# IIS, .CAB files, PDW and Posting Acceptor



## jtheis (Jan 25, 2005)

I have installed IIS 5.1 on my server/development PC running XP Pro SP2. I have written some VisualBasic DLLs that need to be pushed out to the client PCs if they are not already installed when my test web page fires.

I created my .cab file using the VisualBasic PDW and then I tried to post my .cab file to my server. When I go through the steps though it gives me an error saying 'There is no PostInfo file on the server.' I've checked through the MSDN site for info and it came back with four possible causes:

1. The web service is not running.
2. PostInfo.asp is missing or not located in the inetpub\scripts physical directory
3. I don't have NTFS read and execute permission to the inetpub\scripts directory
4. The tag in the default doc (typ. default.htm) in the root directory is not pointing to the correct location for PostInfo.asp

I have checked all four of these things and they all appear to be ok. I'm not very comfortable at this point that I have IIS set up properly because when I follow the instructions from MSDN on how to configure the Posting Acceptor it keeps making reference to Win NT and to folders and nodes that I don't have in IIS.

As you can tell by this point I'm a total noobie at this, so any help would be appreciated.

Joe


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## jtheis (Jan 25, 2005)

A development: I did have my read/write access incorrectly setup. I fixed it and now when the web page fires and installs the .cab, it is registering the DLL that needs to be registered. However, the DLL that I am trying to install on the client is not being copied to the client. I can manually copy the DLL to the client and everything works ok.


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## Rockn (Jul 29, 2001)

Would this be because of security restrictions on the client side? I am pretty sure most browsers will not accept DLL's being pushed to them.


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## jtheis (Jan 25, 2005)

I tried to take care of the security issue by going in to IE and setting (I think) everything to at least prompt rather than just disabling a function. This had to be done earlier in order to let the .cab file install. I also tried to include a .txt file in with the package to try and push it out but it didn't come through to the client either.

Is there possibly some security not related to IE that needs to be turned off? The clients I've been using are all Win2K, so I don't have the XP firewall to worry about.


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## Rockn (Jul 29, 2001)

I do not think any browser will allow you to push unsolicited controls to the end user. Is the dll a part of the .cab file?


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## jtheis (Jan 25, 2005)

That's kind of where I thought this might be going. Looks like I'll have to do some more reading at MSDN on how to get my control signed.

There are two dlls associated with the .cab file. One is a VB ActiveX control that was written to access the second dll, an old Delphi dll that is not ActiveX. The VB dll registers just fine on the client, but the Delphi dll just doesn't get saved to the client.


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## AKA Arizona (Jul 22, 2003)

Is it possible to see an example of what you are trying to do?


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## jtheis (Jan 25, 2005)

I've attached the .inf file associated with my .cab file. I have also included the snip from my webpage that specifically referencese the .cab file. If there's anything else you need to see (DLLs, etc.) let me know. If you've got any ideas or anything I should try, please let me know.


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## AKA Arizona (Jul 22, 2003)

This is some what new to me, what purpose will the file serve? Are you trying to remote program something? ..............


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## jtheis (Jan 25, 2005)

What we are ultimately trying to do is take a project (developed using ICONICS HMI software) that was originally built for one computer and now deploy it using ICONICS WebHMI from a server to a number of thin clients. The big problem is that the original legacy Delphi DLLs were not written with the web in mind, so they don't quite work exactly as we need them to work now. So we wrote the VB ActiveX DLL to call the legacy DLLs and that seems to work ok. Now I'm just trying to automate the process of getting all the necessary files out to the clients so that we only have to maintain the server.


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