FP1: Can't Add Additional IPs on Multi-homed Windows NT Server

• Microsoft FrontPage for Windows, version 1.1

SYMPTOMS

When you use FrontPage on a multi-homed Windows NT Server, you may reach a point where the FrontPage Server Administrator can not add any more Internet protocol (IP) addresses.

At this point, you may encounter failures in operating the FrontPage Server Extensions on any of your virtual servers, and you may receive the following error message:

   Server error: INI File "" Section "Port80" not Found.

CAUSE

FrontPage Server Extensions version 1.1 for Windows NT have an internal limitation of 1024 bytes when parsing sections of the Frontpg.ini file. This leads to an effective upper limit of between 40 and 50 IP addresses on most installations. This limitation will vary depending on the length of your IP addresses or domain names. Shorter IP addresses will allow you to add more virtual servers.

RESOLUTION

To recover the functionality of existing FrontPage extended virtual servers, open the Frontpg.ini file and delete the last port you successfully added from both the Ports section and from the section devoted to that port. For example, if the last IP address you added was 240.240.240.50:80, delete the single line under the [Ports] section of the Frontpg.ini files that looks like this:

   240.240.240.50:80=

   [Port 240.240.240.50:80]
   servertype=msiis
   serverconfig=unused
   authoring=enabled
   frontpageroot=C:\Microsoft FrontPage

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was corrected in Microsoft FrontPage 97 for Windows with Bonus Pack. In FrontPage 97, the parsing limit has been increased to 64 kilobytes. This applies to all FrontPage Server Extensions for Windows NT servers.