"The address could not be found" error messages are logged in the gatherer log and crawls of the content index are not completed successfully in SharePoint Portal Server 2003 (891538)

SYMPTOMS

The virtual server that hosts your Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 portal site is configured to use only Basic authentication. When you reset the content index for portal site content, and then you perform a full update of the content index, you experience the following symptoms:

Crawls of the content index for the portal site are not completed successfully. In the Documents in Index column of the Manage Content Indexes page, the number of documents that are displayed for the content index is listed as 0 (zero).
One or more occurrences of the following error message are logged in the gatherer log for the content index:
The address could not be found, (0x80041205 - Access is denied. Check that the Default Content Access Account in SharePoint Central Administration is correct, or follow the "Exclude and Include Content" link to add a rule to specify the proper crawling account to access this URL. )
When you use SSL, the following error appears in the Event Viewer when searching People:
(Gatherer. Event ID: 3036. The content source sps://sitename/site$$$people cannot be accessed)

CAUSE

This issue occurs if a crawling account is not specified in the site restriction rules and in the site path rules that are set up for the content index. For example, this issue occurs if the rules are configured to use the Use default crawling account option instead of the Specify crawling account option.

If the virtual server in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS 6.0) is configured to use only Basic authentication, you must specify a crawling account in the site restriction rules and in the site path rules that are configured for the content index.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, specify a crawling account in the site restriction rules and in the site path rules for the content index. To do this, follow these steps:

Connect to the portal site, and then click Site Settings.
Under Search Settings and Indexed Content on the Site Settings page, click Configure search and indexing.
Under Content Indexes on the Configure Search and Indexing page, click the content index that you want to configure.
In the Rules to Exclude and Include Content area of the Manage Index Properties page, click Manage rules to exclude and include content.
Specify a crawling account for each rule that is listed as Included in the Included or Excluded column. To do this, follow these steps:
1. Move the pointer over the rule, click the down arrow that appears, and then click Edit.
2. In the Specify Authentication area of the Edit Rule page, click Specify crawling account.
3. In the Account box, type the name of the user account.
  
  For example, if you want to specify the default content access account as the crawling account, type the name of the user account that is configured as the default content access account in the Account box. To determine the user account that is the default content access account, see the Default Content Access Account area of the Configure Server Farm Account Settings page of SharePoint Central Administration.
4. Type the password in the Password box and in the Confirm password box, and then click OK.

Note If your SQL server is in a different domain than the computer that is running SharePoint Portal Server, make sure that the Crawl Account is a member of the domain in which the computer that is running SharePoint Portal Server resides.

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about site path rules and search settings in SharePoint Portal Server 2003, see the "Managing Search Settings for the Portal" topic in the "Managing Search Settings" section of the "Administration" chapter of the Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Administrator's Guide. The Microsoft Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Administrator's Guide (Administrator's Help.chm) is located in the Docs folder in the root directory of the SharePoint Portal Server 2003 CD.