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Asked: 2026-05-11T16:37:37+00:00

I have an IIS server with 4 sites configured, using host headers and sharing

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I have an IIS server with 4 sites configured, using host headers and sharing the same IP. During a server move, I want to turn off the sites and display a holding page.

To do this I intend to create a 5th site with no host headers configured (ie a catch-all), a 404 handler with maintenance notice, and during the upgrade, stop the other 4 individual sites.

Question: When I stop the 4 individual sites, will this also turn off the host-header catchment so that all traffic is sent to the 5th site (maintenance page).

Unfortunately I currently only have access to an XP machine with IIS 5 to experiment with. I checked the MSDN articles, but they do not seem to mention what happens when individual websites are stopped.

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  1. Editorial Team

    Yes, when you stop a site on address $IP with a specified host header, its requests will pass through to a site with just address $IP. Your migration method will work just fine.

    Example:

    1. Site on 192.168.1.1, host header SpecialSite.local
    2. Site on 192.168.1.1, no host header

    As long as site #1 is running, requests for SpecialSite.local will hit it. Once site #1 is stopped, the requests will pass through to the “default” site for that IP, #2.

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