>The web server should NOT serve a .config ever.

In my case, the machine.config does not include any item in the httpHandlers section. From all the examples I have seen on the net, there should be some entries in there. But, IAC, I added in web.config. After the first try, it was as if no entry was there. I later found that my global.asax is conflicting with the httpHandlers section in web.config. See the other thread I did today. I am still looking for a way to resolve that issue.