Re: Cant't download "exe" file because of IIS version

From: Peter McLaren (PeterMcLaren_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 11/18/04 

Date: Wed, 17 Nov 2004 21:16:02 -0800

As far as I can tell, we are only running Tomcat as an ISAPI application.
Unless Microsoft Project Server is an ISAPI application as well?

The MSI will be based on the results of the installation of the exe that
everyone would have downloaded in the first place. The issue is with the
installation process on a workstation. It is really ugly and requires a
number of custom registry tweaks that need to be made by hand. There is
absolutely no way on the face of this earth that I am going to allow 70 odd
people to screw this up 70 different ways. I am going to get it right with my
controlled installation and push it out using AD. What I am saying is that I
don't want my staff to download the straight exe and try to install that way
- it is far too error prone. I am going to take off the ASP.Net script
mapping just to prevent them from trying to download it. And I am going to
leave Tomcat configured just the way it is so that they CAN't download this
executable.

If it turns out that I need to download another exe from this IIS server, I
will re-evaluate the Tomcat application configuration.

"David Wang [Msft]" wrote:

> Ah, you are running Tomcat and other ISAPI-based applications on the server?
> Earlier, I was asking about custom ISAPIs being installed on the machine
> because they can alter IIS behavior to be incorrect.
>
> In particular, if this is the case, I'm not certain your MSI will do any
> good. The underly problem is a conflict in behavior between some ISAPI and
> what you want. Your issue is with a possible bug in that ISAPI.
>
> My leading suspicion right now is that Tomcat's configuration has something
> to do with it. Tomcat is supposed to leave static files to IIS to serve
> while it handles the JSP ones -- but if that's not the case and Tomcat
> botches handling the static files (like .exe), it could explain what you are
> seeing. And your "solution" of scriptmapping it to ASP.Net simply told IIS
> to give the file to ASP.Net (which does know how to do static file
> downloads, relative to Tomcat) instead of Tomcat.
>
> Of course, if this is the case, the best solution is to tell Tomcat to NOT
> take over the .exe download, instead of asking ASP.Net to usurp the file
> from Tomcat.
>
> The "official" fix I mentioned is to not scriptmap ASP.Net to the .exe
> handler (or any other static file, in fact) to support file download.
>
> --
> //David
> IIS
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
> //
> "Peter McLaren" <PeterMcLaren@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:212E2ADC-FE8B-4D13-9BFB-90C80F429F58@microsoft.com...
> This solution may not be "correct", but it is the ONLY solution that worked.
> I have verified every setting in IIS6 until I am blue in the face and no
> matter what I did, under no circumstances whatsoever, could I download this
> executable file from my IIS6 server. Perhaps it was a function of running
> Project Server on this box and running a tomcat application as well, but
> regardless, those applications are mission critical while this downloading
> an
> executable was not.
>
> Fortunately, it is an intranet site and the task was to download a
> relatively small exe file. Based on what I have learned after installing
> this
> executable, the appropriate solution for my company is to have me create an
> msi based on the installation of this application and push it out using AD,
> so this particular problem is no longer an issue.
>
> You mention an official fix. May I enquire as to what it is? I have searched
> the registry and looked at all levels of Web directories in IIS6 to verify
> that executables were NOT mapped to any application for the MIME type.
> (Right
> now ASP.Net is handling executables for this directory)
>
> "David Wang [Msft]" wrote:
>
> > Wait. Your resolution is not correct. It may "work" but it's not right
> and
> > will fail under load since ASP.Net static file handler is not as robust as
> > IIS's.
> >
> > What you did was assign ASP.Net to handle the .exe extension, and ASP.Net
> > will send the resource as-is since it doesn't understand .exe files. This
> > means that ASP.Net settings for static files will apply to the response,
> > which has its own configuration in the various machine.config/web.config
> > files applicable.
> >
> > This is one way to "work", but it is a poor choice because ASP.Net static
> > file handler is known to not perform well under load nor for large files
> > (i.e. large Office documents can cause it to choke) -- so you really do
> NOT
> > want to do this. The official "fix" for this issue is to NOT use ASP.Net
> > for static files, so if you run into problems, you will have to do what
> I'm
> > telling you anyway -- so let's just avoid the run-around and do it
> correctly
> > the first time.
> >
> >
> > You want to make sure that .EXE is NOT scriptmapped to anything, so that
> the
> > IIS6 static file handler sends the content in accordance to the MIME Type
> > settings you make in IIS.
> >
> > --
> > //David
> > IIS
> > This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
> rights.
> > //
> > "Peter McLaren" <PeterMcLaren@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:AFBD908E-8C32-4F3F-B159-862960497CE6@microsoft.com...
> > I am absolutely 100% positive that permissions was set to Scritps only.
> > The final way that this issue was resolved was by following the
> instructions
> > below:
> > In IIS Manager, right click the virtual folder and select
> > "Properties/Directory". Click "Configuration" button, and then add an
> > application extension: executable:
> > C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\aspnet_isapi.dll extension
> > ..exe.
> > Restart IIS
> >
> > "Yogita Manghnani [MSFT]" wrote:
> >
> > > Hello,
> > > Are you sure that the setting Executable permissions for that site in
> IIS
> > > is set to Scripts only and not Scripts and Executables? I'm not sure how
> > > Firefox works, but if you specify Executable permissions to Scripts only
> > > then IE should prompt you to open/save the exe on the client end.
> > > http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313075
> > >
> > > Good luck,
> > > Yogita Manghnani
> > > Microsoft Developer Support
> > > Internet Information Server
> > >
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