Web Server

IIS (Internet Information Services) 6.0 is Microsoft’s web server that comes supplied as standard with Windows Server 2003. IIS is a collection of services designed to allow you to run a web server on your Windows server the way you want it to be.

For example IIS comes with support for ASP.NET web software applications, and is the only web server that supports ASP.NET as well as a built in SMTP email server and the option to allow you to install support for additional programming languages if needed.

IIS is the Apache web server’s main rival, and is gradually gaining ground within the private server world; although unlike Apache IIS will only run on the Microsoft Windows operating system meaning that it isn’t compatible with any other systems i.e. Mac OSX and Linux.

If you have a Windows XP Pro computer, then you may want to install IIS 5.1 locally so allow you to test web applications without the need to upload them to a live web server. If you have a Windows Server 2003 server then you may want to install IIS 6.0 so that you have a live environment in which you are able to host your web based applications.

IIS 7.0 is available for both Windows Vista client machines and servers running Windows Server 2008; this means that you could develop and test locally and then upload your web application into a similar environment.

For our first example we will be installing IIS 6.0 on a Windows Web Server 2003 to enable us to host web applications written in classic ASP in a live environment so that they can be viewed from the internet.

In order to install IIS 6.0, you will first need to navigate to ‘Start > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs’. From there you will need to select ‘Add/Remove Windows Components’ from the left hand menu.

The Add/Remote Components wizard should then launch, presenting you with a variety of options of what you are able to install to extend the capabilities of your Windows Server 2003 machine. If you select ‘Application Server’ then click the ‘Details’ button near the bottom of the window, a window should open allowing you to select what other applications to install; one of these should be ‘Internet Information Services’. If you select ‘Internet Information Services’ then again click the ‘Details’ button near the bottom of the window, you will be able to select more in depth options for the installation of IIS; these include:

• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) – if you intend on uploading files to your web server from remote locations, and from multiple locations, then you might want to consider installing the FTP service as it will allow you to upload all types of files from any internet connected computer or server that is able to function with FTP
• Frontpage Extensions Server 2002 – if you have designed a website with specific functionality on Microsoft’s Frontpage website builder program, then you will need to install this service to ensure that your website is able to function correctly
• Internet Information Services Manager – it is important that you choose this option as you will need this program in order to manage your installation of Internet Information Services
• Send Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) – if you intend on sending emails from any web applications that you have coded using either the ASP or ASP.NET programming languages then you will need this service to ensure that your emails are sent
• Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) – if you plan on hosting a newsgroup on your Windows sever, then you will need to install the NNTP service to ensure that it is able to function correctly
• World Wide Web Publishing (WWW) – the WWW service is the service that is used by IIS to serve requested web pages to client machines when they make requests for pages to your web server.

Once you have selected the appropriate options based on your requirements by checking the related boxes, you can continue installation by ensuring that your Windows Server 2003 CD-ROM is in the CD drive of your server, or that it is accessible by your server via the network. If you click the ‘Next’ button on the open windows, your installation will proceed and you will be notified on completion of installation.

On completion, click the ‘Finish’ button to exit the installation wizard.

Once installed, you will be able to publish any web applications or pages that you have designed into a live environment, and depending on the connection that your server has, should also be able to view them from the internet.

The first thing you will want to do on completion of installation is to configure IIS to work and perform in the way you want it to. Just as long as you selected it during installation, you should have access to the IIS manager that provides many different options for you to choose from.

You can access the IIS manager by navigating to ‘Start > Administrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager’.

The manager itself looks like this:

To create any websites, you will need to navigate to the ‘Web Sites’ option on the left hand pane, where all your existing sites will also be displayed. If you right click on ‘Web Sites’ you should be presented with the site creation wizard.

By default, a website named ‘Default Website’ is created during the installation, and its root in most cases is ‘C:\inetpub\wwwroot’; however, when you create your own websites you can choose where you want the website’s root to be.

That’s it! You should now be able to view your documents on the world wide web just as long as your server has a public IP address, and that you have setup IIS web server correctly.