You cannot visit an Internet Information Services 7.0 Web site from a remote computer

After you install Microsoft Internet Information Services 7.0 on a Windows Vista-based server, you experience the following behavior:

• When you visit a Web site that is hosted on the Windows Vista-based computer from a local computer, you successfully access the Web site.
• If you try to access the Web site from a remote computer, you are unsuccessful. Additionally, you may receive an error message that resembles the following:
  The page cannot be displayed
  
  There is a problem with the page you are trying to reach and it cannot be displayed.

This behavior occurs if the appropriate ports are not open in Windows Firewall to allow for traffic from remote computers to the Web site. By default, when you install Internet Information Services 7.0 in Windows Vista, Internet Information Services 7.0 does not automatically open the appropriate ports for external access to the Web site.

Important These steps may increase your security risk. These steps may also make the computer or the network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses. We recommend the process that this article describes to enable programs to operate as they are designed to or to implement specific program capabilities. Before you make these changes, we recommend that you evaluate the risks that are associated with implementing this process in your particular environment. If you decide to implement this process, take any appropriate additional steps to help protect the system. We recommend that you use this process only if you really require this process.

To allow for remote connections to the Internet Information Services 7.0 Web site, add exceptions to Windows Firewall. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, type windows firewall in the Start Search box, and then click Windows Firewall in the Programs list.
   
   If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue.
2. Click Allow a program through Windows Firewall.
   
   If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue.
3. On the Exceptions tab, click to select one or more of the following check boxes, depending on the traffic that you want to allow to visit the Web site:
   • FTP Server
   • Secure World Wide Web Services (HTTPS)
   • World Wide Web Services (HTTP)
4. Click OK

This behavior is by design.

When you upgrade a computer that has Internet Information Services installed to Windows Vista, Windows Vista automatically opens the appropriate ports in Windows Firewall during the upgrade process.