I have Windows XP installed on my home computer, and am
using it for website development. I had the "site" set up
for anonymous authentication. I recently upgraded to
Windows XP SP2, and it looks like I also got upgraded to
IIS 5.1 in the process.

After I upgraded, IIS was actually not working correctly,
so I uninstalled and reinstalled it. It now appears to be
processing ASP scripts correctly, and can read from a
database I'm using. However, when I try to WRITE to the
database I get an ASP error message saying the DB is read-
only.

When I use the iis.msc snap-in for the MMC, I configure
the folder and file I'm trying to write to to allow write
access. But there seems to be a disconnect with setting
the NTFS permissions in XP SP2. When I go to explorer and
open the "permissions" dialog box for the folder,
the "read-only" checkbox has a checkmark in it that is
grey, not black (like only part of the folder's contents
are read-only). I can deselect the checkbox (i.e.,
control is not disabled) and choose to apply the new
settings to all the files in the directory, then
cliick "OK", but when I re-open the properties dialog the
checkbox has the grey check in it again.

In addition, XP SP2 has a "Web Security" tab that has the
same security settings you see in the iis.msc snap-in.
But the settings don't necessarily match those you see/set
in MMC. I've tried setting these to match the MMC
settings, but that didn't work.

I'm guessing that XP somehow changed the permissions
provided to the IUSR_<servername> anonymous guest account,
but not sure how to reset them. The security settings in
XP SP2 are totally different than they used to be.

Bottom line: I've got a file that I'm trying to write to,
but all the new security in SP2 is making it difficult to
even allow that. I know others have figured this out by
now... what am I missing?

OK, I think I found the problem. For other users who may
see similar issues:

It appears that the iis.msc snap-in is not properly
communicating with the NTFS file system (the "Web Sharing"
tab for a folder's "properties" dialog) to set the
read/write permissions correctly, and it has something to
do with using the MMC to create a virtual directory
instead of using the "Web Sharing" tab to create it.

If I create a virtual directory from inside the MMC, the
IIS read/write/browse permissions do NOT get synced up
with what's showing on the "Web Sharing" tab of the
properties dialog. However, I fould that I could fix this
problem by working through the NTFS properties dialog:
1. I deleted all the virtual directories in the IIS MMC
snap-in
2. Went to explorer, found the folder I wanted to use
as my root folder, and used the "Web Sharing" tab to share
the file and create a virtual directory (alias). For
purposes of this example, call this alias <root>.
3. Went back to IIS.msc in the MMC, and found IIS had
also set this as an application (OK for what I wanted).
The read/write/browse permissions are also now all synced
up between the snap-in and the NTFS system.
4. The folder I wanted to give write access to was
actually a sub-folder of my root directory, so I went back
to Explorer and told it to also share this one on the
web. I gave it an alias of <root>/<this_folder>.
5. IIS once again turned this folder into an
application, but I think the forward slash in the alias
name screwed up the name for the application...
the "application name" was blank, but the "remove" button
was active, indicating an application was running. I
wanted this folder to run as part of my main application,
so I removed the no-name application for this folder only.
6. As with the root folder, the read-write permissions
of the sub-folder now look to be synced between IIS.msc
and the NTFS system. When I change one, they both update.

The interesting part in all this is that creating an alias
for the root directory allowed all the sub-directories to
have read access, but I could not get write access to any
of the sub-directories without specifically telling the
NTFS system I wanted to share them on the web. Guessing
there's probably a better way to do this, but this
workaround seems to be working. At least until Mr Gates
puts out another "upgrade" that causes perfectly-good code
to quit working...

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