Someone tried to send me the following e-mail today:

Is there a quick (slick) way to force SSL on a website in IIS? I.e. if a user types in "http://www.mysite.com/mypage.aspx" we want IIS to automatically redirect to "http s://www.mysite.com/mypage.aspx"... I know you can do this through code in many ways, but wondering if there is some tricky way to do it in IIS.

Clearly, my friend is trying to infect the world with clandestine virii through his use of innocent IIS questions. But no matter! I have GoDaddy to protect me! So instead of his spite-filled spam actually making it to my Inbox, he received the following:

PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 12): 554 The message was rejected because it contains prohibited virus or spam content

I eventually did get the message thanks to the efforts of two others to whom the message had been sent, one of whom had the foresight to try my Gmail account which, like all things Google, worked.

Sure enough, I tried forwarding that same message to my normal, everyday e-mail account and received the same outright rejection (which is oddly reminiscent of the ones I got in high school).

Didn't take too long to figure out it was the URL that got flagged and flogged as "prohibited spam content".

So let that be a lesson to you all. There are evil people out there on the Internets. They may try to trick you with their pleas for help. But you must constantly be on the alert. Next thing you know, I'll be fielding questions on how to send money to Nigeria using LINQ.

Oh, the original question. Don't worry, it got answered in the same way I usually get mine answered. Send it out to a random group of developers from my address book plus James Kovacs. Chances are he's posted the solution already.

Kyle the Vigilant(e)