The prevalence of free and high-quality web-based email services has undoubtedly helped advance the prevalence of emails. Indeed, one of the first stops for a new Internet user these days would be to first pick up an email account or two at one of the free webmail providers.  Given the familiarity of users with web-hosted emails, should Exchange Administrators be at all concerned that Exchange Server would eventually lose its appeal?

Well, my personal opinion is that Exchange Server will continue to retain its relevance for some time yet, especially in the realm business. I’ve highlighted some of the reasons below.

Continue reading 5 Reasons why Microsoft Exchange Server will Remain Relevant

In a Microsoft shop running Exchange and Outlook Web Access, you may also be using Microsoft Forefront TMG 2010 to securely publish resources to the Internet. It’s a natural fit to use TMG to make OWA available to your remote users, however the default way to do so leaves a little bit to be desired.  OWA requires users to use an HTTPS connection, and by default it also expects users to type out the full path to the /owa directory. When providing users a bookmark or a link in email, needing to specify the protocol and path is easy. When reading the URL to users over the telephone, it helps to make it as easy as possible.

In this article we will go through the process of publishing OWA to the Internet using TMG by creating a rule that will accept a simple URL (like http://mail.example.com) and redirect it to the proper OWA URL (like https://mail.example.com/owa/) with the protocol and the virtual directory in place.

Continue reading How to publish Outlook Web Access using TMG 2010

Exploit creating new rule in Outlook Web Access.

Microsoft has finally patched a vulnerability in its Outlook Web Access application that has been known to the public since early summer. If successfully exploited by a hacker, the vulnerability could have been used to use the identity of an authenticated user to perform actions with that user’s computer without the user’s knowledge.

Although the vulnerability does not affect Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 3 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, it does affect earlier versions of Exchange 2007, as well as Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2000.

Microsoft’s solution to the problem may not please some system in administrators. It recommends that customers running versions of the program affected by the vulnerability upgrade those programs to versions unaffected by the flaw.

“Of course system administrators have nothing better to do than upgrade the version of Exchange on all of their mail servers and shift thousands of mailboxes to a new version of Exchange,” Lawrence Latif observed snidely in the Inquirer.

Continue reading Microsoft finds another vulnerability in OWA

New features in Outlook Web Access enhance its value as a productivity tool.

Microsoft has made many productivity improvements in Exchange server with the release of its 2010 version, many of them in Outlook Web Access (OWA).

One improvement that’s bound to improve productivity is the introduction of a conversation view in OWA. Rather than displaying a list of individual messages, OWA will associate them in groups called conversations.

The latest message in the conversation is displayed at  the top of the grouping with the rest of the messages in the thread appearing below it. It’s a quick way to weed your inbox.

Messages in the conversation may be located in other folders. Those locations are displayed with the message in the conversation listing. What’s nice about  conversation view is that in addition to displaying received messages in a thread, it’ll show you sent and deleted items in the thread, too.

The reading pane in OWA makes it easier to peruse your mail. Unread messages are fully displayed. As you finish reading them, you can collapse them. When you collapse a message, some of the redundant information about it is hidden creating a tighter display free from clutter.

Microsoft has also changed how messages are viewed in the list pane. In prior versions of OWA, you had to page through items in the inbox. Now you can continually scroll through items in the inbox through a feature called “Virtual List View.” Continue reading New Outlook Web Access features fight info glut

Some Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2010 roles require Internet Information Services (IIS) to function.   On these servers Exchange will install a series of IIS virtual directories.  In this post I will describe the Exchange Server virtual directories and their purpose.

/owa – This is the directory for OWA (Outlook Web Access on Exchange 2007, and now called Outlook Web App on Exchange 2010), which is the web browser version of Outlook that is usually accessed by remote workers.  The /owa directory is for access to Exchange 2007 or 2010 mailboxes.

/Public – This is the directory used by OWA users when accessing any Public Folders in the organization.

/Exchweb – This directory is used for OWA access for Exchange 2003 or 2000 users but is not usually accessed directly by the end user.  The OWA session will automatically refer the connect to this virtual directory when necessary.

