Web application will not resolve when using machine name in url

Question

I am running Windows Server 2008 with IIS7. On that server I have a third party RIA (Silverlight 3.0) application. When I am on the machine I can access the application via http://localhost/MyAppRIA and everything works as it should. When I try to access it via http://{Machine Name}/MyAppRIA I get a blank page with a Silverlight download graphic in the top left corner.

Why can I not access the application by using the machine name. Do I have a misconfiguration with my DNS or IIS?

Answer 1

That's from the bindings in IIS. If you ping localhost (it will be 127.0.0.1) and {Machine Name}, they will be different IPs. Make sure to add a binding for the machine name IP (and optionally host header) for the site that you want it to bind to.

Here's a video I put together of IIS bindings that you may find helpful.

Answer 2

Check the HTML using your browser's "view source" command. I bet the app has somehow hard-coded "localhost" into the paths, so when you look at it from another machine it's not able to download the assets it needs.

Answer 3

Don't. If it works from client machines, that's good enough.

Answer 4

What happens when you access by IP address?
You can try using the equivalent of localhost by using:
http://127.0.0.1/MyAppRia

If that works then you could put the machine name into your localhosts file.
On Windows that is usually something like
\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Answer 5

Assuming that the bindings are correct (Scott Forsyth answer offers some good information), it is possible you could be running into the infamous loopback check. Have a look at the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896861

Specifically, look at 'Method 2: Disable the loopback check (less-recommended method)'. Many times this simple registry setting can cause some big headaches.