Confusion about default WCF project web.config layout - wcf

Question

Below is the default layout for the web.config of a new WCF Service Application in VS2012.
What confuses me is that it doesn't seem to match any examples or tutorials online. There are no endpoints or bindings defined, yet it's possible to call the service.
I hit a problem when trying to increase the MaxReceivedMessageSize property - I googled it and didn't have a clue where to look in my web.config.
Can someone point me in the right direction of why it's so strangely laid out?
I expected it to look more like This SO question about setting MaxReceivedMessageSize or even any WCF tutorials like Michelle Bustamante's which is how I originally learned WCF.
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="aspnet:UseTaskFriendlySynchronizationContext" value="true" />
</appSettings>
<system.web>
<compilation debug="true" targetFramework="4.5" />
<httpRuntime targetFramework="4.5"/>
</system.web>
<system.serviceModel>
<behaviors>
<serviceBehaviors>
<behavior>
<!-- To avoid disclosing metadata information, set the values below to false before deployment -->
<serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" httpsGetEnabled="true"/>
<!-- To receive exception details in faults for debugging purposes, set the value below to true. Set to false before deployment to avoid disclosing exception information -->
<serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false"/>
</behavior>
</serviceBehaviors>
</behaviors>
<protocolMapping>
<add binding="basicHttpsBinding" scheme="https" />
</protocolMapping>
<serviceHostingEnvironment aspNetCompatibilityEnabled="true" multipleSiteBindingsEnabled="true" />
</system.serviceModel>
<system.webServer>
<modules runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests="true"/>
<!--
To browse web app root directory during debugging, set the value below to true.
Set to false before deployment to avoid disclosing web app folder information.
-->
<directoryBrowse enabled="true"/>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>

Answer 1

Starting with .NET 4.0, WCF introduced the concepts of default endpoints and bindings, allowing developers to create a service without having to define a bunch of stuff in the configuration file.
The posted config file is targeting 4.5, which is why you're seeing such a naked WCF config. If you need to increase your maxMessageSize, you'll need to explicitly define it in the config.
You can do this by either setting that binding definition as the default (by omitting the name attribute on the binding element), or creating an endpoint and explicitly assigning the binding configuration you defined via the bindingConfig attribute.
See A Developer's Introduction to Windows Communication Foundation 4.
You can also check a previous answer by me that has examples: https://stackoverflow.com/a/16099054/745969