IIS, by default, blocks access to any file types it doesn’t recognise. If a dot (.) is in the URL, IIS assumes its a file name and blocks access.
To allow dots in a URL on an IIS site (perhaps for domain names/email addresses/etc. in a MVC routing path) you have to make a couple of changes.
Quick Fix
One simple option is to append a / to the end. This tells IIS its a filepath and not a file.
http://mydnsmanagementsite.com/manage/example.com becomes http://mydnsmanagementsite.com/manage/example.com/.
However, this isn’t ideal: customers who type in the URL manually will probably ignore the leading slash.
Tell IIS to leave you alone
I know what I’m doing! Just send me the data, will you?
Adding the following to web.config will allow http://mydnsmanagementsite.com/manage/example.com to work.
Thanks go to John Hyde and V.B on StackOverflow.
