Hi, I have a server with IIS 6 installed and I can retrieve any page from it from any of my workstations on the network but when i try to view anything from school or validator.w3.org it gives me a very long wait and then a timeout. I have a firewall installed on my server which is set up to allow port 80 connections but it also has a per application controll. Does anyone know all the .exe files i need to allow access to the internet?
Thanks, dandono_.

ps: hope this is the right place to post.. the forum title says IIS

Yes, this is the right forum.

What's the firewall in question?

my firewall is McAfee Personal Firewall Plus. I only use it because its free from my isp.

Are you connected through a router? Or through a DSL/Cable modem? Either or both a router and a DSL/cable modem may have their own hardware firewalls integrated.

The most likely cause is that your ISP blocks connections via port 80. The majority do so people can't run web servers. I'm lucky that mine doesn't...they don't block IMAP or even SMTP as well.

i have a bt voyager 105 adsl modem. i am with aol which i dont think filter any ports exsept 25 which is smtp to "stop spam". i am using iis 6 with windows server 2003 sp1. it used to work when i was using windows xp but now it only works on my network. i have to see if i or a mate can connect to a ftp server or another server on my server to see if it is an application thing or maybe a firewall thing.

If they can connect via FTP, that doesn't mean much because FTP uses port 20/21 whereas HTTP uses port 80.

Try this; away from home, open a command prompt. Type:
Then, type the following. It might not show up on the screen. Press Enter twice when you're done with the line.

my mate just telnet'd my server like you said and he got "connection failed". What does this mean? firewall or isp problem or server problem

If you can access it locally, but others can't access it externally, that means either a firewall or ISP. It's almost certainly the ISP. It's possible IIS is set to not allow external connections, but for the few months I used IIS, I don't remember such a setting being enabled by default.

Try making IIS listen on another port, like 8080 or 81, and see if he can connect that way (remember to add :8080, :81, etc. to the URL as necessary).

i found out what was happening.. i had the server set up with the Microsoft Defaults which installed Remote Routing and whatever its called but with that it enabled the windows firewall which i thought was dissabled.. I have another firewall installed which is setup like i want it to but windows firewall was overriding the allow list and blocking all connections exsept file sharing.. this denied connections on all ports exsept file sharing and so my server was in a "lockdown" i fixed it by removing the role and now it works. Thanks everyone for helping me diag this!! btw: i fixed it in like 20 seconds when i thought of that.

Glad to hear you got it sorted, and even better that you posted it publicly so others in the future know what the problem is.