I already answered that here: iis - dnndev.me giving "This site can’t be reached. dnndev.me refused to connect." error - Stack Overflow

Does it help?

Happy DNNing!
Michael

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the reply. I saw you're reply in Stackoverflow and responded. In short I'm familiar with the virtual drive issue for the DesktopModules folder but that is not the case here. None of the folders are marked as virtual drive nor as applications.

 

Hi Pablo,

I have experienced something similar one time when I was fiddling with the language settings in DNN - even though I reverted the settings I applied during 'the test' I could no longer get the site to respond without having to append '/en-us' to the path (default language - will be need to be matched to your regional language setting if you have changed it from default)

It is not on your list of trials-and-errors - so perhaps you could give that a try?

My first guess would also have been the virtual directory issue as Michael described - that happens every now and then during development ;-)

#DnnBro

DNNBro, thanks for the suggestion...I tried it but it didn't work for me.  I'm not sure what else I can try.

Try pinging dnndev.me and see what you get.

UPDATE:

Ok...I won't say I figured it out but I was able to bring the DNN Setup page up. Here's what I did.

I noticed/remembered that the default website that IIS installs which it names "Default Web Site" is installed in the root "wwwroot" folder and that it worked fine. Yet the DNN sites created under it do not.

So I then tried creating a simple 1 page website in a "testsite" folder in wwwroot and it also did not work. Same error.

So on a whim I copied all the files from the dnndev.me folder into the wwwroot folder and gave permissions to the IIS_IUSRS account and I was able to bring up the DNN Setup page by browsing the "Default Web Site" or localhost!?

So it seems to be a permissions issue? Or IIS issue? But one I've never heard of.

What is even stranger is that I then created a dnndev.me web site with the dnndev.me app pool, gave the folder the dnndev.me app pool permissions etc. and pointed it to the root wwwroot folder...but if I browse to it using the dnndev.me URL it does not come up but gives me the "This site can’t be reached dnndev.me refused to connect."!!!???

But if I browse to it using "localhost" or click the browse link for the default website the dnn setup page comes up?!

So to put it mildly I have no idea what is going on...I was going to mark my question as answered with this information but I realized that I do not know why it works in wwwroot but not in the dnndev.me subfolder or any subfolder. Nor is it a viable solution.

I'm hoping that with this additional information someone might recognize what is going on?

Hi Joe, I get the expected 127.0.0.1 reply

Have you tried setting up a site using nvQuickSite? This makes a lot of the setup work (even permissions), but I only recommend it for testing environments and not for production sites.

I normally do it this way:

1. Create a folder somewhere outside the C:\inetpub\wwwroot structure, let's say C:\Web\mysite or D:\Web\mysite... (if you have another drive than C: I recommend using it)
2. Create an application pool in IIS Manager, say MyWebSiteAppPool. USe .NET CLR Version v4.0.xxxxx and Integrated pipeline mode (which is both the default).
3. Assign "Modify" permissions to the folder created in 1) to IIS AppPool\MyWebSiteAppPool.
4. Unblock the installation package and unzip it to the folder created in 1. The file web.config should be in that folder after unzipping.
5. Create a database in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).
6. Create a login in SSMS, Name: IIS APpPool\MyWebSiteAppPool, Windows integrated authentication.
7. Assign a database user with db_owner role to this login in the database created in 5)
8. Create a website in IIS Manager, select the folder created in 1) as root and assign the application pool created in 2). Use something like "mysite.dnndev.me" as host header.
9. Select the website in IIS Manager, and double click "Authentication" (under IIS in the middle pane). Select "Anonymous Authentication" and click on Edit... in the right pane. Select the "Application pool identity" option and click OK.
10. Browse to "http://mysite.dnndev.me" and start the installation process.

Happy DNNing!
Michael