How to configure Host Headers on a IIS4 with Windows NT 4 server.

• This tutorial assumes that you have already configured your DNS server to resolve the following DNS names to the IP Address 192.168.0.2
  • finance.ccrowe.com
  • sales.ccrowe.com
  • marketing.ccrowe.com

  You can use your own domain names instead of the ones I have given above but remember that you need to have your DNS server configured to resolve to the names you will be using.

  If you do not have a DNS server you can load the HOSTS file which is in \winnt\system32\drivers\etc folder and enter the following:
  

  • 192.168.0.2    finance.ccrowe.com
  • 192.168.0.2    sales.ccrowe.com
  • 192.168.0.2    marketing.ccrowe.com

  Your hosts file should then look like this.

  

  Note: The hosts file will only work on the machine on which it is configured, if you want to test the host headers from a machine other than the IIS web server machine you will need to duplicate the entries in the hosts file on the test machine as well.

• So first off we need to verify that the name resolution is working.

  

  Ping the 3 DNS names you should see a response similar to above.

• Now that we know that the DNS name resolution is working correctly we need to configure IIS, so for this tutorial we will create 3 new web sites.

• Now create the 3 home folders for the web sites we are going to create.
  • c:\inetpub\sites\finance
  • c:\inetpub\sites\sales
  • c:\inetpub\sites\marketing

  

• Now create 3 simple default.asp files that just say the name of the site and save the relevant version to the relevant folder we just created.
  • Welcome to the Finance Web Site
  • Welcome to the Sales Web Site
  • Welcome to the Marketing Web site

• Load Internet Service Manager from the following location.
  • [Start Menu] - [Programs] - [Windows NT 4 Option Pack] - [Microsoft Internet Explorer] - [Internet Services Manager]

• We first off stop the default web site (this is not required but it makes it simplier for the Tutorial)
  
  

• We now create the new web sites, so right click on the [* Computername] node of the tree and select [New]-[Web Site]
• You will be presented with a Wizard which will take us throught the process of creating the web site
• Enter a description for the name of the web site, we will do finance first, so enter "Finance Web Site"
  
  

• Click the next button you will be presented with a dialog asking for the IP Address and TCP port. Enter the details like below. We first enter the actual IP Address that the DNS name resolves to, and then the TCP port.
  
  

• Click next and enter the path to the finance folder, which is c:\inetpub\sites\finance
  
  

• And then finally enter any permissions for the site, the default will be good enough for our tutorial.
  
  

• Click the finish to let the wizard create the web site. 
• Note: Leave the web site in its stopped state.
• We need to repeat the procedure for the other 2 web sites. We only have to change the Description, and the physical path to where the files are strored. 
• Now that all 3 sites are created we must edit the properties of each web site to add the host header details.
• Select the Finance Web Site, and right click and select properties.
  
  

• Now click the [Advanced] button to open the Advanced Multiple Web Site Configuration dialog.
  
  

• Now clik the [Edit] Button to open the Advanced Web Site Identification dialog.
  
  

• Type in the DNS name of the finance site, we created finance.ccrowe.com earlier and we will use that. 
• Click OK to close all of the dialogs that are open, and then repeat this procedure for the other two web sites.
  
• All that is required to do now is to start the 3 web sites. Select each of the three web sites and right click and select the [start] menu item.
  
• After you have created the 3 web sites it is time to test them out. Simply load 3 copies of your web browser, and enter the DNS names into the address bar.
  
  

There you are all done, and quite simple as well. I hope you have no problems trying this out yourself.