asp.net mvc 2 website MUCH slower on IIS 7.5 vs built-in server

Question

I am taking some time to learn how to develop asp.net mvc2 websites, but I'm used to working directly off IIS instead of the built-in web server that uses the random ports when you hit F5.

but I've noticed that using the built-in webserver, requests fly and are immediate. I am using only the default project with the Home and About pages as it comes out of the New ASP.NET MVC 2 Project settings, no database connections, nothing beyond the base install...

but when I setup the IIS website and pointed it to the same directory, each request takes at least 3-5 seconds to complete, sometimes more.

this isn't just the "load" on the first request. EVERY request takes this long on IIS.

but if I F5 and test the project once again, everything zips and the responses are immediate.

What might i have configured incorrectly?

this is on win7 x64 by the way

Answer 1

1. You can check with a tool like firebug what takes the longest time in the request. If you use firebug it will tell you which part of the request cycles takes a certain amount of time. (I once used this when I encountered problems with the localhost URL, Firebug told me that the DNS request took about 2 seconds while using 127.0.0.1 took 1ms (using google I found out that was an issue due to ipv6 enabled)). So try tracing the requests with Firebug.

2. If the request to IIS is performed quite fast and the browser is waiting for a response for a long time it must be in the handling of IIS (the built-in server and IIS are different). In that case you can try reinstalling IIS (to make sure no plugins or other data is in IIS making the site slower) by removing and adding IIS via the windows components.

3. If that still doesn't solve the problem try tracing on the application via the built-in tracing capabilities of ASP.NET (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/wwh16c6c.aspx)