SOLVED! Cannot run the FrontPage Server Extensions - Search Bot with Index Server

       
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Hello,

I seem to have a very similar situation described by the thread reference above, whereby I get a "Cannot run the FrontPage Server Extensions on this page:" when trying to run a search of my Index Server from a FP bot generated search form. I have posted this question to microsoft.public.frontpage.client as well, but have not received any reply in two days so I beseech you to assist me.



This is the environment we are running:

1. Index server -- which does run via the Index server interface
2. Application Server (two windows 2000 professional boxes).
3. IIS 5 - using IIS lockdown, but have explicitly allowed the appropriate extensions (.idq, .ida, .htw)
4. FrontPage server Extensions 2002 installed



The instruction mentioned in the thread link above seem like they might be of assistance, but I have followed all of the advices, from the link above, as well as what I could scoured from the Microsoft Knowledge base, and still get the error.

I do have this running on our dev and beta servers, which have identical IIS configurations to production, and the beta even has IIS lockdown configured just as production does (to eliminate the possibility that the lookdown tool was the problem) so the primary (and only one that I can see) difference is that our dev server is running Microsoft Application Center on two servers. I have checked both machines of the cluster to ensure the IIS lockdown is identical for both and match the beta/dev extension mapping, and it seems that the application extensions are properly affiliated (.idq and .ida ==> idq.dll etc.) I have restarted/reset IIS on both machines, rebooted both machines, checked registry values, and am stumped for the solution. Other fp bots (hit counter, weather forecaster) on the clustered servers work.

I have ensured that

1. we do NOT have the registry key for 'noindex'
2. we have sharepoint on the cluster (though I am still not sure why exactly), but other FP bots work on that same environment (such as hit counters),
3. FP extensions for index server are open via IIS lockdown (not implicitly disallowed, and are explicitly allowed)
4. I have checked my value in the _vti_script folder to be sure it is correct (cicatalog=D:\InternetSearchCatalogs)


Any advice you can provide is appreciated.

Joyce