Configuring IIS5 to host your Intranet, Extranet or Web Site (Windows 2000 Server)

1. Where to find the IIS Console:

Click on 'Start', 'Programs', 'Administrative Tools' and then 'Internet Services Manager' (shown in Fig.1 above).

2. Creating a New Site:

Right-click on the name of your server (in this case 'SYS3') and select 'New', then 'Web Site' (Fig 2).

3. Method of Access (using an IP address):

I have already assigned a range of IP numbers to the Web Server to identify a number of different web sites I am intending on hosting (see 'Setting up multiple IP addresses' on the 'Intranet/Extranet' main page for instructions on how to set this up). These are 192.168.0.101 through to 192.168.0.110. The 192.168.0.3 IP you can see listed in Fig.3 is the primary IP originally assigned to the server.

To use this method, all you need to do is select one of the available IP numbers from the list and leave the port settings on 80.

4. Method of Access (using Port numbers):

In this case, no additional IP numbers have been assigned to the Server, so all we have to work with is 192.168.0.3. Unfortunately, this is already being used by another site so we are going to host this particular Web Service from Port 81 instead of 80. To view the site, users will have to enter http://192.168.0.3:81 (the colon denotes the port number).

Figure 10 - Changing the Host Header

5. Method of Access (using Headers):

Headers allow multiple sites to run from one IP address and through one port (80). The advantage of using "Host Headers" is that a large number of sites can be hosted through just 1 external IP address.

The request is interpreted by the server and the visitor is directed to the correct site based upon the URL they entered and NOT just the IP address it was translated to by the DNS server.

This means that you need to add the URL (excluding http://) in the "Host Header" box as shown above. In the case of my Intranet, I am entering "intranet.simongibson.com" so visitors will type http://intranet.simongibson.com to access the site.

However, this will mean that a DNS entry must exist for "intranet.simongibson.com" to be translated to the correct IP address and route to our web server. This will therefore mean that you must also make this change to your DNS server if you plan to use this method.

Before you begin working with Host Headers it is recommended that you correctly configure a DNS server. To go to the DNS Configuration tutorial on this site (for Windows Server 2003), click here.

6. Defing your site's home directory and who can access it:

Once you have defined which method of access you wish to use, you need to point IIS at your default home directory. This is pretty self-explanatory and in this case is d:\Inetpub\intranet which is the sub-directory 'intranet' located in the 'Inetpub' directory with the D: drive on the web server (SYS3).

Notice that I have unchecked 'Allow anonymous access to this Web Site'. This will ensure that any visitor will have to enter their username, password and Domain to access the site from outside the building (ideal for an Extranet).

If you do not plan to make your Intranet available through the Internet then it is probably best to leave this box checked.

7. Defining Access Permissions:

The options shown in Fig.7 above are the default settings for IIS. These are fine for our Intranet. You can set up seperate access permissions for sub-directories later, such as a cgi-bin. See 'Configuring Active Perl' on the 'Intranet/Extranet' main page for more information.

8. The completed configuration of IIS:

If you have followed these instructions correctly, your IIS dialogue box should look something like Fig 8 (above). You can add as many extra web sites as you like, but bear in mind the access method you plan to use (check section 3, 4 and 5).

To make sure your site is operational, make sure you have a valid default.asp file in the home directory and enter the preconfigured access method (http://192.168.0.101/, http://192.168.0.3:81/ or http://intranet/).