I have been an ASP.NET/Visual Studio developer for years. Now we have new co-workers working on WSS 3.0. They have created 2 IIS web sites: an Central Administration and a S.P. Intranet. I was told that the Central Administration site was created during the WSS 3.0 installation and S.P. Intranet is a subsite of the Central Administration site. My questions: 1. Are Central Administration and S.P. Intranet sites created with a Team-Site template? How to know they are? 2. Is an IIS web site the so-call Top-Level site? Is an IIS S.P. web site created manually or by WSS 3.0 installation? 3. Does an S.P. website have to be a subsite of the Central Administration site? Thanks.

An IIS web site is also called Web Application in SharePoint. The Central Administration site is within a web application. Why my co-workers have an IIS web site for Central Administration? Central Administration site, created by WSS 3.0, is not based on Team Site template; then which template? When you create a sitecollection, the top level site is automatically created. The Central Administration site is within a web application You mean, an IIS web application is not a top-level site? Why our Central Administration site is a IIS web application, not within a web application? Thanks.

Why my co-workers have an IIS web site for Central Administration? Central Administration site, created by WSS 3.0, is not based on Team Site template; then which template? Before a site collection is created, a web application must be created in SharePoint. An IIS Web Site (web application) is an entry point for every SharePoint/Web request. A SharePoint Web application is nothing but an IS Web Site configured to run SharePoint Sites. I think the Central adminstration site is based on the "CENTRALADMIN" template found in c:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\SiteTemplates You mean, an IIS web application is not a top-level site? Why our Central Administration site is a IIS web application, not within a web application? The URL can be the same for an IIS Web Site (SharePoint Web application) and Top Level Site(though the Top Level site can be configured to have a different url while creating it). Your central administration site is within a web application (which is a IIS Web Site). Hope this helps. Please let me know if you need more clarification. Thanks, Prashanth

By default when you install SharePoint, it configures the Central Administration web application. Usually all the sites (intranet and internet) can be created as seperate web applications on a need basis. It is not recommended to create/host them within the central administration web application. Please look at the below video to know more: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607866.aspx