Chapter 5. Customizing WWW Sites

Now that you've spent a considerable amount of time preparing Internet Information Services, you're ready to start configuring it. For most administrators, this means adding and configuring Web sites. This chapter covers specific issues related to customizing Web sites in Internet Information Services. It does not outline the basics of setting up a Web site, and it does not discuss every single dialog box and text box available in the IIS snap-in of Microsoft Management Console.

This chapter, like later chapters, assumes that you are already familiar with the basics of Internet Information Services. So, if you haven't yet set up a Web site, first review that information. A good beginner's choice is the Microsoft Internet Information Services Training Kit from Microsoft Press.

This chapter covers the following topics:

• The function of HTTP clients and servers

• How physical servers, virtual servers, physical directories, and virtual directories interact

• How to delegate limited administrative privileges to individual Web sites

• Issues and concerns when working with local and remote directories of any type

• How to exploit the new capabilities of HTTP 1.1, and how it functions between servers and clients

• The new configuration option for application server extensions