[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change]

Troubleshooting Your Web Site

This section covers the following topics:

Pinging your server
Verifying or changing the location of your default Web site content pages
Verifying the files

Pinging your server

If your Web browser returned either the Cannot find server error or The page cannot be displayed error, then use the ping command to test for the following:

The name resolution server resolves your IIS Web server's name to its IP address
Your server responds to network requests from a remote computer

The ping command is used from a command prompt window. Before you can ping your server, you need to determine the server name or its IP address. If you want to ping your server by name and your server is on an intranet, you need to know its NetBios name; if you want to ping your server by name and your server connects to the Internet, you need to know its fully qualified domain name (FQDN).

To determine the NetBios name

From the Start menu, right-click My Computer, and click Properties.
Click the Computer Name property sheet, and click Properties. The Computer name: text box displays your server's NetBios name.

To determine the FQDN name

From the Start menu, right-click My Computer, and click Properties.
Click the Computer Name property sheet. The Full computer name: displays your server's FQDN name.

To determine the IP address

Use the ipconfig command from the command prompt on the IIS server. See Related Topics for more information about the ipconfig command.

Important To adequately test network connectivity, it is necessary to ping your server from a remote computer. If you run a ping command from your local server, the ping does not enter the network loops within your local server.

To ping your server by name

If your server is on an intranet, use its NetBios name to ping your server.

From a remote computer, in the command prompt, type ping servername.
Press ENTER.

If your server is on the Internet, use its fully qualified domain name (FQDN) to ping your server.

From a remote computer, in the command prompt, type ping www.fully_qualified_domain_name.com

After pinging your server, one of the following happens:

You receive four replies from the Web server that include the IP address of the server, which indicates that the server is responding to network requests.
You receive an error message such as Request timed out or Unknown host.

If you receive a Request timed out error, the Web server is not responding to network requests or there is some kind of network failure between the remote computer and the server. See Related Topics for additional troubleshooting information.

If you receive an Unknown host error, try to ping your server by IP address to determine if you have a name resolution problem.

To ping your server by IP address

From a remote computer, in the command prompt, type ping IPaddress

After pinging your server, one of the following happens:

You receive four replies from the Web server that include the IP address of the server, which indicates that the server is responding to network requests.
You receive an error message such as Request timed out or Unknown host.

If the server responds when you ping its IP address but does not respond when you ping the server name, you have a name resolution problem. Search for the keywords name resolution in the Windows online help troubleshooting procedures.

If you receive a Request timed out or Unknown host error, the Web server is not responding to network requests or there is some kind of network failure between the remote computer and the server. See Related Topics for additional troubleshooting information.

Verifying and changing the location of your default Web site content pages

If you receive either the Under Construction or The site you are trying to reach does not currently have a default page error, you need to verify and/or change the location of your default Web site. By default, the files for your default Web site are located at x:\inetpub\wwwroot, where x is the drive that Windows is installed on. For example, if Windows is installed to your c: drive, the content files for your default home page are stored at c:\inetpub\wwwroot.

Important You need to test the location of your content files from the server that is running IIS.

To determine the location of your default Web site content pages

Open the IIS snap-in.
Open the server node in the left hand region of the IIS snap-in. An asterisk between the server icon and the server name indicates the local server.
Select Default Web Site.
From the Action menu, select Properties.
Select the Home Directory property sheet. The Local Path text box displays the path to your default Web site content pages.

note Note If you want to change the local path to your content files, click the Browse button on the Home Directory property sheet or enter a new location in the Local Path text box. Be sure to verify your content files exist in the correct folder. Click the Help button on the Home Directory property sheet for more information.

To verify your content files exist in the correct folder

After you have determine the location of your default Web site content files, use Windows Explorer to verify that the files actually exist in the folder that your Web site is configured to use. If your files do not exist in the specified location, use determine the location of your files and update the location of your default Web site content files on the Home Directory property sheet.

Restarting IIS

If you receive a The page cannot be displayed error, you may need to restart IIS if you cannot locate the source of the problem by Pinging your server. Use the IIS snap-in to start or stop any Web site on your IIS server or restart the World Wide Web (WWW) publishing service, which restarts IIS at the server level. When you restart the the WWW Publishing service, all sites running from the designated computer are affected. Before restarting IIS, you must be a member of the Administrator group on the Windows computer that you wish to administer. For more information about users and groups search for the keyword group in the Windows online help.

Important You need to restart IIS from the server that is running IIS.

Restarting a Web site

Open the IIS snap-in.
Open the server node in the left hand region of IIS snap-in. An asterisk between the server icon and the server name indicates the local server.
Select the Web site that you want to restart.
From the Action menu, click Stop. When the site is stopped, you will see (Stopped) next to the site name in the IIS snap-in.
To restart the Web site, from the Action menu, click Start.

Restarting the WWW service

Open the IIS snap-in.
Open the server node in the left hand region of IIS snap-in. An asterisk between the server icon and the server name indicates the local server.
From the Action menu, select Restart IIS.
Select Restart Internet Services on servername, where servername is the name of your server.
Click OK.

Related Topics

For information about name resolution, search for the keywords WINS, DNS, NetBios, and name resolution in the Windows online help.
For information about the ipconfig command, search for the keyword ipconfig in the Windows online help.
For information about using Windows Explorer, search for the keyword Windows Explorer in the Windows online help.
For more information about users and groups, search for the keyword group in the Windows online help.
Microsoft Windows 2000 Administrator's Pocket Consultant - ISBN 0-7356-0831-8 Contains information on TCP/IP networking, managing files and directories, managing network administration, and name resolution.