Hello nhelder, Your post is dated from August 2007, so I do not know if you are still facing this problem. I am new to JBoss AS myself and like you, I was trying to figure out how to use virtual directories in JBoss AS and I had stumbled upon the same posts as you. Using JBoss AS v4.2.2.GA I have successfully employed virtual directories (external directories in the JBoss nomenclature). I followed the steps provided in the external directories wiki page (http://wiki.jboss.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=ExternalDirectories), but skipped copying the default web.xml file. In order to get external directories to work, I had to include the path parameter in the context tag. Originally, I had copied over a working context tag from a standalone version of Apache Tomcat v5.5, which did not include the parameter, path. It was the addition of the path tag that made the external directories work. I hope this helps if you are still trying to use external directories in JBoss AS 4.2.x Best, Michael View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4115702#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...