Contents tagged with ASP.NET
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Using aspnet_regiis.exe to Encrypt Connection Strings
When it comes to securing IIS web applications on Windows Server 20008 R2 or Windows Server 2012 R2 one typically thinks of firewalls, access control lists (ACL), and using an application pool identity. These security measures will protect a site from external threats . However, .Net configuration files which typically store username and password data [...]
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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.
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Using Application_BeginRequest for a 301 Redirect
Redirecting visitors on your site from one page to another is handled by using either a 301 redirect or a 302 redirect. The numbers 301 and 302 refer to the http status code that is returned by the web server to your browser. They may seem similar but they are quite different. A 302 indicates a temporary change and a 301 indicates a permanent change. This difference is important to understand and will impact how search engines see content changes on your site. There are a number of ways to implement a 301 redirect on your web site. Some are easier than others to configure and will depend on the version of IIS you are using. Here’s the story of how I recently had to use the global.asax and Application_BeginRequest to do a 301 redirect.
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Authenticated SMTP Using System.Net.Mail
Using system.net.mail to send email messages from your web site makes life so easy. In the old days of Classic ASP you often had to rely on 3rd party components such as AspMail from serverobjects.com or AspEmail from persists.com. While they were very capable products and are still widely used today it added an additional layer of complexity to your programming. If you ever had to move a site from one server to another there was always a risk the components were not in place which would cause problems for your users. With system.net.mail you know as long as .Net is installed on the server hosting your site, your code will always work no matter how many times you move your web site or change hosting providers. In it’s simplest form the snippet below is the bare minimum of code you need to send a plain text message from your asp.net application.