It's a bit convoluted this, but here goes.

I have an ASP web application that runs on a low spec old laptop, which also runs an instance of SQL Server. The application is defined in IIS on the local C: drive and works happily. I now wish to generate pages on demand with links that point to data held on an external HDD mapped to the laptop [server], but it won't work.

If the links refer to the HDD via its mapped drive e.g.
<a href="file://T:/folerpath/file.ext>File to link to</a>
it works internally on my LAN but not remotely form the outside world obviously, as the browser can't see a T: drive.

I thought re-defining the application within IIS to hold it in the same location as the folder on the ext HDD containing the data would resolve it and make the links resolve within the defined application, but IIS doesn't like that, and the whole web app fails.

This must be the most rudimentary method of doing things - seperating the data from the presentation and logic in the way that we're always told. So how do I get my web page to point to the data on the external HDD?

Thx in advance.

What are the files you are trying to access that are external?

If you are simply trying to serve raw files from one machine that are on another machine you may need to look into writing some handlers. The handler will read the file on the local network and just stream out the data through the web app. Obviously, as you've found, outside clients aren't going to be able to see your internal resources.

-Peter
compiledthoughts.com

The data files are a mix of JPGs and MP3s, which I'd like to be able to access from anywhere once logged in to my site.

It's surprising that this isn't handled by some sort of process already built in, either to IIS or ASP itself - it's hardly an unusual requirement.

Thanks for the response though.

You can set up IIS to point to a network drive so you can serve files from multiple physical systems via single server. Sure, this is common. But you need to set it up. Your security model will dictate the level of difficulty. I have a NAS (Linux) server at home and several separate web servers that serve files from it. At work we have a central content repository that servers several web farms.

You can create a site or virtual directory in IIS that points to a network location. You just need to provide it suitable security credentials to be able to access the files.

-Peter
compiledthoughts.com

Sorted - created a virtual directory, made some tweaks to the stored procedure to build the correct path and it's working, once the permissions to the ext drive were resolved.

Thanks for the help Planoie.