Web Site and Vitual directory

[msdnexpert]

Dear all,
In IIS one can create a web site as well as a virtual directory. Whats the difference between both and when do u use them in which situation. Thanks in advance.

[bubba]

A virtual directory is basically a directory under your website that isn't necessarily directly under the root of your website ---- that was clear as mud.

Say your website is in the default wwwroot directory.

And say the URL for your website is http:\\bubba.com.

You want to add another directory to your website named pictures. This is a virtual directory : http:\\bubba.com\pictures.

The pictures directory can be under the wwwroot directory, or it can be another directory, even on another machine. The actual directory name does not even have to be "pictures".....that could just be the Web Share name you use when you set the directory up for web sharing.

[monte96]

Well, that answered half the question here's the other half:

Creating a web site creates a top level domain.

Let's say you have 3 web sites hosted on the same server (we're doing it now at VBGarage.com :c)

You would create three different sites. Each of which can be accessed without specifying any directory at all but all of which share the same IP.

[msdnexpert]

Thanks a lot Monte and bubba.
But I was trying to create a new website on my Nt Server.
The default web site has the IP address 100.20.20.10 assigned to it.
According to monte the new website (named childstar) can also have the same IP address.
But when I tried this I got an error message saying that the IP address cannot be shared.
Can u guide me as to where I am going wrong.
Thanks in advance.

[wernerh]

By right-clicking on the site in IIS and selecting properties, select your machine's IP address and click on advanced, Now put a Host header name in for this site, i.e www.bubba.com. Do this for all the sites that you want to run on your server! I am running 5 different sites on my server and it seemed to work for me!

Good Luck!

[monte96]

For IP Address leave it as 'All(Unassigned)'.

This makes the server determine from the URL line. Whatever site is in the actual wwwroot directory will take precedence if just the IP is used for the URL