Asp.net error messages when on server are not displayed

Question

I have been tasked with setting up asp.net websites on a windows server 2008 which are all in debug mode

When browsing a website on the server and an error occurs, for example the database connection cannot be open I would expect as per normal to receive the Asp.net Server error page with an error dump

Something like - http://www.codeproject.com/KB/books/1861005040/image091.gif

However, what actually happens is I get random characters on the web page. For example: <֟)=����*��2o����v��YK�WuZ,�6[N��f�O��b��@!���u]S��yQ�iN�&e�̋�E���j��1z��x����˼�o�y����U֤˪Mϫ��2d�i�4

This is not the correct or expected behaviour. The event log does however show what has gone wrong.

How do I get the Server Error page to render properly, am I missing something in the servers asp.net setup?

Answer 1

Do you have a Custom Error page for ASP.NET configured in IIS, either globally, for the site, or the Virtual Directory?

Answer 2

Maybe it's an issue with compression. Try to disable compression (web main page, IIS section) in order to see if the error page renders correctly.

Another guess is that there's something wrong with in the character set setting (.NET Globalization in the ASP.NET section).

Answer 3

Are you seeing the same thing in other browsers? Could be your browser settings perhaps?

Answer 4

I'm having the same problem in IIS 7 with ASP.NET 4, but if I change the App Pool to Classic mode the problem no longer occurs. Try to do this.

I my case this doesn't solve the problem, because my application needs to be in Integrated mode...