N342 Setting Up the IIS Web Server - The Basics

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IUS Web server

Use the IUS Web server (www.ius.edu) for assignments by first creating a personal Web page on the IUS LAN.
  1. Login to the IUS LAN.
  2. Read and follow the instructions for Creating Your Own Web Page.

Off campus, files can be copied to the W: drive by:

  1. In the IE browser address bar enter:

    ftp://webftp.ius.edu
     

  2. Login using your IUS username and password. A listing of files on W: should appear.
  3. Open the directory containing the files to copy.
  4. Copy files to W:

www.ius.edu/username/directory/filename.asp

where:

 

Your own Web server

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

http://localhost

With the virtual N342 directory, an HTML file named C:\N342\guru.htm could be loaded from the local machine by:

    http://localhost/N342/guru.htm

Exercise 1 - Testing IIS

The machines in LF-105 and LF-111 already have IIS installed in case you want to administer your own Web server. After completing the above steps, do the following to test:

  1. Copy and paste the following client-side HTML to the file named HelloWorld.htm:
    <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript"> 
        for(i=0; i<10; i++) {
             document.write("<h1>Hello World " + i + " times");
        }
    </Script>
  2. Test by entering in the browser address:
    3. http://localhost/N342/HelloWorld.htm
  3. 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/N342/HelloWorld.htm
    • Using a browser on another machine, try opening on your server machine by: http://Machine's IP Number/N342/HelloWorld.htm

 

Server program execution

The IIS server can execute programs and return the program output to the browser. We will use ASP JavaScript for programming. Below examples illustrate how to execute server programs.

  • Login with administrator privileges
  • Create a directory using Windows Explorer on: C:\N342
  • 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.
  • 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

Exercise 2 - Testing IIS Scripts

Verify that the server will execute server-side scripts from the N342 directory:

  1. Login with administrator privileges to the drive (e.g. C: or W:).
  2. Create a directory C:\N342\ASP (using Windows Explorer):
  3. Copy and paste the following ASP script to the file named HelloWorld.asp:
    <%@ LANGUAGE = JScript %>

    <%
            for(i=0; i<10; i++) {
    %> 

                 <h1>Hello World <%= i %> times

    <%
           }
    %>
  4. Test by entering in the browser address:
    5. http://localhost/N342/ASP/HelloWorld.asp

 

Adding Secure Access to the Server on XP

The following restricts access to virtual directories by the Integrated Windows Authentication, a secure login method. Only those users or groups explicitly listed will be able to access the directory over the Internet.

Disable Simple File Sharing

Disabling Simple File Sharing is necessary in order to enable the creation of Access Control Lists for shared disks and folders:

  1. Click Start | My Computer | Tools | Folder Options | View.
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the list of advanced settings and un-check Use Simple File Sharing (Recommended).
  3. Click OK.

Create User Accounts

There are a couple of ways to create user accounts, but let's start simply by clicking Start | Control Panel | User Accounts.

You'll see all of the existing accounts on the computer.

Click Create a new account, and enter the new user's name.

Click Next, and choose the account type. This determines (rather simplistically) which group the user will be placed in. There's generally no good reason to grant remote users Computer administrator privileges, so select Limited, and then click Create Account. The new account appears in the User Accounts window.
 

Create Passwords

By default, Windows XP will not permit a network user to access the XP machine using an account set up without a password.

In Control Panel | User Accounts, click the desired account, and then click Create a password. Enter the password, and then enter it again to confirm it. Enter a password hint if you'd like – a user who forgets the password can look at the hint at the logon screen as a memory aid. Then click Create Password to make it take effect.

Define Virtual Drive Access

  1. Locate the folder of the virtual drive defined for IIS.
  2. Right click | Sharing and Security | Security
  3. Add the names of users (or group) that should be given access to the folder. Set the permissions for each user (group).
  4. Click Advanced and uncheck the Inherit from parent .... This will restrict access to only those users (groups) explicitly listed.

Define Database Directory Access

The database directory must be accessible by IIS and the program updating the database.

  1. Locate the folder of the database.
  2. Right click | Sharing and Security | Security
  3. Add the names of users (or group) that should be given access to the database folder. Set the permissions for each user (group) to FULL.
  4. Add the name of the IIS Guest account, IUSR_machinename and set the permissions to FULL.

Authentication Method

By default IIS allows anyone to access the virtual drive as an anonymous user.

  1. Start | Run | Control | Administrative Tools | Internet Information Services
  2. Expand local computer, Web Sites, and Default Web Site.
  3. Right click on the virtual directory | Properties | Directory Security | Edit 
  4. Only Integrated Windows authentication should be checked.