Problems accessing OWA in SBS 2003

[mic_y]

Hi guys,

I recently installed SBS 2003 and am trying to set it up so that I can access OWA (Outlook Web Access). Unfortunatly this doesnt seem to be working at all.

So far, I have gotten the exchange server and everything else working quite well, but I still cant get OWA to work. OMA (Outlook Mobile Access) and OWA work via cellphone, so it's not a port forwarding issue, but as soon as I try and connect to either OWA or Remote Web Wrokplace from a normal pc, it stuffs out and times out and goes crazy.

I have a sneaky suspision that I know what the problem is, but I am not too sure how I must go about fixing it. each time I try and connect to the pages mentioned above via a PC, IE displays a nice little warning message about the server's certificate being invalid. Obviously the certificate would be invalid, so I click continue, and it just hangs there for a very long time, finally saying something like: the page you have requested could not be displayed". Is this the certificate stuffing things up? Or is there some other cause.

I have forwarded all relevant ports on the router, and know that port 80 works. not so sure about 443 though, but I am not too sure how to check it at the moment.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[bekdik]

Check the permissions on the exchange web site.

 

[mic_y]

uuum, well i went through the whole set up internet and email wizard, and that worked ok. also, since i can access OWA through my phone, indicates that things are ok when not using SSL and encryption and all that jazz. it is when security certificates are checked that problems arise. any ideas?

 

[mic_y]

Sorry to raise an "old" topic and all, but I still cant get it working yet. Help would be really appreciated, as I need to get remote access up and running soon.

Extra Info:
The server is connected to a DLink DSL-G604T wifi adsl modem router, and DNS forwarding is being handled by No-IP client running on the server. The company is using a WebAfrica shaped account.

If anybody has any ideas on what to try, please give me a shout... Any ideas will be appreciated.

 

[megrain]

D-G604T ports & Exchange

Hi mic_y
If you are in the office can you access it via the local lan ?
Also you're using SSL on the server correct?
If so add the 443 port on the D-Link Unit portforwading.
That should help with the access if you used SSL.
Also for the invalid Cert. Generate a SSL with your noip domain address for the hostname of your mail server
Example.
domain bob.co.za
hostname of server builder.bob.co.za

Hope it helps
Regards,
Megrain

 

[mic_y]

Hey Megrain,

Well, things turned out to be a lot more intereting than originally anticipated. After chasing around MS and DLink for about 2 weeks, blaming them that I couldnt access the server, I found out that it was in no way their fault. After getting back to work, I decided to try out connecting, and magically it all worked.

The problem still stands, but now I know what the cause of it is: iBurst. I had been trying to connect to the server all this time via 2 different iBurst connections, and somewhere along the line things were going wrong. It works on all other connections (Local ADSL, local leased lines, UK ADSL), but not on a single iBurst connection. I have taken this issue up with them, and they are still trying to determine the cause of the problem, but so far I have had no luck in that respect.

The interesting thing is that after inspecting the IIS logs on the server, i found out that the server gets the "/Get" request for a webpage on port 443 from the iBurst IP, but after that nothing happens.

iBurst has promised to send out a techie to the office with me to try and see what is wrong.

Thanks for your help.