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What is the difference between the following entry in web.config:

 <sessionState timeout="30"/>

And this setting in IIS 7.5 (Default web site > Advanced Settings > Connection Limits) :

enter image description here

I know that the web.config is supposed to apply to the time that the ASP.NET session is kept alive, but what is the IIS setting for?

333Mhz
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2 Answers2

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The connection timeout is how long a connection from a browser to the server should take till it times out. So, when the browser requests a page/image/resource, how long should IIS wait till it terminates the connection. It is stated in seconds.

It can also be set in the web.config (example is for 2 minutes, 120 seconds):

<limits connectionTimeout="00:02:00" />

The session timeout is how long the session can live. This is across multiple connections and is stated in minutes.

They are two different settings that control different things.

Oded
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  • OK, so they are unrelated, that's really what I wanted to know, thanks. – 333Mhz Aug 03 '11 at 07:24
  • so, where to put above line of code in config file. Web.config file is a big file where shall I add this piece of code and under which tag? – Unbreakable Jan 11 '17 at 19:20
  • @Unbreakable - https://www.iis.net/configreference/system.applicationhost/sites/site/limits – Oded Jan 11 '17 at 20:57
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    If I'm not mistaken, usually, this `limits` element can be used only in applicationHost.config, directly in the sites's definition. Overrides are forbidden by default. `
    `     – Palec Dec 18 '18 at 10:30
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I think IIS is the default and if you want to override them, you use web.config:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc754617%28WS.10%29.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web.config

kazinix
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