space CHAPTER 1: Installing Internet Information Server
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CHAPTER 1:

Installing Internet Information Server


This chapter is designed to help you install Microsoft Internet Information Server for Windows NT quickly and easily.

All you need to do is connect your Windows NT Server–based computer to the Internet or your intranet (your local or wide area network), install Microsoft Internet Information Server software, and point the information server to your home directory. This chapter tells you how.



Important   To publish on the World Wide Web (WWW) and the Internet, you must contact an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to obtain an Internet connection. Your ISP will provide your server’s Internet Protocol (IP) address, subnet mask, and the default gateway’s IP address. (The default gateway is the computer through which your computer will route all Internet traffic.)

Top Installation Overview

Installing Microsoft Internet Information Server is as simple as starting the Setup program on the compact disc. If you already have the necessary Internet or intranet connection, you can accept all of the default settings during setup and then add your HyperText Markup Language (HTML) content files to the \Wwwroot directory. Your files will be immediately available to users. The default setup configurations are suitable for many publishing scenarios without any further modifications.

This section defines the installation requirements and explains how to:

 

Installation Requirements

Microsoft Internet Information Server requires:

 

»&#nbsp;&#nbsp; To publish on the Internet, you will need:

 

»&#nbsp;&#nbsp; To publish on an intranet, you will need:

 

Windows NT Configuration and Security Checklists

Before installing Microsoft Internet Information Server, you must configure the Windows NT Server networking component so that your server can operate on the Internet. You may want to also enhance the Windows NT Server default security settings and implement other Windows NT security measures to prevent Internet users from tampering with your computer or network. For more information about security, see Chapter 5, “Securing Your Site Against Intruders.”

Windows NT Configuration Checklist

Use the Network applet in Control Panel for all configuration tasks mentioned in this section.

 

Windows NT Security Checklist

Several steps can be taken to enhance the security of a computer connected to the Internet. For further information on these checklist topics, see Chapter 5, “Securing Your Site Against Intruders.”

User Accounts

 

NTFS File Security

 

Running Other Network Services

 

Contents of the Compact Disc

The Windows NT Server compact disc contains the \Inetsrv directory. From that directory use Inetstp.exe to install Microsoft Internet Information Server and all components, if you did not install Microsoft Internet Information Server while setting up Windows NT.


Top Installation Notes

Before Installing the Internet Information Server Services

Before installing the Internet Information Server services, disable any other Internet services.

If your server has another version of File Transfer Protocol (FTP), gopher, or WorldWide Web (WWW) services installed (such as the FTP service included with Windows NT Server or the European Microsoft Windows Academic Centre [EMWAC] services included in the Windows NT Resource Kit), such services must be disabled before you install the Microsoft Internet Information Server services. See the documentation for each service to see how to disable it.

 

FTP Guest Account Access

During the Setup process, a screen will appear, asking you whether you want to disable access by the Guest account to your FTP server.

It is recommend that you select Yes to protect the contents of your system. If you choose the No option and enable guest access to your server, all existing files and any new files will be available to the Guest account through FTP. You will need to disable access to each file or directory individually to prevent unauthorized access. Disabling FTP access for the Guest account will not affect the IUSR_computername account that is created during Setup.

Administrator Privileges Required

To install the Internet Information Server services, you must be logged on to the server with administrator privileges. Administrator privileges on the server are also required to configure the services remotely by using Internet Service Manager or HTML Administrator.

Installation Directory

By default, Internet Information Server is installed from the compact disc to C:\winnt\system32\Inetsrv. If you change the default, be sure to enter a fully qualified path name, including a drive letter. Relative paths and paths without drive letters can be misinterpreted by Setup.

Installing Internet Service Manager Only

To provide for separate installation of the administration tools, Microsoft Internet Information Server includes the Internet Service Manager installation directory, \Admin. To install this component, run Setup.exe from the appropriate directory.

Remove All Button Affects Event Log Availability

If you remove Internet Information Server, you will be unable to review Internet Information Server events in the Event Log.

Remove All Button Leaves Content Directories and Files

The Remove All button in Setup removes all Internet Information Server program files but does not remove the directory structure or any content or sample files. This setting protects your content files from unintentional deletion. If you want to remove these directories and files after completing the Remove All process, use the Windows NT Explorer.

Converting 16-Bit ODBC Drivers to 32-Bit during Setup

If there are data sources referring to 16-bit Open Data Base Connectivity (ODBC) drivers on the system, Setup will detect them and ask you if you want to convert them to 32-bit. If you choose Yes, these data sources will be converted to refer to the 32-bit ODBC drivers.


Top Installing Internet Information Server

Once you have your Internet connection and have configured Windows NT Server, you can install Microsoft Internet Information Server.

While setting up Windows NT Server, you will be asked if the computer is to be used as a server on the Internet.

