The folders connect and remote
are part of the Windows Home Server default website that’s created,
configured, and started automatically when you install Windows Home
Server.
Viewing the Default Web Application Folders
Actually, it’s more accurate to describe the connect and remote resources as applications that run within IIS. To get a feel for what’s behind these applications, you need to head for the following folder:
C:\ProgramFiles\Windows Server\Bin\WebApps
This folder contains several subfolders, including Client (used by the Connect application) and RemoteAccess (used by the Remote Web Access application). The other folders—such as Root and Site—are used internally by IIS and Windows Home Server. Figure 1 shows the contents of the Client folder.
The Client folder contains the following subfolders and files:
Bin— This folder contains a couple of dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) that contain code used by the Connect application.
Images— This folder contains the images used on the Connect page.
Package— This folder contains files that the Connect application uses.
default.aspx— This file contains the Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML) tags, cascading stylesheet (CSS) properties, and
ASP.NET programming code that creates and configures the Connect page.
Global.asax— This file contains references to .NET resources used globally in the Windows Home Server’s default application pool.
Server.aspx— This is an ASP.NET web page that gives instructions on using the Connect application.
style.css— This file is the CSS that the Connect page uses.
web.config— This file contains configuration data for the Connect folder’s ASP.NET application.
Figure 2 shows the contents of the RemoteAccess
folder. This folder contains quite a few files used internally by
Windows Home Server’s Remote Web Access application, so I’ll just list
the most important subfolders:
AccountPage— This
folder contains the files that have the HTML tags, CSS properties, and
ASP.NET programming code that create and configure the Remote Web
Access logon page.
Bin— This folder contains a bunch of DLLs that contain code used by the Remote Web Access application.
BuiltIns—
This folder contains the files that have the HTML tags, CSS properties,
and ASP.NET programming code that creates and configures the Remote Web
Access Home page, Remote Desktop feature, shared folder pages, media
pages, and media streaming.
Css— This folder contains the CSS files used by the Remote Web Access pages.
Images— This folder contains the images used on the Remote Web Access pages.
Viewing the Default IIS Website
The Client and RemoteAccess
folders are internal Windows Home Server applications, so you don’t
want to mess with them unless you know your way around HTML, CSS, and
ASP.NET. You’re going to work with
the default IIS website, which you’ll find at C:\Program Files\Windows Server\Bin\WebApps\Site. Figure 3 shows the subfolders and files that you’ll find here.
The Site folder contains the following subfolders and files:
Bin— This folder contains some DLLs that contain code used by the default site.
Customization— This folder contains an XML file used by the default site.
Resources— This folder contains the images used on the default site, as well as a CSS file and security certificate.
default.aspx— This file runs when you surf to http://server, and if Remote Web Access is turned on, the file redirects you to https://server/remote.
Robots.txt—
This file is read by search engine crawlers (automated programs that
search the web for content to index), and it’s used to define which
aspects of the site the crawlers are allowed to index.
web.config— This file contains configuration data for the site’s ASP.NET application.
Viewing the Default Website with Internet Information Services Manager
The Client, RemoteAccess, and Site
folders enable you to examine the physical files and subfolders
associated with the Windows Home Server default website. However, you
probably won’t often deal with these folders (or any folder) directly
when creating and configuring your own web pages and websites. Instead,
you’ll most often use a Microsoft Management Console snap-in called the
IIS Manager.
To display this snap-in, select Start,
Administrative Tools, Internet Information Server (IIS) Manager. When
the snap-in loads, open the SERVER, Sites, Default Web Site branch (where SERVER is the name of your Windows Home Server PC), and then click Content View at the bottom of the window. This branch (see Figure 4)
shows the contents of the default IIS website, the Connect and Remote
applications, plus a few other applications that Windows Home Server
uses.
Tip
You can also launch IIS Manager by selecting Start, typing inetmgr, and pressing Enter.
