How To: Local IIS Express using Different Host Name other that LocalHost

So, I don't like doing development on localhost. Just a pet peeve... until I found out that jquery hates it more. Trying to do ajax postbacks on a locally running service (at http://localhost:someport) failed.

In Visual Studio 2010you can set the project to use IIS Express but if you don't have "things" set right it will fail. (IIS Express doesn't, out of the box, listening to web requests for host headers other than localhost)

Create host name to point localhost to something more-fun-er by adding an alias to:

c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Add a line:

127.0.0.1 mylocal.dev

Then open

My Documents\IISExpress\config\applicationhost.config

Search for your Application name and change the listening settings for your app




Save the file. In Visual Studio change your project to point to the new host name:



now your app will run nicely in it's "new" home :)

Windwos 2008 r2 Firwall Rules: Set all rule to be Domain, Private using powershell

I want to expose my server to the internet. Yes, I know, layered security, blah blah blah... (I really don't take security that flippantly but for this purpose...)

I am no Powershell Expert; not even really a user. I was searching high and low for how to use powershell to update all the default rules to be internal only (I even used Altavista; yes it is still around). The windows firewall GUI doesn't allow you to modify multiple rules at once, so I would have to sit there and go to the properties of each and update for only allowing the default rules on the two non-public profiles (Domain, Internal). YUCK! Thanks MS!

Ok, so with power shell (installed by default on windows 2008 r2) you can loop through each rule and update it.

Values to replace "#Number#" below

1 = Domain
2 = Private
3 = Domain, Private
4 = Public
5 = Domain, Public
6 = Private, Public
7 = All

Get the Nifty COM object (surprising they still make these...)

$fw = New-Object -ComObject HNetCfg.FwPolicy2

Now Loop... Powershell does allow for muliline commands so go ahead and add logic to only change the ones you want...

foreach($rule in $fw.Rules) {$rule.Profiles = #Number#}

Now this updates ALL (Disabled and Enabled) Rules in the firewall, if you are connected remotely, make sure you are connected through the appropriate interface and don't knock yourself off. (Cause that just bites)

Hope the robots find this as to help someone else... :)