Directories to parameters with IIS 6 and wildcard redirection

  • May 29, 2008
  • James Skemp
Some parameters have been changed to protect the innocent.  This could be old news, and since I'm talking about IIS 6, I know it is. But, I just discovered the other day how to pass parameters to a file using IIS 6, a virtual directory, and a URL that contains directories below the virtual directory. So, at work I had a horrible URL like the following (ignore the invalid space): /filename.

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Adding .NET functionality to Windows Vista Home Premium Internet Information Services

  • March 22, 2008
  • James Skemp
I had previously covered how to install IIS 7 on Windows Vista Home Premium. This time I'll be briefly covering what you need to enable ASP.NET as well. As before, you'll want to select Control Panel from the Start menu, then click on the Programs link. Next, click on Turn Windows features on or off. Expand Internet Information Services, followed by the World Wide Web Services and Application Development Features.

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How to install Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 on Windows Vista Home Premium

  • March 21, 2008
  • James Skemp
This guide covers Windows Vista Home Premium SP1, and may differ for other versions. I'll also only be covering the basic, default, installation. A guide covering the addition of additional features, like .NET capabilities, may be released as well. While limited, Windows Vista Home Premium allows Internet Information Services (IIS) 7 to be installed with little fuss, using the Control Panel interface. First, select Start > Control Panel. Next click on the Programs item, followed by Turn Windows features on or off.

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Quick and dirty conversions to FLV (Flash Video)

  • February 23, 2008
  • James Skemp
I purchased a Casio EX-Z1200 a bit ago, which I've been playing around with. Overall, I've been very happy with it, however, it outputs movies to the MOV format. While this seemed great for Apple, it wasn't the best for me. After testing out QuickTime Pro (7. something) and Ulead Movie Wizard 3.2 SE VCD (which came with the camera), I was about to settle for less than I hoped for.

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W3C extended log format fields and IIS 6.0

  • November 6, 2007
  • James Skemp
In a previous article, I gave an overview of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) extended log format, in relation to Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0. This time, I'd like to cover what each field provides, again in relation to IIS and a Web site, for statistical and debugging purposes. What fields are available Again, we've covered what fields are available in the W3C extended log format in a previous article.

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A brief overview of IIS 6.0 and the W3C extended log format

  • November 3, 2007
  • James Skemp
In Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0, you can choose to use a number of different formats for your access logs. Access logs contain information about what files are requested, whether the request was successful or not. Of all the available formats, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) extended log file format is by far the most flexible format available, as you can select the information that you would like to log.

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Determining which IIS 6.0 Application Pool belongs to which application

  • October 6, 2007
  • James Skemp
In IIS 6.0, you can setup Application Pools for each of your sites. My knowledge of the exact benefits of this is somewhat lacking, but what I do understand is that these help applications (Web sites) stay within their own bounds, and prevent them from having a bad effect upon each other. For example, if one application is preforming poorly, as long as it's not a server-wide issue, the other sites on the server will be impacted minimally.

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Log Parser script: Percent of status codes across all hits/requests

  • October 1, 2007
  • James Skemp
Note: This article was written using Log Parser 2.2. Therefore, while it may work for a different version, it may not. The following SQL can be used by Log Parser to generate a chart with the total requests (for a day, month, or year) and what percent each status code is of those requests. An example chart can be found at the end of this article. First, I assume that the below is put in the same directory as the logs you would like to parse.

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How to ensure that performance counters continue after a restart

  • September 19, 2007
  • James Skemp
A few days ago my server was restarted in the early morning hours. I had been logging network and processor usage using Windows built-in performance monitoring, but when the server restarted, the logs did not. A bit of research later, it appears that there is a way to have Windows restart the logging after a system restart. To enable this, it seems you just need to have the log stop after a certain amount of time (for example, after x hours, or x days).

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Using Log Parser to find users accounts used to log into an FTP site

  • September 13, 2007
  • James Skemp
The following Log Parser query can be used on FTP log files in order to determine what user names were used to login, or attempt to login, to an FTP site. logparser "select cs-uri-stem, count(cs-method) from ex*.log where cs-method like '%USER' group by cs-uri-stem order by count(cs-method),cs-uri-stem"  This assumes that you've added Log Parser to your path, and that you're running this from your log file directory. This query will tell you what ip addresses successfully logged into your FTP site.

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