View Default Web Site

[cguan_77]

hi, does anyone can give an idea on how to view the default website that is installed on IIS 6.0? I can access to the FTP, but i'm an unable to view the default website on another pc? thanks for any input...

[sknake]

What is the error you are receiving? Check your windows firewall and ensure you have bound your default website to your external IP add the host header is a wilcard since you will be referencing it by IP address.

[cguan_77]

What is the error you are receiving? Check your windows firewall and ensure you have bound your default website to your external IP add the host header is a wilcard since you will be referencing it by IP address.

there is no error..but only a blank page is seen..

the host header is a wilcard since you will be referencing it by IP address

what you mean by the host header is a wildcard? in the tab for host header in this website should be a wild card or what? pls. pardon me if i sound ridicolous...

maybe i'm just missing some configuration... pls. help..thank you.

[cguan_77]

hi can anyone help.. http://localhost/ works fine if i run this on the win 2003 machine..test page is displayed..

but if i tried to access on another pc.. like http://mymachine_ip_ad nothing is shown.. iE just diplayed "cannot display the web page"...

can anyone help...please... ;)

[blud]

The default website is only bound to the local interface, I had to restart IIS to pick up the new IP if the machine was on a DHCP lease. If you go onto the server machine and do netstat -an what does it show for:

Proto  Local Address          Foreign Address        State
  TCP    X.X.X.X:80            0.0.0.0:0              LISTENING

(The value we're looking for is X.X.X.X)

[cguan_77]

the machine is using a static ip... i'll try what u said.. let you know.. thanks...

[cguan_77]

hi just now able to find time for this issue hope you get back to me...

i tried netstat -an and the result is like this: 0.0.0.0:80 TCP 0.0.0.0:80 0.0.0.0:0 LISTENING so should i change it to my machine ip or what? thanks...

[gbarnas]

The "default web site" is just that - a "default" web site who's content is displayed if a web site with more specific identifiers is not found. For example:

Web Site A = bound to 192.168.14.8, no host header
Web Site B = bound to 192.168.14.8, host header = siteb.domain.lan
Default Site = bound to "All unassigned IP Addresses", no host header

In DNS, there is an A record for "web.domain.lan" pointing to 192.168.14.8, and a CNAME of "siteb.domain.lan" pointing to "web.domain.lan".

If you point your browser to "http://web.domain.lan", you should see site A content, while "http"//siteb.domain.lan" should display site B's content. There's no way to see the default content in this configuration!

Shut down site B and browse to "http"//siteb.domain.lan" - you'll see Site A's content. This is because Site A is listening on the same IP, and there's no longer an active site with a host header to route the traffic to an alternate site. Since you're going to a specific IP, the web site bound to that IP will display. This is why you never mix sites with and without host headers on a single web IP!

Start up site B - it should display. Shut down site A and brows to Site B - you still see site B. Browse to Site A and you'll see the content from the default web site. This is because there's no site bound only to the IP, and Site B has both the IP and Host Header bound..

The purpose of the default web site is actually to display a generic "site unavailable" message, and possibly a menu to guide the user to a specific alternate site.

Production web sites should always be bound to an IP address when possible (allowing both HTTP and HTTPS traffic). If HTTPS traffic isn't needed, then multiple sites can be bound to a single address and routed to specific sites with host headers. Only the default site should listen on "All unassigned IPs", and it should never use host headers.

In good practice, you assign an IP address to the server hosting the web sites, and then you assign secondary IP addresses to the web server (the software!!) In our environment, where we host several different sites for our different divisions, we have an array of web servers and each has 17 IP addresses..
WebServer1 192.168.16.36 (server IP, for management)
WebServer1a01 192.168.18.16 IP for first web site group
WebServer1a02 192.168.18.17 IP for second web site group
WebServer1a03 192.168.18.18 IP for third web site group
WebServer1a04 192.168.18.19 IP for fourth web site group
(and so on...)
These are the A records in DNS. Since we use SSL, we assign unique IPs to each site. We do have a few informational sites that are all hosted on the last assigned IP address and defined with host headers.

The point of this configuration is that the CNAMES are easily translated into A record names - from internal tech support, the name "WebServer1a03" quickly identifies the host and instance that is having problems, compared to "www.bassfishing.com" which could be on any of 8 web servers in the array.

If you want more details about using sites, host headers, and web server configuration, look at the Best Practice whitepaper on my web site in the Resources section.

Glenn

[gbarnas]

BTW - the 0.0.0.0:80 is correct, as this indicates that the server is listening on port 80 on any IP address that the system will accept.

Glenn

[cguan_77]

thanks for all the input.. :)