[thelist] Solution to IIS screw-up problem

[Madhu Menon]

Hello.

I had a problem last October with my IIS not working properly. I posted a
question to this list, which can be found here:
http://lists.evolt.org/archive/Week-of-Mon-20011001/058506.html

with more here:

http://lists.evolt.org/archive/Week-of-Mon-20011001/058592.html

Since then, I got at least one email every week from some poor soul who
faced the same problem and stumbled onto our wonderful archives while
searching the Web. They politely ask if I eventually found a solution,
which I did.

In the interest of helping others, here's what worked for me:
(It took a bloody long time to figure out)

1) First, uninstall IIS

2) Follow the advice given here:
http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q246/4/59.ASP
and here: http://www.iisfaq.com/Articles/288/

3) Reinstall IIS. See if it works now. If you're lucky, it will.

4) If you're not lucky (like me), you may have to do more.

5) Check if the MachineKeys folder is encrypted (check properties). If it's
not, check the encrypted box.

6) I encountered a really weird problem at stage 2. It kept denying me
access to encrypt the folder even though I had full control rights on the
folder. Unable to do anything, I deleted the folder, created a new folder
called MachineKeys in the folder, and then encrypted it. Reinstall IIS over
this.

It should be working now. If it's still not working, make you're in the
correct MachineKeys folder (do a search on your HDD to see if there are others)


And here's the original problem restated so that it will appear with the
solution in the archives and be indexed by the search engines. The rest of
you can stop reading now. ;)

Regards,

Madhu

------- Problem

I have a standalone PC running Windows 2000 Professional with SP2 and IE6
installed. This machine doesn't have a network card. When I open up the IIS
MMC, it gives me the following error:

Error connecting to Madhu: The system cannot find the path specified. Do
you wish to continue to attempt to connect to it in the future?

Because of this, I can't host a web site locally. I've tried the following:

1) Uninstalled and reinstalled IIS (no difference)
2) Looked up Microsoft knowledge base (no help there)
3) Banged my head against a wall (gave me a headache) So I turn to thelist
for assistance. Anyone know a way out of this mess?


Follow-up:

I already had the Loopback adapter installed. No, this is a much more
complex problem.

I did some reading and researching on the Net (including the MS KB). I'll
shortly list the various errors I get, but before that, here are some of my
observations:

1) The IIS metabase doesn't seem to exist on my PC. Searching for
metabase.bin returns no results. Uninstalling and reinstalling IIS doesn't
change this.

2) Many of the sites I looked advised me to delete all the files in the
following folder:
D:\WINNT\system32\Microsoft\Crypto\RSA\MachineKeys (My Win2K is on drive D)
However, on my PC, there are NO files in this folder. Deleting the folder,
then reinstalling IIS doesn't work. The folder remains empty.

3) The IIS MetaEdit utility pukes with a "fatal error occurred while
connecting to Localhost" message :(


So now let me give you a list of errors I've got:

Error 1 --------- While installing IIS

          Error writing encrypted data to the Web Server's configuration
database (Metabase)

          0x8009000f=Object already exists

          Press 'Retry' to retry or 'Write UnEncrypted' to write the data
unencrypted.
          You can change this data back to encrypted after setup has completed.


Error 2 --------- While starting IIS MMC snap-in

          Error connecting to madhu:
          The system cannot find the path specified.
          Do you wish to continue to attempt to connect to it in the future?


Error 3 ---------  While starting WWW service

          Could not start the World Wide Web Publishing service on Local
Computer
          Error 3: The system cannot find the path specified


Error 4 --------- In the event log

          The service metabase path "/LM/W3SVC/" could not be opened
          Unable to enumerate Web sites because the following error occurred:
          Object already exists

------- End of errors


My last hope is to reinstall the OS, but I hate reinstalling. I cling to
the hope that I'll find a solution somehow, some way.


-------- End of problem


<<<   *   >>>
Madhu Menon
User Experience Consultant
e-mail: webguru at vsnl.net