Installing Iceberg

As part of the installation of Iceberg. a lightweight web server called UltiDev Cassini is set up on your system. This means you can run Iceberg without setting up IIS. It creates a special administration site on port 7756 which allows you to manage the applications running under it. When Iceberg is installed, it shows you a page which will redirect you to your local Iceberg installation using a url similar to the following:

http://localhost:7756/GoToApplicatio...2-E61D6790CC1A

NOTE: Sometimes it just takes a while for the server to start up and initialize, especially on older machines. If you get a timeout, try to close the browser and open it again to see if the site has initialized in the meantime.

If the administration site is down, you will see browser timeout errors informing you that the site at http://localhost:7756' does not exist or could not be reached.

There are a number of reasons this may happen, heres the checklist I use when I'm faced with this fun challenge.

1. Firewalls
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The Cassini server registers itself with the Windows firewall, but not others. To be sure, I disable all firewalls and attempt to open the link above. If it works, add an exception to your firewall of choice. When adding exceptions, you will need to either allow the Cassini application itself (thats what I would do) which is installed at the following location by default:

C:\Program Files\UltiDev\Cassini Web Server for ASP.NET 2.0\UltiDevCassinWebServer2a.exe

Alternatively, you can open up the two ports that Iceberg needs. The first is port 7756, and the second is the port you are redirected to after clicking the above link. This is a random port assigned to Iceberg by the Cassini server during installation.


2. Is the web server running
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Bring up the Services console:

- Open the Start menu
- In XP go to Run, in Vista use the 'search' box
- Type the following and hit enter:
services.msc /s

Look for a service named "UltiDev Cassini Web Server for ASP.NET 2.0" and make sure that its 'Status' is "Started", and that its 'Log On As' is set to "Local System".


3. Check the event log
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Bring up the event viewer

- Open the Start menu
- In XP go to Run, in Vista use the 'search' box
- Type the following and hit enter:
eventvwr.msc /s

This will bring up the event viewer snap in. We want the Application category on the left side. Any ASP.NET errors will show up with a little yellow triangle beside them. Double clicking on an entry will bring up a pop up with lots of text in it, paste that in the forum if you find any.


4. Access the url with your local IP address instead of 'localhost'
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If theres a problem resolving the localhost name on your PC, then you will see timeouts for any port regardless of settings. One thing to try in this case, is using the IP address of your PC directly, instead of localhost. Try the following steps:

- Go to Start > Run
- Type the following and hit enter:
cmd /k ipconfig

In the pop up screen you will see one or more groups of values ('Connection-specific DNS Suffix', 'IP Address', 'Subnet Mask' and 'Default Gateway'). We want the 'IP Address' value, which will consist of four numbers separated by a period (typically beginning with 192.168.###.###). If there is more than one group of values, look for the one associated with your Internet connection or your local router, this is usually labeled 'Local Area Connection #'

Once you have the IP address, then enter it into your browser in place of localhost. For example if your IP address was 192.168.1.5, then you would enter the following URL into your browser:

http://192.168.1.5:7756

If this works then you will see the Cassini Application Manager page, and from there you can click on the 'Iceberg' entry. Once there you can add a new bookmark for the site to save you going through the hassle of manually entering it next time.