IIS Rewrite Beta

ok thanks and lastly...

if the forums are located at:
forums.website.com
or
C:/inetpub/site/plesk/httpdocs/website/forums

What would the path be/look like in http.ini

In case if your forum resides in the domain root you should replace "/forums/" with "/" in httpd.ini file.

This might help some of the IIS guys out there.

My config:
W2k3, IIS6, vBulletin 3.6, PHP 5.1.6, MySQ 4.2

I have three domains on my server mapped to three different roots and I'm using the ISAPI version of PHP. The forum resides in the root of it's subdomain (forum.treonauts.com).

1. Installed
Zend Optimizer v3.01

ISAPI_Rewrite v2.9 Full
- which did nothing initially you could use the Free version too btw but I have multiple domains to remap in the future.

In both cases above make sure you grant at least read permissions for the directory - you could do individual files if you want - to whatever service/user is running your website (NETWORK SERVICE in my case)

2. Enabled
Zend Optimization
PHP gzip buffered output
IIS serverside compression on static and dynamic pages

3. Rebooted
Rebooted and tested everything still worked - forum fine and phpinfo reports zend active.

4. Installed
vbSEO 3.0 RC4 per instructions included.


Note on test.php

It doesn't always work and didn't for me. It said Zend wasn't active but when you check phpinfo it is. So think of it as erring on the cautious side with a few false negatives.

Note on isapi_rewrite:

I copied the isapi_rewrite.txt file into httpd.ini (installed as part of the ISAPI_Rewrite package and available from the start menu or in the program files directory that you installed it into) - don't forget to make the file file system writable it's read-only by default.

I edited the httpd.ini file ensuring ALL the references were updated as below:

.*yourdomain.com -> forum.treonauts.com (three times)

/forums/ -> / (six times)

Spent quite some time on the above bit because I just didn't see the "/forums/" lurking there before my very eyes and kept getting various 404s and Input File Not Specified errors at 4am.

I changed the file system write permissions on config_vbseo.php so that I can set it up through the interface the apache instructions ar enot useful for us stuck with IIS so basically go to the properties for the file and add NETWORK SERVICE (in my case) as a user with read/write permissions for the file.

Rebooted for good measure.

Open vbseocp.php in my web browser and copied in reg code into the box, clicked save.

It worked.

Hope this helps some of you out there.

~ Steph

Baby forum at
http://forum.treonauts.com

ps. Addendum to the ISAPI_Rewrite notes:

If you want your IE behaviour files and Site Favicons to still work you need to modify on eot he rewrite rules in httpd.ini as below:

Find:
RewriteRule ^(.*\.(?:gif|jpg|png|css|xml|js))$ $1 [I,L]
change to:
RewriteRule ^(.*\.(?:gif|jpg|png|css|xml|js|htc|ico))$ $1 [I,L]

Note the addition of the htc and ico file types...

Shikes skoenig that sounds like a HECK of a lot of work!

I'm not very good with server configuration so I will probably have to get my host to help me. I am running IIS on a dedicated server but don't know if I have the Zend Optimizer or ISAPI_Rewrite.

How can I find out?

Is there some kind of a test file one can download and run on their server to see if it is compatable?

I just did some checking, and found the check script vBseo offers. I ran it and found I didn't have Zend installed.

I am downloading Zend Optimizer now. Is it enough for me just to install that? Or must I have the ISAPI_Rewrite also?

ISAPI_Rewrite is required also. That's what handles the rewrite rules, since IIS doesn't support .htaccess files.

Yes, you need the (free) ISAPI_Rewrite version installed.

Re: Zend
vBSEO will work with Zend or ionCube on the IIS platform as well.

If you encounter any issues while installing, please submit a support ticket here at vBSEO.com to get assistance.

Is this the place to get it: ISAPI_Rewrite - URL Rewrite engine for IIS, ISAPI Filter for URL Rewriting, mod_rewrite for IIS

And will the lite (free) version be enough for my big board?

I have a few other sites on the server but they aren't so busy. Mostly they are for my own personal use.

Hello Richard,

you can get ISAPI_Rewrite here: Helicon Tech - Download
And yes - the free version works quite well.

Originally Posted by Oleg Ignatiuk

And yes - the free version works quite well.

Thanks Oleg!

I am glad to hear that the free version "works quite well" but could you say whether you think it will work for me in my case with my scenario (given above)?

I.e. multiple sites on server (not just one) and a BIG board.

Yes, the free version allows to apply rewrite rules to a specific domain name and will work with a big board (although it certainly adds some server load).