Iis – Visual studio 2005 cannot connect to remote website even with Frontpage server extensions installed

Ah, Anton from the comments section of the post says "For those who are missing the configuration option in IIS make sure you’ve installed the “Web Deploy 3.0 for Hosting Servers” – You can search for it in the Web PI tool."

And indeed there is such an option in the Web Platform Installer search, now updated for WebDeploy version 3.5

Then, you use IIS's "Management Service" panel at the server level to configure the (stopped) service to select the correct certificate for the host name you'll be accessing it by and to allow remote access.

Then, in Visual Studio 2013, use HTTP rather than the https that you might think to use. Apparently 2013 uses a different protocol. I forget where I read that.

This was a combination of problems:

1. Windows Firewall was not blocking port 8172 TCP, Azure was. The moral: interrogate higher ups as to the true nature of the server beast you are getting ready to modify.
2. MsDeployServiceURL should be https in this case. The moral: sometimes statements that sound like they are cut and dried 'This is the way it is' are not to be trusted.
3. Had to install an additional module or feature for Web Deploy: Unable to use "Web deploy" on Windows Server 2012 HTTP ERROR 404.7 . The moral: IDK, install the whole package even if you don't think you will need some parts of it and skip the express install?