Configuring a WEB or HTTP Server using Microsoft Windows Server 2003 OS

.:: Web Server ::.

A web server can be referred to as either the hardware, the computer or the software, the computer application that helps to deliver content that can be accessed through the internet. Most people think a web server is just the hardware computer, but a web server is also referred to as the software computer application that is installed in the hardware computer. A web server is what makes it possible to be able to access content like web pages, or other data from anywhere as long as it is connected to the internet. The hardware part is what houses the content, while the software part is what makes the content accessible through the internet. The most common use of web servers are to host websites but there are other uses like data storage or for running enterprise applications. There are also different ways to request content from a web server. The most common request is the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), but there are also other requests like the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) or the File Transfer Protocol (FTP).

Installing Internet Information Services (IIS)

Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) is the Web service that is integrated with Windows Server 2003.
To install IIS, add optional components, or remove optional components, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, → Control Panel, and click on Add or Remove Programs.

2. Click Add/Remove Windows Components.
3. In the Windows Components list, click Application Server, but do not select the check box.
4. Click Details, and then click to select the Internet Information Services (IIS) check box.
5. Click Details to view the list of IIS optional components.
6. Select the optional components that you want to install. By default, the following components are selected:
   • Common Files
   • Internet Information Services Manager
   • World Wide Web Service

7. Click World Wide Web Service (but do not clear the check box), and then click Details to view the list of IIS optional subcomponents, such as the Remote Administration (HTML) Tool. Select the optional subcomponents that you want to install. By default, the following component is selected:
   • World Wide Web Service

8. Click OK, click OK, click OK, and then click Next to install the selected components.
9. Click Finish to complete the Windows Components Wizard, and then close the Add or Remove Programs dialog box.

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Configuring Anonymous Authentication

To configure anonymous authentication, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, → Administrative Tools, and click on Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

2. Under ComputerName (local computer) (where ComputerName is the name of the server), right-click Web Sites, and then click Properties.
   

   

3. In the Web Sites Properties dialog box, click the Directory Security tab.
4. Under Authentication and access control, click Edit.
5. Click to select the Enable anonymous access check box (if it is not already selected).
   Note The user account in the User name box is used for anonymous access only, through the Windows guest account.

By default, the server creates and uses the account IUSR_ComputerName. The anonymous user account password is used only by Windows. Anonymous users do not log on by using a user name and password.

6. Click OK two times.

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Basic Web Site Configuration

1. Click Start, → Administrative Tools, and click on Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. Under ComputerName (local computer), expand Web Sites.
3. Right-click Default Web Site, and then click Properties.
4. Click the Web Site tab. If you have multiple IP addresses assigned to your computer, click the IP address that you want to assign to this Web site in the IP Address list.
5. Click the Performance tab. Use these options to set the Web site properties that affect memory, bandwidth use, and the number of connections to the Web site.
   By configuring network bandwidth on a particular site, you can better control how much traffic there is at that site. For example, by restricting bandwidth on a lower-priority Web site, you can restrict bandwidth to allow increased access to other sites. Likewise, when you specify the number of connections to a Web site, you free resources for other sites. Settings are site-specific and you can adjust them as network traffic and use changes.
   • Click to select the Limit the network bandwidth available to this Web site check box to configure IIS to throttle network bandwidth to the amount selected in the Maximum bandwidth (in kilobytes per second) box.
   • Under Web site connections, click Unlimited to permit unlimited client connections to this Web site, or click Connections limited to and enter the number of connections you want to limit this Web site to. Limiting connections permits computer resources to be used for other processes.
     Note Each client that browses the Web site typically uses about three connections.
6. Click the Home Directory tab.
   • If you want to use Web content that is stored on the local computer, click A directory located on this computer, and then type the path that you want in the Local path box. For example, the default path is C:\Inetpub\wwwroot.
     Note For added security, do not create Web content folders in the root folder.
   • If you want to use Web content that is stored on a different computer, click A share located on another computer, and then type the location that you want in the Network directory box that appears.
   • If you want to use Web content that is stored on another Web address, click A redirection to a URL, and then type the location that you want in the Redirect to box. Under The client will be sent to, click to select the appropriate check box.
7. Click the Documents tab. Note the list of documents that IIS can use as the default start document. If you want to use Index.html as your start document, you must add it. To do this, follow these steps:
   • Click Add.
   • In the Default content page box, type Index.html, and then click OK.
   • Click the Move Up button until Index.html is displayed at the top of the list.
8. Click OK to close the Default Web Site Properties dialog box.
9. Right-click Default Web Site, and then click Stop.
10. Right-click Default Web Site, and then click Start.

