Tech/Horsepower

TeleVantage makes using an E.164 format VoIP provider (like Bandwidth.com) really simple if you know what box to check. When creating your SIP Server(s), point to Number Formatting > SIP URI Rules and check the “Include URI parameter ‘user=phone’ box and “Prefer number in global format” sub box.

Ta da! Pluses with no goofy routing rules (which won’t work, probably why you’re here). Since you’re probably wondering, I’m using TeleVantage for a couple enterprise class IVR systems.

By default IIS only provides for one global redirect option across an entire web site. In my case, I needed to redirect just one subdirectory (called virtual directory in IIS). I’m an Apache and mod_rewrite guy, this is different than I expected but stupid easy once I figured it out. Most searching recommended buying an aftermarket ISAPI_Rewrite module or using ASP and doing the rewrite in the browser – I didn’t need (or want) to do either.

Step 1: Create a virtual directory (if needed).
In IIS Manager expand the server name containing the target website, expand “Web Sites”, right-click on the target site and point to “New”, select “Virtual Directory…”

In the creation wizard choose “Next” and type your virtual directory as the alias…

For the path, browse to the web site directory and create a folder for the virtual directory, choose this folder…

Choose “Next”, give Read access to the directory, and complete the wizard.

Step 2: Setup the redirect.
In IIS Manager, right-click on the new virtual directory and choose “Properties”.

On the Virtual Directory tab, select the radio button for “A redirection to a URL” and check “The exact URL entered above” and “A permanent redirection for this resource”, enter the URL you want to redirect to into the “Redirect to:” box…

Choose OK and test your redirect! You’ll notice for my purposes I checked the “exact URL” box because I want greater control over the redirection through the variables $S$Q. These pass both the suffix and query string to the new URL. Here’s the Microsoft variable reference for IIS 6.0 and further Microsoft reading on redirecting.

The “A permanent redirection for this resource” box makes this a 301 redirect, popular for SEO reasons.

Easy, right? If you’re a mod_rewrite ninja maybe not so much, this is kinda backwards from what you’re used to. But hell, I didn’t find it searching, so here it is.