Asp.net-mvc – Using port 80 with IIS Express inside of VS2010

asp.net-mvcasp.net-mvc-3httpiis-expressvisual studio 2010

I've got an app that I am trying to run on my dev system under IIS Express from VS2010 that I need to use port 80 for, but I can't get it to work. I've looking up information talking about port 80 being reserved.
http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/1005/handling-url-binding-failures-in-iis-express/

But even after doing that I still get an error from vs2010 that says
"Unable to launch the IIS Express Web server. Port '80' is in use."

I don't know what else to try. I've used Process Hacker to track down port 80 and it seems to be used by System running on process ID 4, which is the NT Kernel and System process. I don't know if that would prevent me from using the port though. I thought maybe that was a result of http.sys holding that port so nothing else could use it?

I did managed to get IIS Express to run on port 80 by modifying the default binding of the C:\Users\[MyUser]\Documents\IISExpress\config\applicationhost.config file, and while I can start IIS Express manually this way, VS then gets an error because a binding already exists on that port. So I change it back to 8080, create the virtual directory using the button within VS2010 (which I'm guessing is the same as entering a site binding) but I still get an error when I go to debug the application. Is there something hardcoded in VS2010 that won't let it start IIS Express on port 80?

UPDATE & FIX: Ok, so I found a few more things to check and I did resolve my problem but not completely. One post suggested making sure I did not have SQL reporting services installed as it can monitor on port 80, I used to have it installed but not anymore and was not the problem I was encountering. I did however realize that I have WebDeploy installed. It was bundled with the VS2010 SP1 bundle from the Web Platform Installer. This is fine as I do want the client tools from WebDeploy, but it also installed the agent on my system which was monitoring on port 80. I went to my list of services and stopped the Web Deploy Agent Service. Soon as I did this I can now use port 80 for IIS Express from within VS2010.

New Issue related to running on port 80 in IIS Express
However my application is an MVC3 App, and I've run into a problem because the MVC3 isn't capturing my request at all, so It's not firing my controller actions or anything like that, but a txt file in the root of my app can be reached so I know it's my site that IIS Express is serving up. Anyone have any issues running an MVC3 (I don't know if it's exclusive to MVC3 or not) in IIS Express on port 80?

Best Answer

Just posting my own answer for this problem so I can mark the question as answered. Check http://learn.iis.net/page.aspx/1005/handling-url-binding-failures-in-iis-express/ Disable the Web Deploy Agent service if you have it installed.

Related Solutions

Using Custom Domains With IIS Express

This is what worked for me (Updated for VS 2013, see revision history for 2010, for VS 2015 see this: https://stackoverflow.com/a/32744234/218971):

Right-click your Web Application Project ▶ Properties ▶ Web, then configure the Servers section as follows:
- Select IIS Express ▼ from the drop down
- Project Url: http://localhost
- Override application root URL: http://dev.example.com
- Click Create Virtual Directory (if you get an error here you may need to disable IIS 5/6/7/8, change IIS's Default Site to anything but port :80, make sure Skype isn't using port 80, etc.)
Optionally: Set the Start URL to http://dev.example.com

Open %USERPROFILE%\My Documents\IISExpress\config\applicationhost.config (Windows XP, Vista, and 7) and edit the site definition in the <sites> config block to be along the lines of the following:

<site name="DevExample" id="997005936">
    <application path="/" applicationPool="Clr2IntegratedAppPool">
        <virtualDirectory
            path="/"
            physicalPath="C:\path\to\application\root" />
    </application>
    <bindings>
        <binding
            protocol="http"
            bindingInformation=":80:dev.example.com" />
    </bindings>
    <applicationDefaults applicationPool="Clr2IntegratedAppPool" />
</site>

If running MVC: make sure the applicationPool is set to one of the "Integrated" options (like "Clr2IntegratedAppPool").
Open your hosts file and add the line 127.0.0.1 dev.example.com.
► Start your application!

Some great advice from the comments:

You may need to run Visual Studio as Administrator.

If you want to make other devs see your IIS run netsh http add urlacl url=http://dev.example.com:80/ user=everyone

If you want the site to resolve for all hosts set bindingInformation="*:80:". Use any port you want, 80 is just convenient. To resolve all hosts you'll need to run Visual Studio as an administrator

Visual-studio – IIS Express Windows Authentication

Visual Studio 2010 SP1 and 2012 added support for IIS Express eliminating the need to edit angle brackets.

If you haven't already, right-click a web-flavored project and select "Use IIS Express...".
Once complete, select the web project and press F4 to focus the Properties panel.
Set the "Windows Authentication" property to Enabled, and the "Anonymous Authentication" property to Disabled.

enter image description here

I believe this solution is superior to the vikomall's options.

Option #1 is a global change for all IIS Express sites.
Option #2 leaves development cruft in the web.config.
- Further, it will probably lead to an error when deployed to IIS 7.5 unless you follow the "unlock" procedure on your IIS server's applicationHost.config.

The UI-based solution above uses site-specific location elements in IIS Express's applicationHost.config leaving the app untouched.

More information here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/hh288080.aspx

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Using Custom Domains With IIS Express

Visual-studio – IIS Express Windows Authentication

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