Forwarding traffic to the appropriate application and port with IIS

December 21, 2005 9:14 AM

I've just installed Plone (www.plone.org) for a client on their server. They currently run their sites on Windows 2000 with IIS on port 80. I set up Plone to run on port 81, but what do I need to do to make this accessible to outside traffic? It is currently inaccessible to anyone outside the offices, and I'm afraid I have no expertise with IIS.

It might also help to have it available via a subdomain. I am willing to reward someone for a good answer with a nominal fee.

posted by letterneversent to computers & internet (2 comments total)

Download The Plone Book pdf, in pages 289 - 291 it gives specific instructions about how to configure Plone behind IIS. I don't transcribe it here because the process is somewhat complicated and the (open, by the way) book already has a detailed explanation with pictures.
posted by nkyad at 9:40 AM on December 21, 2005

1) Run Plone beind Apache, Squid, or Pound if you can, and not IIS. Mod_rewrite or similar is the way to go to front-end Plone. IIS requires an external proxy, a connector, or a hack to talk to app servers.

2) IIS isn't the problem for Port 81. Windows Firewall is or whatever you have between your office and the net is. You need to open port 81, if you don't want to front-end Plone with a web server.

3) The Plone Book, as nkyad says, yep.

4) The ASP404 method (because IIS is retarded at anything other than ISAPI for front-ending application servers): http://www.zope.org/Members/hiperlogica/ASP404

5) Enfold Proxy is an industrial strenth ISAPI proxy for IIS and Plone: http://www.enfoldsystems.com/About/News/EEP%202.0.4

6) Less expensive alternative to Enfold Proxy:
http://freshlogic.net/

7) More rap about the ASP404 method: http://www.zope.org/Members/andym/ASP404

8) Some opinions about Plone behind IIS from one of the co-inventors of Plone: http://plone.org/documentation/how-to/apache-ssl/talkback/1116507775/discussionitem_view

9) The best way to host Plone is with cacehfu, which is Plone on steroids and just about faster than Apache servinf static content: http://plone.org/products/cachefu
posted by 3.2.3 at 10:04 AM on December 21, 2005