»&#nbsp;&#nbsp; To install Internet Information Server during Windows NT Server Setup

 



Note   If you have already installed Windows NT Server version 4.0, you can install Internet Information Server separately by running Inetstp.exe directly from the \Inetsrv directory on the Windows NT Server compact disc.

To install the Internet Information Server services, you must be logged on with administrator privileges. In addition, to configure the Internet Information Server services by using the Internet Service Manager, your user account must be a member of the Administrators group on the target computer.

»&#nbsp;&#nbsp; To install separately after installing Windows NT Server

 
The preceding steps are all that is required for a simple installation. You are now ready to publish on the Internet or your intranet. There is no need to start Internet Service Manager unless you want to make advanced configuration changes. (If so, refer to Chapter 3, “Configuring and Managing Your Internet Information Server.”) Use the Services applet in Control Panel to confirm successful installation of the World Wide Web publishing service.

Unattended Setup When Installing from a Network Directory

If you are using Microsoft Internet Information Server on a network you can copy the contents of the \Inetsrv directory on the Windows NT Server compact disc to a directory on your network and perform unattended installations over the network from that directory. (You can start an unattended setup from the compact disc itself; however, only the default configuration can be installed in this case.) This is useful for installing several servers at your site or to provide a simple over-the-network installation process for Internet Explorer users.

In the \Inetsrv directory, there is an Unattend.txt file. Unattend.txt is a sample configuration file used by the program for unattended installation. You modify the values in the file to configure setup. In general, the value 1 represents TRUE and the value 0 represents FALSE. It is suggested that you copy Unattend.txt to the directory containing the Setup.exe you will use, then modify it to meet your installation requirements.

To start unattended mode setup you must use the command prompt. Change to the directory containing both Setup.exe and Unattend.txt and type

setup -b unattend.txt

where Unattend.txt is the file you have modified. See Unattend.txt on the compact disc for more information about unattended setup.

The IUSR_computername Account

Setup automatically creates an anonymous account called IUSR_computername. This account has a randomly generated password and privilege to log on locally. On domain controllers, this account is added to the domain database. This process is fully automatic. After installation is complete, you can change the user name and password for this account from the Service property sheet in Internet Service Manager, as long as the new user name and password matches the same user name and password in the Windows NT User Manager.

The WWW, FTP, and gopher services use the IUSR_computername user account by default when anonymous access is allowed. To set the rights for ISUR_computername, use User Manager. To set file permissions on NTFS drives for ISUR_computername, use the Windows NT Explorer. To change the account used for anonymous logons for any of the Internet Services, select the Service Properties option from the Properties menu in Internet Service Manager.


Top How to Publish Information

Now that Microsoft Internet Information Server is installed and running, you are ready to publish on the Internet or your intranet. Providing information with Internet Information Server is easy. If your files are in HTML format, just add them to the appropriate home directory. For example, if you are using the WWW service, place the files in the \Wwwroot directory.

For more extensive information on creating and publishing content files, see Chapter 8, “Publishing Information and Applications.” Note that you can also create and publish highly interactive systems by writing programs using ISAPI.



Note   If you provide files with the gopher or File Transfer Protocol (FTP) services, you can share those files instantly. Users can navigate through the files much as they do in Windows NT Explorer or at the command prompt. With gopher, you can customize how your directories and files appear to browsers; you can also include links to other servers in your files. FTP can be used to accept files from or send files to Internet users.

Attempting to Publish from Redirected Network Drives

The FTP, gopher, and WWW services cannot publish from redirected network drives (that is, from drive letters assigned to network shared directories). To use network drives, you must use the server and share UNC name (for example, \\Computername\Sharename\Wwwfiles). If you specify a user name and password to connect to a network drive, all requests from remote users to access that drive must use the user name and password specified, not the anonymous ISUR_computername account or another account you may have specified.

Consider security issues carefully when using this feature. Remote users could possibly make changes to a network drive by using the permissions of the user name specified to connect to the network drive.

Default.htm and the Internet Information Server
Home Page

By default, Internet Information Server uses a file named Default.htm as the home page for the various samples, tools, and demonstrations that come with the product. If the <wwwroot> directory of your WWW server already contains a file named Default.htm when you install Internet Information Server, your file will not be overwritten with our file. As a result, you will not have immediate access to our sample home page and the links it provides when you run Internet Information Server.

In this case, to view our version of Default.htm and the links it provides.type the following URL in the Internet Explorer Address box.

http://computername/samples/default.htm

This command loads the file Default.htm from the \Wwwroot\Samples directory on your Internet Information Server.

You can also rename or move your version of Default.htm to a different directory and then copy the file Default.htm from \Samples. This approach will make our version of Default.htm your server’s home page.

How to Test Your Internet Information Server Installation

You can test your installation by using Internet Explorer to view the files in your home directory.

»&#nbsp;&#nbsp; To test a server connected to the Internet

 

»&#nbsp;&#nbsp; To test a server on your intranet

 


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