HTTP Error 401.1 - Unauthorized from Local IIS

Question

I have created site on my local machine that works fine on debug mode but when i put the site on local iis (7.5) of my machine i get

HTTP Error 401.1 - Unauthorized

Answer 1

As a quick and dirty fix, grant the IIS_IUSRS group Read/Execute or Modify permissions to your web folder... BUT DON'T DO THIS ON AN INTERNET FACING SERVER, read on....

To fix this properly you should grant the Application Pool Identity for your site Read/Execute or Modify permissions to your application's web folder. To do this:

1. Open IIS Manager, navigate to your website or application folder where the site is deployed to.
2. Open Advanced Settings (it's on the right hand Actions pane).
3. Note down the Application Pool name then close this window
4. Double click on the Authentication icon to open the authentication settings
5. Disable Windows Authentication
6. Right click on Anonymous Authentication and click Edit
7. Choose the Application pool identity radio button the click OK
8. Select the Application Pools node from IIS manager tree on left and select the Application Pool name you noted down in step 3
9. Right click and select Advanced Settings
10. Expand the Process Model settings and choose ApplicationPoolIdentity from the "Built-in account" drop down list then click OK.
11. Click OK again to save and dismiss the Application Pool advanced settings page
12. Open an Administrator command line (right click on the CMD icon and select "Run As Administrator". It'll be somewhere on your start menu, probably under Accessories.
13. Run the following command:

icacls /grant "IIS APPPOOL\"(CI)(OI)(M)

For example:

icacls C:\inetpub\wwwroot\mysite\ /grant "IIS APPPOOL\DEFAULTAPPPOOL":(CI)(OI)(M)

If all is good icacls.exe will report:

processed file: c:\inetpub\wwwroot\mysite
Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files