IIS 7 Cannot Access Website

Question

We can access our website from other systems, but when logged into the local machine where the site is hosted it does not resolve to the site... for example: http://mysite.com/folder/page.aspx gets a 404.... from the local machine we also cannot ping mysite.com ... What are some common things to check to troubleshoot this issue? I'm new to IIS 7 so sorry for the vague question.

Answer 1

Sounds like a DNS issue. Setup an additional binding to port 80 with a blank host name. Then access the site via http://localhost/ or http://127.0.0.1 - you should then see it. Then it's a case of diagnosing the DNS issue.

One solution would be to 'hardcode' it in the hosts file (C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc\hosts) as 127.0.0.1 mysite.com

Answer 2

In 2003 R2 and up, there is a security thing preventing you from using a alias to reach the localhost.

You can either add an OptionalName using this command (fill in ALIAS):

netdom computername ALIAS /add

Or just turn off the security check altogether (if you run the first command, it will create a OptionalName key in this same location):

1. Locate and click the following key in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters
2. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
   Value name: DisableStrictNameChecking
   Data type: REG_DWORD
   Radix: Decimal
   Value: 1

Answer 3

Reviewing the W3SVC logs is a common thing to check to troubleshoot this issue.

See here for more info on IIS logging:

http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/579/advanced-logging-for-iis-70---custom-logging/

Specifically in your case, confirming the substatus code for the 404 may prove useful. Use this article to decipher these codes in IIS7:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943891