Question

I try to connect IIS 7 (win7 x64) to the remote computer on IIS 6 (win srv 2003). I downloaded and installed IIS Manager for Remote Administration because It excluded in win7 by default.

But my attempts to connect fail with message: “Could not connecto the specified computer. Details: Unable to connect to the remote server”.

Is it possible to connect to the remote IIS 6?

Answer 1

To connect to an IIS 6 web server from Windows 7, you need to enable the IIS 6 Management Console in Windows 7 (the IIS Manager for Remote Administration that you mention only works with IIS 7.x).

1. In Windows 7, go to Control Panel > Programs and Features.
2. On the upper left, click Turn Windows features on or off.
3. Expand Internet Information Services, Web Management Tools, and
   IIS 6 Management Compatibility.
4. Select the IIS 6 Management Console checkbox.
5. Click OK.
6. After the install (you may have to reboot), click the Start button and type IIS into the search box.
7. Click Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Manager.
8. In the IIS 6 Manager, click Action, and then Connect. This brings up the Connect to Computer dialog box where you can enter a server name and the credentials you want to use.

Another option is to use a web browser interface (the Remote Administration HTML Tool). For more information on that, see How to remotely administer Internet Information Services in Windows Server 2003.

Note: If you do use the browser-based remote admin tool, be sure to open the TCP and SSL ports on the remote IIS server that the article mentions in Step 12 (Web Site Identification). Typically, these would be ports 8099 and 8098.