I just bought a new computer with Windows Server 2003 Web Edition and I'm using it to host websites. I haven't got anything on there now, but when I do I'm going to want to get several domain names to resolve to one IP address, right? I'm told I can do this (i.e. have several websites hosted on the same machine with one IP address). What I want to know is how will the server know where the find each website based on the domain name given to it? I've tried connecting remotely using the IP Address and I can connect to index.htm under c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\, but if I'm going to have several domain names going to the same IP address, each one is going to have to find a subfolder or something under the wwwroot fold. For example, if I type www.abc.com, it's going to have to find the website for www.abc.com under something like c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\abc.com\, and if I type www.xyz.net, it's going to have to find it under c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\xyz.net\, and so on. Am I on the right track? If I am, what is the exact naming convention for the subfolders for each website (i.e. what goes in the blank for, say, www.abc.com: c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\_______\)? If I'm totally out to lunch, please tell me how the server knows where the find each website given a specific domain name?

It seems you aren't the first person to have pondered such questions: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/Installing_DNS_Windows_2003.html Beauty of the high sierra, and she's looking out for you.

Thanks, but this article doesn't exactly answer my question. I'm not concerned with setting up a DNS server on my machine, but rather how a remote DNS server will find the exact folder where a full website is stored given the domain name for that website. It can't just be by resolving the IP address because all the IP address will do is direct the client to the server, and since I'll be hosting many websites on the same server, from there it needs further information to find the exact folder for the website. I need to know where to store these websites and how to setup my server so that this can be done.

In IIS you must configure "Host Header Name". Go to your web site properties, in "Web Site" click "advanced..." and there add an host header name. For the site www.myweb1.com your host header name is www.mywebsite1.com, for www.mywebsite2.com it is www.mywebsite2.com ... Hope it is clear.