/Exchange – This directory is again used for OWA access.  When an Exchange 2003 or 2000 mailbox user access the /Exchange virtual directory they are proxied to their mailbox.  For Exchange 2007 or 2010 mailbox users they are redirected to the /owa directory for their mailbox access.

This is useful during the transition from legacy Exchange versions to 2007 or 2010, because users can continue to connect to the /Exchange directory and the result will always be that they connect to their mailbox, as long as the server does not run the Mailbox Server role.  In other words, the /Exchange directory only works for legacy mailbox users if the server is a dedicated Client Access Server (though it can also contain the Hub Transport Server role without a problem). Continue reading Overview of Exchange Server Virtual Directories

This is the second, and last, part to the article ‘How to Implement Outlook Web Access for Exchange Server 2007′. The first part can be read here.

OWA in Exchange Server 2007 is available in two versions:

• Outlook Web Access Premium client: Provides a complete and enhanced functionality of OWA. It requires Internet Explorer 6 or a later version.
• Outlook Web Access Light client: Provides fewer features but fast connectivity. Fit to use on a slow Internet connection and requires strict browser settings. Allows you to use any browser.

Implementing Outlook Web Access

Once the Client Access role is installed on your Exchange Server, the OWA is available to your remote users who want to access their mailboxes using their web browsers. Although none of the settings are mandatory for the implementation of OWA, it requires you to configure various features and settings in Exchange Server 2007 for customization and efficiency. You can use various tools to configure OWA. These tools are:

• Exchange Management Console: A GUI used to manage the most common settings of OWA including Organization Configuration.
• Exchange Management Shell: A command-line interface that allows you to manage futures that cannot be managed using Exchange Management Console. It also allows you to automate administrative tasks and manage the associated command-line plug-ins.
• IIS Manager: A MMC that allows you to manage virtual directories.
• Web.config: A configuration file that must be modified using notepad. It allows you to modify OWA settings that are specific to ASP.NET.
• Registry editor: A sensitive tool that can be used to directly configure OWA settings such as the PublicClientTimeout, SSLOffloaded, and TrustedClientTimeout 

  Continue reading How to Implement Outlook Web Access for Exchange Server 2007 (Pt. 2)

Outlook Web Access (OWA) in Exchange Server 2007 has come up with many new features that were not available in its earlier versions. The OWA can be implemented in Exchange Server 2007 by installing Client Access role on your Exchange Server computer.

Exchange Server 2007 has introduced five new server roles that provide distinct and granular division of functionality. These five server roles are: Client Access, Edge Transport, Hub Transport, Mailbox, and Unified Messaging, as shown in Figure 1:

Introduction to Outlook Web Access

OWA allows you to access your mailbox from anywhere using any web browser. OWA in Exchange Server 2007 has significantly improved.

It offers features such as:

Improved Logon Options: It presents clear logon options to users that enable them to specify whether they are on a secured computer or an unsecured computer, as shown in Figure 2. OWA also provides Explicit Logon feature that allow users to open any mailbox to which they have permissions in a new browser window.

Continue reading How to Implement Outlook Web Access for Exchange Server 2007 (Pt. 1)

If you’ve wanted to get more use out of your HTTP connections in Exchange Server then you’ve probably been thinking about how to bypass your VPN. You could securely do this and connect directly to the server using Outlook’s OWA (Outlook Web Access).

RPC over HTTP can enable a connection between Outlook clients and the Exchange server without the need for special software. And with a lowered network risk it is a viable alternative to VPN.
 
Support for RPC over HTTP is included as a feature in the Microsoft® Exchange Server, Microsoft Office Outlook, and Microsoft Windows Server software. Users will not need a virtual private network (VPN) to allow them to connect to their Exchange mailbox as long as they are using the Microsoft Windows RPC over HTTP feature. From Outlook, clients can connect directly to an Exchange server in a corporate environment from the Internet.

Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) are sent across the internet through tunnel connections over HTTP between clients and servers. Clients, such as Outlook 2007, are able to read and exchange email via RPC calls to the Exchange server.

Continue reading RPC Over HTTP – Troubleshooting ValidPorts