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IISPassword can play well with others

In my last post I mentioned briefly that I was having a lot of problems for a few days with my site not responding, being locked out, or not linking to articles. I had a heck of a time chasing down the problem. I eventually did  figure it out. The solution is pretty easy but certainly was not too obvious at first.

I am using ISAPI_Rewrite 3.0 for url rewriting. Then needed to add password protection to a folder. I hate creating accounts on windows as it's such a pain in the ass. I really liked IISPassword by IIS Tools. Unfortunately, both programs use an .htaccess file and neither one understand each other. Every time I changed one setting, it would overwrite the .htaccess file and  this went back and forth for a few days.

There is a solution and I think it's pretty easy to make both applications work in harmony. IISPassword allows you to change the file where the settings are stored. They must have anticipated these types of issues and accounted for it.

To change the file used by IISPassword, simply follow these steps.

  1. stop the IIS server. Open the IIS Manager
  2. Select your "Web Sites" node and right click to open it's properties.
  3. Select the tab for IISPassword.
  4. Check the radio button for "Create new". In the textfield for "Access File Name" change the file to .iispassword
  5. Click the change button. Give it a moment to propagate for all your sites.
  6. Start IIS and thats it.

It's so easy but the docs don't mention anything about it. So if you need to password protect a folder through the system then IISPassword is a really great application and easy to use baring any issues with other .htaccess files.

Posted by Mark Aplet on August 14, 2008 10:37 PM 4 comments
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4 responses to “IISPassword can play well with others”

  1. On Aug 18, 2008 at 8:00 AM - Adam Tuttle Said:
    That's a great find, thanks for posting it!
  2. On Aug 22, 2008 at 8:21 AM - Daniel Tallentire Said:
    Thanks Mark - I've updated the IISPassword help for the next release to document this feature for ISAPI_Rewrite users.
  3. On Aug 29, 2008 at 11:59 AM - Mark Aplet Said:
    Wow Daniel, that was a fast response! I hope it will make a difference for someone in the future. :)
  4. On Aug 29, 2008 at 3:48 PM - Mark Said:
    :) I search for IISPassword on google every now and again to check the forums etc for posts - your blog is on the first page on a search for IISPassword!

    Hopefully it'll help out.... I'm going to re-do the help docs anyway as they aren't very comprehensive on the whole thing.

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