Help needed with IIS5.1 and XP Pro

Hi there,

I recently bought a laptop with XP Pro installed. I installed IIS myself so that i could simply run ASP scripts. When the installation was complete i tried http://localhost/default.htm in the address bar of internet explorer 6.0 and got a 'page not found' error which appeared after several minutes.
I pinged my computer name, localhost and 127.0.0.1 all work fine. I've tried restarting IIS, i've checked the connection settings on IE|Options|LAN Settings... (deselected "Automatically detect my settings"). None of this solved my problem.
I have a firewall and McAffee virus scanning software installed.
I dont want my website to be availble to the outside world, all i want is to use localhost to run ASP scripts.
I have noticed that when i type http://LocalHost/default.htm and press 'go' IE asks me do i want to connect to the internet using my dial-uip connection. This doesn't sound right.
Also if default.htm refers to IE to an ASP script, IE's Information Bar (which is incredibly annoying and i cant seem to switch it off) pops up and blocks the script from runnning and asks me do i want to download the file. When i click yes, the file is opened in Visual InterDev!!
This has been wrecking my head for weeks now, can somebody please, please help me.

Many thanks in advance.

If you are not connected to the internet when you try to use a local IIS page, it's normal to get an error about no internet connection. For me, one retry to this error gets everything initialized, and I can work on asp code with one hand and check the fishing pole with the other

Doug G,
Thanks for the reply.
I tried what you said but no joy. IE just sits there for several minutes trying to display the default page and eventually comes back with the 'Page cannot be found error'.
Have you any other suggestions?

If you have firewall software running, try turning it off for testing. Likewise any antivirus script blocking.

Doug G,
Tried what you said but again no joy. Any other suggestions.
There is a similar thread to mine running at the moment 'duanem' (apologies if spelf incorrectly) who seems to be having exactly the same problem i'm having. Someone mention setting DMZ so that the local IP address would be 192.168.1.101. What exactly does this mean?

Did you run the iis lockdown tool by any chance?

Doug G,

Again thanks for your reply.
I dont know what the iis lockdown tool is. Can you elaborate?

Well, if you don't know what it is the odds are you didn't run it. MS provides this security lockdown tool that often screws up asp on IIS if you don't watch carefully when running the tool.

Are you certain you have turned off and disabled any antivirus script blocking services?