Creating and Setting Up Web Sites

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 with SP1

When you use the Manage Your Server Wizard to install the application server role, the default Web site is created automatically. You can use this Web site as it is, change it, or create and use new Web sites. For step-by-step instructions for creating your first Web site, see Common Administrative Tasks or see Creating Web or FTP Sites.

Whether you plan to publish your site on an intranet or the Internet, the principles of providing content are the same. You place your Web files in directories on your server and configure IIS to serve those directories. Then users establish an HTTP connection and view the files with a browser. The first step in creating a Web site, therefore, is to design your server, directory, and file structure.

The two main types of directories in IIS are physical directories and virtual directories. Each Web site must have one home directory, which is the central location for the published pages of the site. In addition, you can create Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) publishing directories, where users can publish, lock, and manage resources.