Problems:
1. After installing IIS, ASP.NET and WSS, I cannot open website on local host or other machines on the same local network;
2. After installing Wamp Server, I can open from localhost, but not from other machines on the same local network.
Solutions:
1. Found and followed this How To Troubleshoot a Web Server in Windows Server 2003. Firstly, you won’t find ‘Inetinfo.exe’ in the Task Manager. However, I knew IIS was working because you could check in both ‘Services’ and ‘Event Viewer’ which says so (all the required services have already been automatically started). Later I fixed a DCOM permission error related to IISAdmin, which requires a local activation permission for ‘Network Service’ role.
2. Changed some settings in httpd.conf: in <Directory> section, made “Allow from all”.
3. Installed DNS and WINS components from Windows Server 2003, however, that was not the key to solve the problems.
4. Checked all the permission and security settings in IIS Manager, however, still didn’t help.
5. Finally found out the key had two: the local host file and local firewall settings. For how to write a host file, please see this. Opened http and https service on the server, and all problems were solved.
6. For setting virtual hosts for Apache, please refer to 1, 2 and 3.
