How to run a classic asp vb6 com application on my laptop that is setup for asp.net?

Question

Background I am a bit of a newbie with asp, I worked on a classic asp intranet application in 1999 which I hated, I hated it so much I was convinced that smart clients was the future especially for intranet apps. I am more of a db guy and have a lot of access / sql server databases that I want to expose to the web so when heard about dynamic data websites and asp.net MVC I got excited enough that I am getting back into the asp world of development. With these two technologies I am actively developing on my laptop. My laptop runs XP Pro and has VS 2008, SQL Server 2005, .Net 3.5 SP1, MVC RC2.

Problem I have a client that has a classic asp vb6 com, vb script sql server 2000 application that I’m trying to debug. I can get to this app through remote desktop and I also have a copy of the database locally. The debugging consists of turning on sql profiler and running the application.
Debugging with remote desktop is a bad experience (especially with my satellite ISP) and I would like to be able run this application locally, so how do I do that?

Here’s what I have

1. A copy of all the asp files and others that are found under inetput\wwwroot.

2. A copy of the sql server 2000 db. I have the database setup up so that SQL Server 2005 can look at the database

3. A copy of the applications dll files found under a com directory
   a. I also have a copy of the vb6 source code which I can look at with notepad2
   b. I have a buildVB.bat which (apparently) was used to make the dll’s; I’m hoping I don’t have to run that though.

If I can do this relatively painless what are the necessary steps .. here is what I am guessing

1. Unzip the wwwroot.zip file and preserver the file structure (c:\inetpub\wwwroot)
2. Change the database connection settings to reflect my laptop. I don’t know where this global connection setting is located so that I can change it.
3. Open up my browser and point to??? http://Localhost ??????????

Answer 1

You've got XP Pro so assuming you have installed IIS (which is part of XP Pro) and you have registered the applications dlls then yes, what you have described is pretty much it.

Answer 2

Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Add Remove Programs

Add remove Windows Components. Make sure IIS is checked. Somewhere in that list is ASP as well. (I think, but normaly IIS and asp classic install by default on XP Pro)

Start -> Run: inetmgr

This will bring up the IIS console where you can set up the IIS web server. Depending on how closely you want to emulate your clients environment you will have to set up a virtual directory if that is how their setup is running.

Otherwise you can just unzip their wwwroot content to c:\inetpub\wwwroot and aim your browser at http://127.0.0.1/index.asp (or whatever their "main" asp file is called.)