[This is preliminary documentation and subject to change]

# Limiting Connections

Connection limits restrict the number of simultaneous connections to your Web pages and your Web server. If the number of connections reaches the maximum allotted, all subsequent connection attempts are returned with an error and then disconnected. Limiting connections is a way to conserve bandwidth for other uses, such as e-mail servers, news servers, or another Web site running on the same installation. To determine whether or not you should limit connections, use System Monitor to log the Current Connections, Maximum Connections, and Total Connection Attempts counters in the Web Service and FTP Service objects. Continue logging until you have a good sense of the normal range; typically, this can take several days, to a week, or more.

Note In IIS 5.0, you could customize the connection limit error. IIS 6.0 does not allow you to customize this error.

To limit the number of connections on a Web site

1. In the IIS snap-in, right-click a Web site and click the Properties button. The Web Site Property Sheets display.
2. On the Web Site property sheet, select the Limited to option in the Connections section.
3. In the Maximum Connections box, type the maximum number of simultaneous connections you want to allow to the selected site. The Unlimited option permits as many simultaneous connections as your bandwidth and processor can support.
4. Type the connection timeout value in seconds in the Connection Timeout box. For more information, see Setting Connection Timeout.
5. Click Apply.

To limit the number of connections on an FTP site

1. In the IIS snap-in, right-click an FTP site and click the Properties button. The FTP Sites Property Sheets display.
2. On the FTP Site property sheet, select the Limited to option in the Connection section.
3. In the text box, type the maximum number of simultaneous connections you want to allow to the selected site. The Unlimited option permits as many simultaneous connections as your bandwidth and processor can support.
4. Type the connection timeout value in seconds in the Connection Timeout box. For more information, see Setting Connection Timeout.
5. Click Apply.

To limit the number of connections on your Web Server

1. In the IIS snap-in, right-click the Web Sites directory and click the Properties button. The Web Sites Property Sheets display.
2. On the Performance property sheet, select the Limited to option in the Web Service Connections section.
3. In the text box, type the maximum number of simultaneous connections you want to allow to your Web service. The Unlimited option permits as many simultaneous connections as your bandwidth and processor can support.
4. Click Apply.

Related Topics

- For more information about setting connection timeout values, see Setting Connection Timeout.
- For more information on capacity issues, see About Network Capacity Planning.
- For information on how to throttle bandwidth, which is another way to limit connections to your Web server, see Throttling Bandwidth.
- For information on setting the CGI timeout, see Caching Applications.
- For a list of counters provided by IIS, see Counters Reference.
- For a list of all timeout values that can be set by IIS, see Timeouts Reference.

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