Exchange Server 2003 OWA Question

[Lisa]

Here is a question from someone using Train Signal's Exchange Server 2003 Training:

I am doing to the hands-on of the Exchange 2003 scenario for Sophiestoybox.com. I have followed the guide book and so far everything is working. I can send and receive email internally and across the internet. I am working on Chapter 7 OWA and the procedure in the text doesn't seem to work. While logged onto the XP client as bbass, I open internet explorer and type in the address http://exchange1/exchange and I get a logon window. I type in the logon credentials for bbass but after several attempts I get access denied. I have verified the username and password are correct.

Is there something missing here? I even tried this at my work and even though you are logged onto the domain, OWA does not open automatically to your mailbox without you logging in. But I do get the default OWAlogin page. But on my test network at home, I do not get the OWAlogon page, its just a credential logon prompt.

Your help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[DShack]

It sounds to me like you don't have forms based authentication turned on. That's something you can do in the Exchange console, if you drill down into Protocols and select HTTP. You'll have the option in there to turn forms based auth on, and it sounds to me like that's what you are missing here.

[Biggles77]

I seem to remember something about having to logon to the Domain so the mailbox is created and then you can get an OWA logon (FBA or otherwise). Have you logged onto the Domain with the bbass user account?

[Darylh]

I tried turning on Forms Based Authentication under Exchange Manager>Protocols>HTTP>Virtual Server...Restarted IIS and logged on the XP client as bbass and I get the same issue.

[Darylh]

I am logged in to the domain as bbass. The mailbox has already been created prior and everything works fine using Outlook.

[Biggles77]

Sorry, I didn't read your post correctly.

What do you type in your browser to try and get to the OWA logon screen? Type it into your browser address bar then Copy & Paste it to a reply post here. Ta.
What browser are you using? IE6, IE7, Safari, Firefox, Chrome, etc etc

[Darylh]

As mentioned in the original post I am using IE7 and I type http://exchange1/exchange just as the text suggests.

[DShack]

Daryl,

For Forms Based Auth to work, you have to have SSL enabled on the Default Website, and that means that you also have to have a certificate installed. If you enable FBA without SSL in place, you will get the behavior you describe.

You also need to make sure that when you put the username in (regardless of whether FBA is in use or not), you use the following format:

domain\username

So if your internal domain name is sophiestoybox.local, you would use:
sophiestoybox\bbass

If you want to change that so that you only have to put the username in, you can go into Internet Info Services -> Default Web Site -> and go into the ExchWeb and Exchange virtual directory properties. Go to the Directory Security tab and click Edit on Authentication. In there, click on Select next to Default Domain and choose your domain name. Do this on both the Exchange and ExchangeWeb directories and apply the changes. Do an IISRESET at the command-line when you are done.

As far as general Exchange 2003 support, I'd recommend spending time at some busier forums where dozens of experienced experts are contributing their knowledge. At TrainSignal we like to help out by clarifying questions about our courses, but some of us spend much more of our time at sites like Tek-Tips.com and ExpertsExchange.com, and when you post a problem there, you have dozens of people reading it and potentially offering solutions. I go by the handle "ShackDaddy" at TekTips, and contribute quite a bit, but there are plenty of sharp people there waiting for questions to answer, and that way the burden is shared by whoever is available and has some time to answer questions.

I've been working on the new SBS 2008 course this month, so I haven't checked in here much, but I have stopped by TekTips every couple of days to see what's cooking there.

Wishing you the best,

Dave Shackelford

[DShack]

BTW, if you want to have SSL disabled and still use FBA, you can follow the steps in this article: http://www.petri.co.il/using_fba_without_ssl.htm

I notice that when you are trying to use OWA, you aren't using HTTPS when you connect, so you might try using HTTPS instead of HTTP before you change anything else.