Startweb.vbs and Stopweb.vbs Fail on NT4.0 with Error 800401E4 (307326)

We strongly recommend that all users upgrade to Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) version 6.0 running on Microsoft Windows Server 2003. IIS 6.0 significantly increases Web infrastructure security. For more information about IIS security-related topics, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/prodtech/IIS.mspx

SYMPTOMS

When you attempt to run Internet Information Services (IIS) Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) scripts such as Startweb.vbs and Stopweb.vbs on a remote computer, you may receive one or both of the following error messages:

error: 800401E4 - unable to open IIS://computer/w3svc/site number

-or-

error: 1A8 - unable to stop web server IIS://computer/w3svc/site number

CAUSE

This problem has two possible causes:

The user that issues the command lacks the necessary permissions on the target IIS server.
Either the source or the target server has a downlevel ADSI client.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, make sure that the user that issues the command is an authenticated user on the target computer and has Operator rights for the IIS Web site. Built-in ADSI security does not allow the Anonymous user to access IIS objects by running IIS scripts.

If the permissions are correct and attempts to run the scripts still fail, the problem may be a downlevel ADSI client. An upgrade is available from the following Microsoft Web site:

Active Directory Service Interfaces Overview
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/technologies/activedirectory/default.mspx

MORE INFORMATION

The following is the correct syntax to control an IIS Web site on a remote computer:

cscript scriptname.vbs -c computername -a sitenum

For example, to start the Default Web Site on the SERVER1 computer, open a command prompt, change to the Winnt\System32\Inetsrv\Adminsamples folder, and then issue the following command:

cscript startweb.vbs -c SERVER1 -a 1