Web applications
Last updated:
How to fix Joomla HTTP 500 errors after updates
Here is how to resolve Joomla HTTP 500 errors (0x8007000d) on IIS after applying Joomla updates, by fixing the database from the back-end.
iis
IIS (Internet Information Services) Administration & Hardening Guides
Welcome to the definitive hub for IIS (Internet Information Services) administration, security hardening, and optimization on saotn.org. Managing production web servers on Windows Server requires a deep understanding of application pools, request routing, and web security protocols.
Whether you are configuring high-performance web applications, setting up robust URL rewrite architectures, or hardening enterprise environments against modern security vulnerabilities, these step-by-step guides provide the production-ready configurations and troubleshooting steps you need.
Core IIS Management Topics
To help you navigate our technical resources, the most critical IIS documentation is organized by administrative focus:
- Security Hardening & Headers: Protect your web infrastructure from information leakage and transport-layer attacks. Master essential hardening techniques such as how to remove the IIS Server version HTTP Response Header and implementing enterprise-grade security by enabling HTTP Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS) on IIS.
- URL Rewrite & Traffic Routing: Take complete control over inbound HTTP/HTTPS traffic. Learn the nuances of site migrations and pattern matching with practical, clean IIS URL Rewrite configuration examples.
- Application Pool Optimization: Maintain zero-downtime environments and efficient resource utilization. Streamline your automation workflow by discovering how to set IIS application pool recycle defaults to specific times instead of volatile fixed intervals.
- Automation & Provisioning: Scale your web nodes without touching the GUI. Leverage the power of automation to dynamically deploy environments, including quick guides on how to install IIS in Windows 11 using PowerShell.
Browse the comprehensive, chronological feed below for deeper insights into IIS backup and restore procedures, custom module configurations, and expert-level web server troubleshooting.
Codebase
Last updated:
Add websites and application pools to IIS with PowerShell, in a for loop
How to use PowerShell to add websites and application pools in IIS
Windows Server
Last updated:
Create your own CDN using IIS Outbound Rules
Use IIS Outbound Rules and URL Rewrite Module to create a custom created Content Delivery Network (CDN) for static content ofloading and speed-up your website.
Web applications
Last updated:
Fix "Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel" error
Fix "System.Net.WebException: The underlying connection was closed: Could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel." in ASP.NET on IIS
Windows Server
Last updated:
ASP.NET performance: what to keep in mind
Valuable articles about ASP.NET performance I frequently pass on to customers, so they can improve their ASP.NET web applications.
Windows Server
Last updated:
Grep for forensic log parsing and analysis on Windows Server IIS
How to use GnuWin32 ported tools like grep.exe and find.exe for forensic log file analysis in Windows Server. Find webshells and backdoors in websites, check visitor's IP addresses or hits to backdoor/webshell files in IIS log files easy. Command-line log analysis in Windows Server, search for Joomla-, WordPress-, Drupal- and PHP- malware & backdoors in your website with grep and find.
Useful
Last updated:
Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
In this post I provide you various HTTP to HTTPS redirection methods, for Windows Server IIS and Linux Apache. Use these examples to your advantage to secure the traffic between your visitors and your website.
Web applications
Last updated:
MySQL Connector/NET and Entity Framework
How to let MySQL Connector/NET and Entity Framework play nicely. This blog post is a quicky and an oldy… Since we still receive a reasonable amount of questions about this topic at the customer service of my employer I'm posting this here, with some commonly made mistakes and points of attention.
Windows Server
Last updated:
IIS 6.0: stop, start or recycle application pools
Somewhere in my archives, I found this VBScript for stopping, starting and recycling an IIS 6.0 application pool. It doesn’t use adsutil.vbs. It might come in handy, because it’s always very time consuming to start the Computer Management console, click through Services and Applications > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager > Application Pools to find the Application Pool you want to start, stop or recycle.
WordPress
Last updated:
WordPress 3.5 on IIS 8.0 is unable to save a web.config file
WordPress 3.4 and 3.5 couldn't save permalinks to web.config on IIS 8.0. We found the cause, reported it to WordPress core and it got fixed.
Windows Server
Last updated:
Convert .htaccess to web.config
This post describes some of the IIS URL Rewrite Module web.config equivalents of commonly used Apache .htaccess settings. You'll learn how to translate .htaccess content to IIS web.config, this is useful when you need to migrate your website from Apache to Windows Server IIS.
Windows Server
Last updated:
PHP with WinCache on IIS
In this article you'll learn how to install and set up PHP with the Windows Cache Extension (WinCache) on windows IIS web servers. WinCache enabled PHP gives a great PHP performance boost for your WordPress-, Drupal or Joomla website. This post will show you it's not hard to set up high performance PHP hosting on IIS.
Windows Server
Last updated:
Remove ETags HTTP response header in IIS
Removing ETag response headers is not an easy task in Windows Server IIS web servers. Here I show you how to properly remove ETag HTTP response headers with an IIS Rewrite Module Outbound rewrite rule.
Windows Server
Last updated:
"The length of the URL for this request exceeds the configured maxUrlLength value"
The length of the URL for this request exceeds the configured maxUrlLength value is an IIS error telling you the length of the given URL exceeds a limit (...).
Windows Server
Last updated:
Multiple IIS 6.0/7.5 Vulnerabilities
Multiple vulnerabilities in IIS 6.0 and 7.5 web servers were reported to the Full-Disclosure mailing list by Kingcope. I tested them, and here are the workarounds.
Web applications
Last updated:
Filter web traffic with blacklists
HTTP blacklist for your website: block and filter unwanted web traffic with blacklists, on both IIS and Apache. Protect your website easily and learn how to create your own HTTP web blacklist filter.
Windows Server
Last updated:
MySQL Connector/NET 6.5 in partial trust
How to use MySQL Connector/NET 6.5 with MySqlClientPermission Class in partial (medium) trust
Windows Server
Last updated:
How to use .htaccess files on Windows Server IIS
Learn how to use .htaccess in Windows Server IIS. Before IIS 7 and the URL Rewrite module, you had to rely on third party extensions to IIS for URL rewriting with .htaccess files.
Windows Server
Last updated:
Start all stopped application pools in IIS 6.0
Learn how to start all stopped application pools with VBScript and ADSI in IIS 6.0, by querying the Metabase for AppPool objects and their state.
Windows Server
Last updated:
Failed Request Tracing error LOG_FILE_MAX_SIZE_TRUNCATE
Learn how to resolve the Failed Request Tracing (FREB) error LOG_FILE_MAX_SIZE_TRUNCATE in IIS by increasing the maximum log file size with AppCmd.