IIS or Internet Information Services is a powerful service on Windows operating systems used for hosting websites. It is particularly useful for hosting ASP.net applications.
I’ve been playing with various editions of Windows Server 2012 at work and though it would be a good time to put together a quick guide. A few simple steps in this guide will prevent common ‘403 – permission denied’ errors.
First navigate to C:inetpubwwwroot and create a directory for your new site. You can name this whatever you want. This is the root directory of your site- place your site files here.
Navigate back to C: right click inetpub and select Properties. Click the security tab, then edit followed by add. Type Network Service and then ok.
Assign Read & execute, List folder contents, Read and Write permissions. Apply and close the window.
Click advanced then Enable inheritance followed by Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permission entries from this object. Apply and close all windows.
Open IIS Manager from the Apps window. Right click Sites and select add. Fill in the credentials for your site.
Back in the main IIS screen, under connections select Application Pools. Right click the application pool just created with your site and select advanced. Find application pool identity and under Built-in account select NetworkService.
Back in the main IIS screen, right click the default websites and click remove.
That’s it! Point your browser towards your domain name or IP address and you should see your site index page.