Forum links no longer working

[Mainship]

All my forum links now try to point to nonexistent sub folders. For example, if I clink on the General Discussion Forum to enter it, the link tries to go to vbfoum/General-Discussion/. If I click on a post, the link tries to go to the sub folder and make the post itself an html page. This began happening yesterday after installing vbSEO. Any idea what might have happened, or how I can fix this? This has the forum completely down.

Diane

[Keith Cohen]

Did you install and configure ISAPI_Rewrite as noted in the installation instructions for IIS? (IIS doesn't support .htaccess for rewrites, so you need to get the free ISAPI_Rewrite Lite tool from Helicon Tech - Download )

[Mainship]

Ni I didn't. I never saw that. I'll try it now, thank you.

[Mainship]

I see and will download it momentarily. Can you point me to where the docs deal with this?

Diane

[Mainship]

Ok, I found this:
IIS Web Server

In step A of the installation process defined above:

• Instead of uploading the .htaccess file, open/edit your httpd.ini file (ISAPI_Rewrite module configuration) and enter the rules defined in the isapi_rewrite.txt file included with this installation package (replace "/forums/" with your vBulletin folder name).

The file I downloaded is called isapi_rwl_x86_0066.msi. Is that right? Where do I find httpd.ini? I don't see it. Unless the msi is a zipped file?

diane

[Mainship]

I think I'm getting this figured out. The msi is an install fie. I installed in on the server, and under program files, is an easy way to edit the file. Now, one line says to replace yourdomain.com with my domain and remove the # in front. It seems to be referring to one line but I see three such lines. Do I uncomment all three?

Diane

[Keith Cohen]

Yes, there are three total lines that need to have your domain name, and that need to be uncommented. (This step is only needed if you host multiple sites on the server.)

Also, adjust the /forums/ path on the other rules, if necessary, based on the path to your forums.

[Mainship]

The file I need to update is read only. I don't see what to do in the instructions that came with it. Do I make this file read/write and save it there, or should I save the edited ini file somewhere else?

Diane

[Keith Cohen]

You may have to turn off the ReadOnly flag. The default location should be the correct location. Also, I think you will need to stop/start the Web Publishing Service after making your changes.

[Mainship]

Ok, I made the changes to the file, replacing yourdomain with the domain name and forums with the correct forum directory name. I stopped and restarted IIS. Nothing has changed. The package said it was installed correctly.

Diane

[Keith Cohen]

Your forum, with vBSEO rewritten URLs, is working fine for me now...

[Mainship]

I may not have cleared my cache. I usually do, but apparently not this time. It's working now for me too.

Thank you!

Diane

[Keith Cohen]

Great!

[Mainship]

Spoke too soon. Not all the links are working, but we're clearly getting closer. Try clinking on Books Behind Bars or Legal. Those two still don't work.

Diane

[Keith Cohen]

Both of those forum links work for me. What are you seeing?