Archives

Archives / 2014 / August
  • Managing IIS Logs with GZipStream

    Depending on how many sites your Windows web server is hosting maintaining IIS logs can be a challenge.  IIS logs provide valuable insight into the traffic your sites are experiencing as well as detailed SEO metrics and performance data. A typical web server will have just enough free disk space for future growth needs but ultimately will be limited by the capacity of drives in the server. If left unmonitored IIS logs can quickly fill any remaining disk space on the server. There are a few 3rd party tools that are good at compressing log files when they are under one parent folder but when the log files are in different locations such as on a WebsitePanel server I support an alternative solution is needed. In this walkthrough I will demonstrate how I solved this challenge using asp.net and GZipStream.

  • 3 Steps to Securing FTP on IIS 8

    The FTP protocol is some 43 years old now. Yet it continues to be one of the most widely used file transfer technologies available. Over the years it has been shown to  be vulnerable to brute force attacks, packet capture, and other attack vectors.  Fortunately with IIS 8 on Windows Server 2012  your FTP server doesn’t have to be vulnerable. It goes without saying that FTP Authentication and Authorization are the most fundamental methods to secure your server.  Here are three additional things you can do to increase the security of your server’s FTP service and minimize its attack footprint.

  • Preventing Automated Attacks with IIS Dynamic IP Restrictions

    Another one of the great built-in features of IIS 8 is Dynamic IP Restrictions (DIPR). With a few simple configuration steps you can quickly set limits for blocking IP addresses based on the number of concurrent requests or frequency of requests over a period time. With these parameters in place IIS will take over blocking requests unattended thereby making your server more secure.