IIS newbie question about setup

[yes4me2]

I am using win2000 workstation... yeah... I know... I am missing half of the exciting features of IIS, but that's all I have at home right now to learn IIS. I am also using a router... anyhow I have a few questions about the configuration of IIS (Internet Information Services --> Default Web Site ==> properties...)



If you click on the tab "Web site", there are a few items that confuse me:

"Web site description"
What is it for? I couldn't find any use of it.

"IP address"
What should I put? Default is all unassigned... and that works so far.

"Connection"
What is consider a connection? Let's say you have 1 user who open two browsers IE and connect to my webpage... is that 2 connections or just one?

"HTTP Keep-Alives"
This seems to be best to keep it always ON according to several documentations. Is there any particular reason you would like to keep this OFF?

"Active Log Format"
Where can you see the log?



If you click on the tab "Home Directory",

The checkbox "Index this resource"
I read the help, but I still don't get it. What does this checkbox do?

"Application Protection"
I read the help, but I still don't get it. What is the big deal?



If you click on the tab "HTTP Headers"

I throught HTTP headers were only part of HTML (e.g. meta http-equiv=Pragma content=no-cache). Can this also be submitted by the server?! Could you have a conflict of HTTP headers between the HTML and the server HTTP Headers?

If you try Content Rating--> Rating Service-->Rating Questionaire
Not that I care much about, but the link doesn't seem to work anymore. How is it SUPPOSE to work? Is that kind of information passed through the HTTP headers?



How do you get translate a IP address into a domain name?

 

[Nothinman]

First make sure you've install all available updates and gone through MS securing IIS docs, if you havn't you've probably already gotten CodeRed or Nimda and will have some cleaning up to do.

I am using win2000 workstation... yeah... I know... I am missing half of the exciting features of IIS

The only 'features' you're missing is more than 10 connections and virtual hosts, really. Win2K Pro IIS still has all the exciting exploits and security problems of the server version =)

"IP address"
What should I put? Default is all unassigned... and that works so far.

If you have a multi-homed host the IP you put in there will be the only address IIS listens on. For instance, if you put 127.0.0.1 you won't be able to get to the web site from anywhere but the local box.

"Connection"
What is consider a connection? Let's say you have 1 user who open two browsers IE and connect to my webpage... is that 2 connections or just one?

Probably 2. HTTP isn't a very efficient protocol, infact HTTP 1.0 makes each client open a new connection for each file, HTTP 1.1 handles that a little better. Unless IIS has some internal 'logic' to guess about which connections are related, but I doubt it.

"HTTP Keep-Alives"
This seems to be best to keep it always ON according to several documentations. Is there any particular reason you would like to keep this OFF?

It can probably cause problem with old, HTTP 1.0 only, clients.

"Active Log Format"
Where can you see the log?

Look around some more, it lets you set the log directory.

"Application Protection"
I read the help, but I still don't get it. What is the big deal?

ASP applications run 'inside' of the IIS process and poorly written apps can cause havoc, this gives you a little protection from that.

If you click on the tab "HTTP Headers"

I throught HTTP headers were only part of HTML (e.g. meta http-equiv=Pragma content=no-cache). Can this also be submitted by the server?! Could you have a conflict of HTTP headers between the HTML and the server HTTP Headers?

HTTP Headers are what MS calles Virtual Hosts, when a HTTP 1.1 browser connects to a www server it sends some information about itself before requesting the page it wants, part of that info is what it thinks the site's hostname is. With that information you can have the server hand out different pages for different named sites. I think that's only available in NT Server though.

How do you get translate a IP address into a domain name?

nslookup <ip address>

 

[yes4me2]

Thanks a lot !!