The server is now configured to accept incoming Web requests to the default Web site. You can replace the content of the default Web site with the Web content that you want, or you can create a new Web site.

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Creating New Website

1. Click, Start → Administrative Tools, and click on Internet Services Manager
2. Click on the computer symbol to view the services that are available. To create a new web site, perform the following:
3. Right click on “Websites” and click on New → New Website. This will launch the Web Site Creation Wizard.

4. Click “Next."
5. Provide a description of your web site. For example, www.domainname.com.

6. Click “Next.” In the “IP Address and Port Settings” section, click the drop-down menu under “Enter the IP address to use for this Web site” and select the IP address you want to use for your web site. (Note: Do not use the VLAN IP address for your web site). You do not have to modify the port number. The default TCP port for HTTP is 80. Host Headers are used to allow multiple web sites to be used on one IP address. Click “Next.”
7. Now you must choose the hard drive location of your web site files. Click “Browse” to select the location. Then click “Next.”

8. The next step in the wizard is to define the access permissions of your web site. The permissions that you choose here are for the root directory and are applied to any subdirectories. However, the permissions for the subdirectories can be changed. The following contains a brief description of each permission:
   Read: Allows users to view web pages on the web server.
   Run Scripts (such as ASP): This option should be enabled if you need to execute Active Server Pages (ASP) scripts.
   Execute (such as ISAPI applications or CGI): Select this option if you are going to execute CGI scripts.
   Write: This option should be enabled if a user needs to write information to a web page. An example of this would be completing an online form from their web browser. This should remain unchecked for the root directory for security purposes.
   Browse: Displays the files and subdirectories in the root directory in html format if the user does not specify a file on the web server, or the default document is not defined on the system. This feature should be left unchecked for security.
   After choosing the permissions for the default site, click “Next.”
9. Click “Finish” to complete the Web Site Creation Wizard.
10. In the Internet Information Services window your web site will appear. Right click your web site’s icon and click “Properties” in order to configure the properties of your web site. For a simple test web site, you will not need to modify these properties.
11. Now open up a web browser and type http://YOUR _IP_ADDRESS in order to view your web site.

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Creating a Local Virtual Directory

1. Right-click on the created site name and select New → Virtual Directory to start the Virtual Directory Creation Wizard. Click Next and type the alias for the virtual directory.
2. Click Next and specify the physical folder on the local server to map to this alias.
3. Click Next and specify permissions and finish the wizard.

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Creating a Remote Virtual Directory

If you want to stored the data in a shared computer on a network file server, you may need to create remote virtual directory.

Let's create a remote virtual directory within a site that associates the alias /shareddata with this share.

1. Right-click on the site name and select New → Virtual Directory to start the Virtual Directory Creation Wizard, specify shareddata as the alias for the directory, and type \\IP_ADDRESS\sharedfoldername as the UNC path to the share:
2. Click Next and a new screen appears prompting you to either specify credentials for accessing the share or use the authenticated user's credentials for this purpose.
3. Click Next and finish the wizard.

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Controlling Access to a Web Site

In total, there are five authentication options displayed on the particular page are:

• Anonymous access. Used mainly for web sites on public (Internet) web servers.
• Integrated Windows authentication. Used mainly for web sites on a private intranet.
• Digest authentication. Challenge/response authentication scheme that only works with clients running Internet Explorer 5.0 or later.
• Basic authentication. Older authentication scheme that transmits passwords over the network in clear text, so use this only in conjunction with SSL.
• .NET Passport authentication. Allows users to use their .NET Passport for authentication.

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Configuring Web Site Redirection

Sometimes you need to take your web site down for maintenance, and in such cases it's a good idea to redirect all client traffic directed to your site to an alternate site or page informing users what's going on. IIS lets you redirect a web site to a different file or folder on the same or another web site or even to an URL on the Internet. To configure redirection you use the Home Directory tab and choose the redirection option you want to use.

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Stopping and Starting Web Sites

If sites become available you may need to restart IIS to get them working again. Restarting IIS is a last resort as any users currently connected will be disconnected and any data stored in memory by IIS applications will be lost. You can restart IIS using IIS Manager by right-clicking on the server node

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If you are prompted to insert the Windows Server 2003 CD-ROM into the computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive do so. Setup copies the WEB server and tool files to your computer.

(**This CD must be the same type of edition and service pack, otherwise it may not work)

Help Links:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_server
2. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324742
3. http://www.servepath.com/support/win2003-setupchecklist.php#webserver
4. http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Web-Sites-Windows-2003.html

N.B. :

**This tutorial is created using Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1