how to deploy asp.net mvc to my desktop so that it be visible to all computers in the network?

Question

I've developed a tiny application in ASPNET MVC that I'd like to deploy. Our network has 2 servers and 20+ desktops. The two servers have our applications (written in java) running in them. [we're not a software company - I've learned ASP.NET MVC on my own and would like to show it to my people - who knows? that might open doors...].

That's why I need to know (1) if it's possible to deploy my application to my desktop so that other can access to it form their computers in the same network? (2) How do I do it?

In fact, having my people surrounding my laptop makes my application look like a curious toy. So far, I've learn how to develop, but I've never deploy an application (specially to a desktop)

Thanks for helping.

Answer 1

• If possible, make sure that you are running IIS 7 on your desktop (if you aren't, check out Phil Haack's ASP.NET MVC on IIS6 Walkthrough).
• Open IIS Manager (run the command "inetmgr").
• Expand the tree on the left, select the Default Web Site and click "Basic Settings".
• Make the "Physical path" point to the directory where you placed your MVC application
• Check if the application shows up on http://localhost
• If it doesn't, let us know
• If it does, make sure you open port 80 in your Windows firewall and try to access the website at http://your-ip from another machine

Answer 2

It quite easy actually. You should install IIS (Internet information server) from the standard windows components to your desktop machine. Put your code in the root directory of the default created web site ( or create your own with custom root directory). It's usually C:\inetpub\wwwroot

The be sure that your firewall is allowed the 80-th port, that's the port IIS listens on. Give your IP address to your team-mates and that's it.

Answer 3

Yes you should install IIS as anthares says. Note also if you are installing on older IIS version you should enable wildcard mapping for MVC (see http://haacked.com/archive/2008/11/26/asp.net-mvc-on-iis-6-walkthrough.aspx, "IIS6 Extension-less URLs")

Answer 4

In order to be able to share your Web Site in your network with collegues and if you happen to have a Windows XP server - I would suggest you to take a look at Microsoft Web Matrix first. It should be easy to use it.

I also wanted to publish a web site for internal use on my XP box and found that the IIS that comes with XP has a connection limit (I think it only supports 10 simultenous connections or something like that).

That's why I found myself installing Web Matrix (ofcourse this is the shortcut, I had a day or two of trial and error and an endless research), it worked pretty well for me.

I never used it with MVC however so you will need to check out that first.