John Howard, Web Server Administrator at Large

John Howard, web server administrator at largeJohn shares the results of his years of experience with high technology. By John Howard.

I'm John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia. Welcome to my internet page. It's important for people everywhere to have access to up to date information about the Australian Government, the Ministers who make up the Government, our view of current issues, and our vision for Australia's future.

This home page and my government's home pages are updated frequently. And whether you are seeking information on our system of government, doing a school project, or checking on the latest major issues in the media, I hope you find the material helpful and informative.

Since my social and economic policies have caused so many skilled young people to seek other shores, lose their accent and pretend to be from New Zealand out of sheer shame at their citizenship of a country ruled by me, I've had to learn to administer my own web servers. I've picked up some handy hints along the way, and I've presented them here for you.

To avoid your visitors ever seeing "Directory Listing Denied This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed" (or any variation on 'directory listing not allowed'), always set a default document (for example, index.html) when you turn off directory listing. That's all.

For IIS: in the MMC or Computer Manager, click on 'Default Web Site Properties'. On the 'Document' tab, check 'Enable default document' and 'Add' as many defaults as you need, in order of priority. E.g. index.html, index.htm, index.asp, default.htm, default.asp.

December 3, 2001. I watched 'Soldier' last night instead of learning ActionScript. Terrible, terrible movie, and I figured I could procrastinate a bit today but finding out why 'Chas' from 'Capital City' (Jason Isaacs) was desperate enough to appear in it. URL guessing just isn't what it should be when there are clueless server admins around.

Directory Listing Denied This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed.

November 29, 2001. I guess I'll never know if they'll offer vegie burgers here. (Rough English translation - site not found. there is no site configured at this address).

Er is geen website geconfigureerd op dit adres.

November 29, 2001. Cheap (Dutch) supermarket, cheap site?

Directory Listing Denied This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed.

November 26, 2001. I hit the jackpot today - the Microsoft Developer's Network site. I can die a happy Prime Minister. (Not that it's going to help me get this scripting error sorted anytime soon.)

www.msdn.com: This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed

November 13, 2001. While researching a story on Shania Twain, I came across Shaniatwain.com.

This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed.

November 1, 2001. Barnes and Noble, eh?

This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed.

November 1, 2001. Shame, Flying Nun make great music.

This Virtual Directory does not allow contents to be listed.

November 1, 2001. I actually went looking for this one.

Directory listing denied! This virtual directory does not allow contents to be listed.

Fancy one, this.

Directory Listing Denied This virtual directory does not allow contents to be listed.

(Single) Bilingual.