Hello all,

The time has come for me to configure a non-DNN website on my host (which is a VPS, so I have full access to IIS, DNS, etc).

Thus far, all my DNN portals have been configured against a single "Default Web Site" configuration in IIS, and I've never had a problem.  I *thought* all I had to do for a non-DNN site would be to set up an additional IIS configuration and point its virtual directory to a different folder. 

I was hoping that the description within the manager would be enough to direct requests for that domain to the other config, but when I try to bring up the site, it immediately switches to my "default" site (trudeauconsulting.com). 

Sorry if this has been covered 1,000 times before, I did try searching through the forums but couldn't find this particular issue noted.  Any help would be most welcome!

Thanks!

Brian ~

If you have access to IIS, I would simply create a new website.  You can use the same IP address as long as you either (1) update the host headers for the domain entries you want answered by the new website or (2) do not have a 'blank' entry on your default web site which would cause it to answer all requests on that IP.

Cheers,
Scott

Scott Willhite, Co-Founder DNN

Brian:

As you know IIS can easily support multiple Web sites on one server with only one TCP/IP address.  The most important factor for this to work is the definition of the Host Header for the site.  This is how IIS differentiates what site should respond to the request from the client.  Yes, you need to create a new Web site and point its Home Directory to a different physical directory.  All this has nothing to do with DNN, this is just the way IIS works, DNN is just another application on its own directory.

By the way, Microsoft used to recommend not to use the Default Site for production sites for security reasons in the past, nowadays you should avoid using it because the Default Site may have an application like Sharepoint by default.  In any case, I would recommend you to not use the Default site for production sites.  Even on a brand new dedicated server, just create a new directory anywhere on the local disk and define a new site to use it.  This will force you to have a good and independent configuration for that site from the get go.

I think the problem you are having is the lack of the proper definition of the Host Header for the new site.  That must work.  If it doesn't, you may need to reset IIS by doing IISReset or by rebooting the server.  Note that both of these will make IIS unavailable to users temporarily.

Carlos