W3SVC and SMTP hang on startup

[Horkie]

Suddenly, after almost a year with no difficulties, W3SVC and SMTP hang on startup on my development box (according to event log and other unusual behaviors -- IE 5.5 is slow to start, etc.).

Win2K Pro Services applet indicates that IISADMIN has started, and reports no errors, but W3SVC and SMTP show "Starting ..." Event Log reports they've hung on startup. At the same time, I no longer have access to folder properties or to set folder shares (I'm in "Administrators" Group, same as always).

I've uninstalled/reinstalled IIS, moving Inetpub and re-booting in between. I've done a clean install of Win2k Pro, applied all patches (more moving and re-booting). What a hassle! But the behavior remains. My laptop, on the same home office LAN, has a near-identical configuration (w/patches) and IIS5 runs fine. I'm at a loss.

If I thoroughly un-install IIS5, the folder properties and sharing stuff is re-enabled. I really don't think I changed anything at all, and the clean install should have removed artifacts anyhow (didn't wipe/re-format).

Because this all started two days ago, I checked around and saw that "somebody" opened port IIS to the Internet; normally ZoneAlarm's set IIS to local access only. Logs did show some intrusion around CodeRed times, but all they got were 404s and 500s. CA InoculateIT sees no virus signatures (port 80's closed now, btw).

Any ideas where to turn next would be much appreciated. There's something I'm just not getting.

 

[mrpatrick]

I am having a similar problem. did you figure out/come up with a solution?

 

[Horkie]

If I recall (there've been any number of unrelated catastrophes since then), my sense was that the problem had to do with cascading patches in response to Code Red. In particular, IIS 5.0 patches seemed to be colliding with ZoneAlarm patches.

I think the problem was solved by uninstalling IIS (and deleting INETPUB: critical), downloading hardcopies of all IIS patches without applying them, uninstalling ZoneAlarm, physically disconnecting from my cable modem/hub, reinstalling IIS 5.0, applying its patches, reinstalling ZoneAlarm, applying its patches, and reconnecting to my ISP.

I cannot know for sure, but the two seemed to be fighting. Incidentally, my repair process included a fresh W2k install, but in retrospect I don't think that was necessary. Hope this helps.

LQ