Setting up OWA

Hi,
I am wondering if anyone can guide me through a setup of Outlook Web Access. I have tried researching it online, and the last time I attempted to do it through a microsoft article, I did something (in the certificate) part of it, that cost me a support call to microsoft.
I am running Small Business Server 2000, with an ISDN line. All machines have Outlook installed.
I am thinking that the setup should be relatively easy, as we already have Outlook, and I am believe OWA is semi-automatically configured?!?
I am very leary, as I took the whole email server down for 2 days last time (microsoft support wasn't as bang on, as I had thought).
I am able to go to "http:/localhost/exchange" and see my emails, isn't this part of the way there.

Please excuse me ignorance, as I am new to the field.........

Thanks..

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cmg214

Hi,
I am wondering if anyone can guide me through a setup of Outlook Web Access. I have tried researching it online, and the last time I attempted to do it through a microsoft article, I did something (in the certificate) part of it, that cost me a support call to microsoft.
I am running Small Business Server 2000, with an ISDN line. All machines have Outlook installed.
I am thinking that the setup should be relatively easy, as we already have Outlook, and I am believe OWA is semi-automatically configured?!?
I am very leary, as I took the whole email server down for 2 days last time (microsoft support wasn't as bang on, as I had thought).
I am able to go to "http:/localhost/exchange" and see my emails, isn't this part of the way there.

Please excuse me ignorance, as I am new to the field.........

Thanks..

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Yup, if you can see your emails, you are on your way. What exactly do you want to do with OWA? What about just having people logon via their Outlook?

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Originally Posted by amyb

Yup, if you can see your emails, you are on your way. What exactly do you want to do with OWA? What about just having people logon via their Outlook?

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I have 2 users who need to access their emails while traveling.
I have tried to login from the outside, http.//localhost/exchange/.....,but it doesn't work from outside the network
would it be servername/exchange/.......?
How would you recommend I try logging on?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cmg214

I have 2 users who need to access their emails while traveling.
I have tried to login from the outside, http.//localhost/exchange/.....,but it doesn't work from outside the network
would it be servername/exchange/.......?
How would you recommend I try logging on?

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hmm, you would have to set up a VPN then. Then you would be able to access OWA.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by amyb

hmm, you would have to set up a VPN then. Then you would be able to access OWA.

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Thanks for your help. i do have a couple of questions, if you don't mind.
1. What is the difference?
2. Is a VPN difficult to set up?
3. How would I go about it?

I get very neervous going in and changing settings, when I am not exactly sure what they are for?

I'm actually thinking you would need IIS setup to host the web service. I believe VPN would be more for data transferring over the WAN. I mean,.. there could be more than one way to do it, so this is just a thought.

Right now Exchange is hosting the email accounts locally. I'm not real good with IIS and/or Exchange so I couldn't post a step-by-step guide to doing that or anything. But what I CAN tell you, is that you have to have IIS configured to host your Exchange/Outlook 2000 webmail services.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WebHead

I'm actually thinking you would need IIS setup to host the web service. I believe VPN would be more for data transferring over the WAN. I mean,.. there could be more than one way to do it, so this is just a thought.

Right now Exchange is hosting the email accounts locally. I'm not real good with IIS and/or Exchange so I couldn't post a step-by-step guide to doing that or anything. But what I CAN tell you, is that you have to have IIS configured to host your Exchange/Outlook 2000 webmail services.

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I have IIS running right now...

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/...rver_2003.html or http://searchexchange.techtarget.com/
See if that helps you with your questions

Ok, forget all of that vpn mumbo jumbo,

Does your entity have an external fqdn (www.microsoft.com would be a fqdn)?

I assume since you were looking at the certificate part, you are internested in secure communication between users and your server (https:)

So, you need to configure your router to forward tcp port 443 to the ip address of the machine that will be running OWA.

Then you need to fill out a certificate request, through the security tab of your website, and submit it to a trusted root CA (like verisign, or thwarte)

Then return to the security tab of your website, and install the certificate.

Then you will be able to type https://yourcompany.com/exchange

Hope that helps...

bbt

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bbtech6650

Ok, forget all of that vpn mumbo jumbo,

Does your entity have an external fqdn (www.microsoft.com would be a fqdn)?

I assume since you were looking at the certificate part, you are internested in secure communication between users and your server (https:)

So, you need to configure your router to forward tcp port 443 to the ip address of the machine that will be running OWA.

Then you need to fill out a certificate request, through the security tab of your website, and submit it to a trusted root CA (like verisign, or thwarte)

Then return to the security tab of your website, and install the certificate.

Then you will be able to type https://yourcompany.com/exchange

Hope that helps...

bbt

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I'm not going to tell you how to set up your servers to run OWA because I don't know that end but we have OWA publicly accessable at the company I work for. IIS server is in the DMZ and allowed to comunicate with the outside world and with the exchange servers on the inside over the ports required. You don't need to use VPN. :) Hope that helped some.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bbtech6650

Ok, forget all of that vpn mumbo jumbo,

Does your entity have an external fqdn (www.microsoft.com would be a fqdn)?

I assume since you were looking at the certificate part, you are internested in secure communication between users and your server (https:)

So, you need to configure your router to forward tcp port 443 to the ip address of the machine that will be running OWA.

Then you need to fill out a certificate request, through the security tab of your website, and submit it to a trusted root CA (like verisign, or thwarte)

Then return to the security tab of your website, and install the certificate.

Then you will be able to type https://yourcompany.com/exchange

Hope that helps...

bbt

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I'd bet that's the issue, http and not https.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bbtech6650

Ok, forget all of that vpn mumbo jumbo,

Does your entity have an external fqdn (www.microsoft.com would be a fqdn)?

I assume since you were looking at the certificate part, you are internested in secure communication between users and your server (https:)

So, you need to configure your router to forward tcp port 443 to the ip address of the machine that will be running OWA.

Then you need to fill out a certificate request, through the security tab of your website, and submit it to a trusted root CA (like verisign, or thwarte)

Then return to the security tab of your website, and install the certificate.

Then you will be able to type https://yourcompany.com/exchange

Hope that helps...

bbt

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THANK YOU bbtech6650! You are very wise, grasshopper.
I knew I didn't need to setup a VPN. We do have a FQDN, but I believe we share it with a sister company in NY. See, our emails go to an email server in NY, then they are forwarded to us. We connect to the web, via a DSL line through an ISP provider.
Also-what is the deal with the certificate? That is the part that screwed me up last time (have never had to facilitate one), and found it very confusing.
One last quandry. We have one server that handles everything. Is that going to be a problem?
Thanks for your help......

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cmg214

THANK YOU bbtech6650! You are very wise, grasshopper.
I knew I didn't need to setup a VPN. We do have a FQDN, but I believe we share it with a sister company in NY. See, our emails go to an email server in NY, then they are forwarded to us. We connect to the web, via a DSL line through an ISP provider.
Also-what is the deal with the certificate? That is the part that screwed me up last time (have never had to facilitate one), and found it very confusing.
One last quandry. We have one server that handles everything. Is that going to be a problem?
Thanks for your help......

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cmg414, check your PM inbox for reply.

bbtech