Description . . . . . . . . . : PPP Adapter. Physical Address. . . . . . : 44-45-53-54-00-00 DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . : Yes IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 149.160.29.92 Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . : 255.255.0.0 Default Gateway . . . . . . : 149.160.29.92

The IP is 149.160.29.92 and the Internet name is LF111-201.ius.edu. To connect to the Web server on the LF111-201.ius.edu machine from the Internet and get the default Web page enter from a browser:

http://149.160.29.92http://LF111-201.ius.edu

• Virtual directories - The default location for Microsoft server scripts/pages is C:\InetPub\wwwroot. To use other directories one must define a virtual directory.
• Login with administrator privileges
• Create a directory using Windows Explorer on: C:\A348
• Start | Run | Control | Administrative Tools | Internet Information Services
• Expand local computer, Web Sites, and Default Web Site.
• Right click on Default Web Site.
  • New | Virtual Directory
    • Alias: A348
    • Directory: C:\A348
    • Execute (including scripts) and Browse
• With the virtual A348 directory, an HTML file named C:\A348\guru.htm could be loaded from the local machine by:

http://localhost/A348/guru.htm

• User Account for IIS - Some IIS installations require a user account and sufficient access privileges to update files.
  • Login with administrator privileges
  • Start | Run | Control | Administrative Tools | Computer Management | Local Users and Groups | Users
  • Select Launch IIS Process Account
  • Check User Cannot Change Password and Password Never Expires
  • Select Member Of
    • Enter: Administrators
  • OK each menu

Exercise 1 - Testing IIS The machines in LF-105 and LF-111 already have IIS installed. Do the following to setup the Web server and test: Login with administrator privileges Create a directory using Windows Explorer on: C:\A348 Start | Run | Control | Administrative Tools | Internet Information Services Expand local computer, Web Sites, and Default Web Site. Right click on Default Web Site. New | Virtual Directory Alias: A348 Directory: C:\A348 Execute (including scripts) and Browse Depending upon your configuration of operating systems and Access versions, the following may be necessary when ASP script fail when accessing database:Change A348 Application Protection as a work-around associated with using Access databases and ASP: Right click on A348 Select Properties Change Application Protection to: Low(IIS Process) Click OK Stop and start IIS by: Right click on Default Web Site Stop Right click on Default Web Site Start Copy and paste the following client-side HTML to the file named HelloWorld.htm: Test by entering in the browser address: http://localhost/A348/HelloWorld.htm Verify that the server machine is accessible over the Internet. Find out what the local machine's IP is entering at the COMMAND prompt: ipconfig /all. Using a browser, test by: http://Machine's IP Number/A348/HelloWorld.htm Using a browser on another machine, try opening on your server machine by: http://Machine's IP Number/A348/HelloWorld.htm

Server program execution

IIS requires that the virtual directory where the server program resides have execute privileges and the Launch IIS Process Accounthave sufficient privileges.

• Scripts - Server scripts (designated with ASP or ASPX extension) are similar to client scripts but run on the server, sending output to the browser.Assume that a directory C:\A348 has been defined as a virtual directory named A348 with execute privileges. Any ASP file placed in the directory can then be executed; a program named test.asp located on directory C:\A348 can then be executed by:

http://localhost/A348/test.asp

• C++ - Any executable file can be a CGI program. Assume that a directory C:\CGI has been defined as a virtual directory named CGI with execute privileges. Any exe file placed in the directory can then be executed; a program named test.exe located on directory C:\CGI can then be executed by:

http://localhost/CGI/test.exe

• Perl - Perl can be used as a CGI or script programming language. It can be freely downloaded from http://www.ActivePerl.com
• IIS - Under Windows 2000/XP, assuming ActivePerl is installed at C:\Perl:

Login with administrator privileges Create a directory using Windows Explorer on: C:\A348 Start | Run | Control  | Administrative Tools | Internet Information Services Expand local computer and Web Sites. Right click on Default Web Site and open the Properties editor. Click on Home Directory tab. Set Local Path to C:\inetpub\wwwroot Click Configuration button. Click App Mappings tab then Add button. Enter: Executeable: C:\Perl\bin\perl.exe %s %s Extension: .pl Click OK to back out of menus.

The Perl program in virtual directory A348 could then be executed without specifying the Perl interpreter by:

http://localhost/A348/test.pl

• Command Prompt - To execute a Perl program with a .pl extension at the command prompt or by clicking on the file icon, the simplest approach is to associate the file extension with the Perl interpreter.

Locate the perl.exe interpreter using Find. It is probably located as Perl\bin\perl.exe Open Windows Explorer and point to the perl.exe file. Tools | Folder Options | File Types Look for a .pl extension in the list of files types, if not found, continue. Click New and enter .pl as the File Extension. Click Change | Other... Locate and click on perl.exe Open | OK | Close

The Perl program in directory C:\A348 could then be executed without specifying the Perl interpreter by:

C:\A348\test.pl