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This question has been asked before (namely, here), and I've found a few blog posts that give some details about how to setup IIS Express (here and here) in order to allow remote connections, but I haven't been able to put all the pieces together for myself. Here's what I've done so far:

  1. Ran this command at the command prompt to make a "URL Reservation":

    netsh http add urlacl url=http://my-computer-name-here:80/ user=everyone

  2. Opened up the appropriate port in my firewall:

    netsh firewall add portopening TCP 80 IISExpressWeb enable ALL

  3. Added in a new HTTP binding in my IIS Express's ApplicationHost.config for my project:

    <binding protocol="http" bindingInformation="*:80:my-computer-name-here" />

After completing these steps, I'm able to run my application locally by visiting http://my-computer-name-here/. However, if I try to visit that address with any other device connected to my local network, I get redirect to my ISP's generic search page.

I also tried navigating to my computer's IP, but I hit a 403 (or a 500 when I navigate to the directory of my project's index.html, found by examining the "Physical Path" debug information provided in the error message). This happens both locally and on external devices.

What else do I need to do in order to connect to my local IIS Express development server from an external device?

In case it's relevant, I'm using the ASP.NET Web API 2 tutorial as a test project for proof of concept. I'm using Visual Studio 2013.

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Nathan Friend
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1 Answers1

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I've found that I am able to connect to the development server externally, but only from another Windows machine. The devices I was using to test for a remote connection (an Android phone, an iPad, and a MacBook Air) are all unable to view the application.

I've asked a new question regarding accessing the application from non-Windows machines here.

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Nathan Friend
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    Even though you weren't able to solve your specific problem, I followed the commands and change you had mentioned and had it working first time. Windows 10 complained about the firewall command for netsh being deprecated, but that was the only issue I came across. Thanks for sharing. – Shafiq Jetha Sep 11 '15 at 02:33