How to specify multiple default pages in Internet Information Server

Internet Information Server 1.x and 2.x did not come with the built-in ability to specify multiple default pages. Starting with Microsoft IIS 3.x, you can use the multiple default pages feature, amoung other things, to make it easier to import web pages originally designed for other web servers. For instance, many UNIX web servers use index.html as the default page while Internet Information Server use default.htm. Adding index.html to the list of default pages in Internet Information Server would solve any compatability problems arising from missing default pages imported from an external web server that assume index.html to be the default page.

Default page is the HTML file returned by web servers when an user requests an URL without a specific HTML file name. If the default page is set to index.html, requesting http://www.url.com/ would cause the web server to send http://www.url.com/index.html.

Microsoft IIS 3.x

• Start "Internet Information Services Manager" and double click on the "WWW Service"
• Change to the "Directories" tab
• Type a list of pages that should be considered as default pages separated by commas (,) in the "Default Document" input box.

Example: default.htm,default.html,index.html,home.htm

Microsoft IIS 4.x

• Start "Microsoft Management Console" and go to the "WWW Service Master Properties" dialog box (right click on the WWW service and select "Properties"
• Change to the "Documents" tab
• Make sure "Enable Default Document" is enabled
• Click on "Add..." to add additional default pages