How can I make public a webservice in my Windows 2003 server?

Question

I'm trying to figure out how can I configure IIS to host a .NET Webservice (.asmx file) for public domain.

The idea is to make public the asmx url so anyone can view it using Internet Explorer using http://ourpublicserver.com/ourwebservice.asmx (so anonymous users can browse this service)

When we use Firefox on Linux to view this url address, the browser is throwing a window for user autentication (username and password). To supress this user authentication dialog we tried to configure IIS Manager, also tried asp.net impersonation.

Is there a step by step configuration to make this Webservice public? (user authentication is not necessary in our case)

Answer 1

Check directory permissions. Application Pool identity user must have read access to the directory and file. Also, make sure anonymous access is enabled in IIS Manager: right-click the application in IIS Manager -> Directory Security tab -> Authentication and access control, Edit -> Enable anonymous access. Usually the identity chosen looks like IUSR_Machinename. This user also must have read access to the folder.