Tip 10: Customize Your Error Pages
Although this is quite simple to do, few people seem to take advantage of it. Just select the "Custom Errors" tab in MMC and map each error, such as 404, to the appropriate HTML or ASP template. Full details can be found here. If you want an even easier solution -- or if you want to let developers handle the mapping without giving them access to the MMC -- use a product like CustomError.
Tip 9: Dive into the MetaBase
If you think Apache is powerful because it has a config file, then take a look
at the MetaBase. You can do just about anything you want with IIS by editing
the MetaBase. For example, you can create virtual directories and servers;
stop, start and pause Web sites; and create, delete, enable and disable
applications.
Microsoft provides a GUI utility called MetaEdit, somewhat similar to RegEdit,
to help you read from and write to the MetaBase. Download the latest version
here.
But to really impress those UNIX admins -- and to take full advantage
of the MetaBase by learning how to manipulate it programmatically -- you'll
want to try out the command-line interface, officially called the IIS
Administration Script Utility. Its short name is adsutil.vbs and you'll
find it in C:\inetpub\adminscripts, or else in
%SystemRoot%\system32\inetsrv\adminsamples, together with a host of other
useful administrative scripts.
A word of caution though: Just like Apache conf files, the MetaBase is pretty
crucial to the functioning of your Web server, so don't ruin it.
Back it up first.
Tip 8: Add spell checking to your URLs
Apache folks always brag about cool little tricks that Apache is capable of -- especially because of the wealth of modules that can extend the server's basic functionality. One of the coolest of these is the ability to fix URL typos using a module called mod_speling. Well, thanks to the folks at Port80 Software, it now appears that IIS admins can do this trick too, using an ISAPI filter called URLSpellCheck. You can check it out right on their site, by trying URLs like www.urlspellcheck.com/fak.htm, www.urlspellcheck.com/faq1.htm -- or any other simple typo you care to make.
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