Extending IIS in SBS 2003

Good day everyone. I am the author of Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices and each day I post up a few pages from this book. I will do so until SBS 2008 ships!

Today we dig deeper into the Internet Information Server (IIS) component of SBS 2003 and look at what I feel is a very practical use of the file transfer protocol (FTP) service..

enjoy...harrybbbb

Harry Brelsford, CEO at smb nation www.smbnation.com

Microsoft Small Business Specialist SBSC, MBA, MCSE, MCT, MCP, CNE, CLSE, CNP

PS - did u know I host an annual conference in Seattle each october for SBSers and SMB consultants? This year we help launch SBS 2008 and Essential Business Server (EBS) between October 4-6!

Extending IIS in SBS 2003

It’s SPRINGERS time! Let’s implement the FTP server in the world of SPRINGERS to facilitate the efficient transfer of large document attachments that are realistically too large to send via e-mail. Then you’ll download and use CuteFTP from a shareware site to test the FTP server you’ve implemented. You’ll even learn how to make FTP more secure.

Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.

Installing FTP

There is a real-world need, more often than you think, to implement FTP. Why? Because many e-mail systems out there in real companies, including the Microsoft Corporation, have 5 MB attachment limits. This is a true hindrance when working with large files. Just ask my client, a traffic engineering firm that is making big plans (and I mean big AutoCAD plans) for Seattle’s new light rail system. When you’re dealing with 60 MB CAD drawings, e-mail doesn’t cut it. You typically need to look to FTP as a solution.

BEST PRACTICE: FTP, officially known as File Transfer Protocol, is really about creating and managing a storage space to facilitate large file transfers. To be honest, it’s not very exciting, except when you surface the words “security” and “FTP” in the same sentence.

The security issue is this: FTP passes the user name and password, as well as the files being transferred, in clear text. So an evil gremlin with a network sniffer could view your information in an unkind and insincere way.

But hang on to your hat. Just a tad later, I’ll make it so that you can secure FTP by binding it to the internal network adapter card and thereby force external users to establish a secure and encrypted virtual private networking connection (VPN) prior to using their FTP client.

Because the FTP service isn’t installed by default in SBS 2003, we need to do that now.

1 &nbs p; Log on to SPRINGERS1 as Administrator with the password Husky9999!.

2 &nbs p; Click Start, Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs, Add/ Remove Windows Components.

3 &nbs p; Select Application Server followed by selecting Internet Information Services (IIS). Click Details.

4 &nbs p; Select File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Service in the Internet Information Services (IIS) dialog box (Figure 10-6) and click OK.

Figure 10-6

Installing FTP on the server-side.

1 &nbs p; Click OK on the Application Server page followed by Next on the Windows Components page.

2 &nbs p; Insert SBS 2003 Disc 1 when requested.

3 &nbs p; Click Finish when the Complete the Windows Components Wizard page appears.

8. Close the Add or Remove Programs dialog box. You will need to restart IIS for the FTP Sites folder to appear. This is easily accomplished by right-clicking on the SPRINGERS1 (local computer) object directly beneath the Internet Information Services object under Advanced Management in Server Management and selecting Restart IIS from the All Tasks item on the secondary menu. If you drill down into the FTP Sites folder that will now appear, the Default FTP Site is listed.

Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.

You will now use Windows Explorer on SPRINGERS1 (from Start, All Programs, Accessories) to view the FTP folder at c:\Inetpub\ftproot and create a sample document. When you navigate to this location, simply right-click in the right pane of Windows Explorer and select New, Wordpad Document. Name the file “Springers Family Tree.doc” and close Windows Explorer.

Next up is downloading and installing a true FTP client application and using it to transfer a file. First, on a machine connected to the Internet launch a Web browser and go to www.tucows.com (a popular shareware site). Search on CuteFTP and download the current version of this shareware application (as of this writing, that is CuteFTP 5.0.2 XP). Proceed to install CuteFTP on the REMOTE computer (double-click the CuteFTP setup file and complete its setup wizard).

So assuming that you got CuteFTP to install correctly now you will establish an FTP session to SPRINGERS1 and transfer a file.

1 &nbs p; Launch CuteFTP. If requested, complete the trial registration process and create a default selection entry titled SPRINGERS that will point to the wild-side IP address of 207. 202.238.215. Configure the entry for anonymous logon.

2 &nbs p; The FTP session will attempt to initiate (or you can force from File, Site Manager) and the connection will fail! Take a second to guess why before proceeding to the next step. (And no, SBS 2003 is not somehow flawed here.)

3 &nbs p; Perhaps you’ve guessed what the problem is. CuteFTP runs in “passive mode” natively and you will need to switch it to active mode. In CuteFTP, select Edit, Settings, Connection, Firewall, and de-select the PASV mode checkbox. Click OK.

4 &nbs p; Try the SPRINGERS connection again. This time the connection will work.

5 &nbs p; Highlight the text file discussed above (Springers Family Tree.doc) and drag it from the right pane to the left pane to copy it to the REMOTE1 workstation. This will copy the file to NormH’s My Documents folder.

6 &nbs p; Close CuteFTP from File, Exit.

BEST PRACTICE: I’ve used CuteFTP as only an example herein. You could use the FTP client of your choice to complete the above example (but the keystrokes would be different). Heck - you can even use Internet Explorer as a rude and crude FTP client to complete this example. Ouch!

Hey - a bit of SBS trivia for you. Microsoft doesn’t have a robust FTP client application, so whenever you read Microsoft documentation and books about use of FTP, they’ll typically use either the command line (the rudest FTP client of all, let me tell ya!) or the IE Web browser.

BEST PRACTICE: You can make the FTP process even more secure by binding the FTP server service to the internal network adapter card and then requiring a user to VPN first into the SBS 2003 network. This will have the effect of not allowing plain text passwords to be passed.

To bind the FTP server service to the internal network adapter card, simply expand Internet Information Service beneath Advanced Management in the Server Management console, expand SPRINGERS1 (local computer), expand FTP sites. Right-click on the Default FTP Site and select Properties. On the FTP Site tab of the Default FTP Site Properties, select 192.168.16.2 from the IP address drop-down as seen in Figure 10-7.

Notes:

Visit www.microsoft.com/technet for the latest updates for any Microsoft product.

Figure 10-7

Binding the FTP site to the inside NIC card of 192.168.16.2.

Notes:

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