Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE--April 26, 2004

Windows Tips & Tricks UPDATE, April 26, 2004, —brought to you by the Windows & .NET Magazine Network and the Windows 2000 FAQ site
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FAQs

Commentary
by John Savill, FAQ Editor, [email protected]

This week, I tell you how to enable the Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Web administration tools so you can provide a Web page where users can change their passwords, and I provide an Active Server Pages (ASP) script that you can use to create your own Web page for the same purpose. I also explain how to control access to the IISADMPWD virtual directory, how to enable the RAS Dial-in tab on Windows XP computers that run Administration Tools, and how to create a default DNS entry.

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FAQs

Q. Does Windows Server 2003 provide a way to let users change their passwords remotely on the Web?

A. The version of Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 that ships with Windows 2003 includes some Web-administration tools that are disabled by default. To enable the tools, perform the following steps:

You can access the new interface at http:///iisadmpwd/aexp2.asp to change a local account password or at http:///iisadmpwd/aexp2b.asp to change a domain password. The figure at Figure 1 shows a sample Web interface for changing a domain password.

Q. How can I create a Web page where users can change their passwords?

A. You can write an Active Server Pages (ASP) script that creates a password-change Web page. ASP gives you complete access to Microsoft Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI), which lets you perform a variety of functions, such as changing passwords or creating accounts. When you write such a script, you must consider factors such as the user account under which the script will run and the permissions you want to use when the script runs. The basic ADSI command to change a user's password is

set usr = GetObject("LDAP://CN=JohnSavill,CN=Users,DC=savilltech,DC=com") usr.put "userPassword", NewPassword

The first line (shown as two lines because of space constraints) assigns a handle to user John Savill in domain savilltech.com. The next line puts the text NewPassword into the userPassword attribute.

I've written a short ASP script that prompts the user to enter a username and password (remember to change the domain from savilltech.com to your domain). The script, which is available at Code, is listed below.

 <%strUserCN = request.form("cn")strNewPassword = request.form("newpass")strPassVerify = request.form("passverify")if strUserCN="" then    response.write "<html><head><title>Change Password</title></head><body>"    response.write "<center><h1>Web Password Reset</h1></center>"    response.write "<hr><br><br><form method=post action=changepass.asp><table>"    response.write "<tr><td>CN: </td><td><input type=text name=cn></td><tr>"    response.write "<tr><td>New Password: </td><td><input type=password name=newpass></td></tr>"    response.write "<tr><td>Verify Password: </td><td><input type=password name=passverify></td></tr>"    response.write "<tr><td colspan=2 align=center><input type=submit value='Reset Password'></td></tr>"    response.write "</table></body></html>"    response.endelseif strNewPassword = strPassVerify thenset usr = GetObject("LDAP://CN=" & strUserCN & ",CN=Users,DC=savilltech,DC=com")usr.put "userPassword", strNewPasswordresponse.write "<html><head><title>Results</title></head><center><h1>Update Results</h1></center><hr><br><br>"response.write strUserCN & ": password was successfully updated"response.endelse    response.write "<html><head><title>Error!</title></head><body>"    response.write "<center><h1>An Error Has Occurred!</h1></center>"    response.write "<hr><br><br>"    response.write "The password and confirmation do not match. Please go back and try again."    response.endend ifend if%>

Windows Server 2003 provides its own Web pages for password changes, which I discuss in the FAQ "Does Windows Server 2003 provide a way to let users change their passwords remotely on the Web?". However, you might find the sample ASP script useful for creating password-change interfaces on your own Web pages or sites.

Q. How can I control access to the IISADMPWD virtual directory?

A. When you use the default IISADMPWD virtual directory to enable a Web page where users can change passwords, as I discussed in the FAQ "Does Windows Server 2003 provide a way to let users change their passwords remotely on the Web?", the Microsoft IIS server sends the user's password information unencrypted over the network, which creates a security risk. To avoid transmitting unencrypted passwords, you must enable Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) by following these steps:

Q. How can I enable the RAS Dial-in tab on Windows XP computers that run Administration Tools?

A. To enable the RAS Dial-in tab in the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in on an XP machine that runs the Administration Tools distribution package (Adminpak.msi), perform the following steps:

Thanks to reader Bob Kroeger for providing this tip in response to the FAQ, "I use the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in from a remote computer. I've noticed that certain Property tabs are missing. Can I restore the tabs?", at http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc ID 42256.

Q. How can I create a default DNS entry?

A. If you want DNS to return a particular IP address when no host record exists for a queried address, create a host record with a name of "*" (an asterisk) and assign to the host record the IP address you want DNS to return as the default. One common use for a default DNS entry is when you have many different Web servers and you want a Web server to display a default page when a user incorrectly enters a server name.

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