SharePoint Server Not Redirecting to Default Page Needs Full URL

Our SharePoint 2013 Enterprise server suddenly stopped redirecting to the actual .aspx pages of the site when navigating to just the server name or folder names. For example, while navigating to http://myservername:port/sitepages/home.aspx works, going to http://myservername:port/ does not redirect and instead shows a 404 error in Internet Explorer and a blank page in Firefox and Chrome.

After some research, I found a solution that worked. It involves ensuring certain DLLs are present in IIS, as they might have been removed, causing the issue. Here’s a step-by-step guide to resolving this problem.

Steps to Resolve the Issue

1. Open IIS Manager by going to Start > Run and typing inetmgr.
   
2. Click on the server node in the left-hand panel.
3. In the middle panel, click on ISAPI and CGI Restrictions.
   
4. Verify that the necessary web service extensions are allowed. These typically include DLLs related to SharePoint and .NET.
   
5. If any required DLLs are missing, right-click and add the missing DLLs.
6. Reset IIS to apply the changes. You can do this by running iisreset from the command line.

Once you have completed these steps, try accessing your site again to ensure the issue is resolved.

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