Picking up mail through a VPN connection 1

[robinnorth]

I'm really sorry if there is such an obvious answer to experienced Exchange Administrators, but how do I allow our users to view their emails through a VPN connection to our Exchange 2003 server when their away from the office, just like a POP3's Webmai.

I've seen it in practice, but I'm not sure how to set it up.

Thanks for any advice,

Rob

 

[sab4you]

Well,

your kinda asking alot of questions all in one.

Do you need help setting up the VPN?

Once the VPN is setup and your clients can connect to it, they should have access to servers on your network just as if they are on the office LAN.

So, they would simply launch Outlook as they do at their office desktop. You would need the same thing, a profile pointing to the exchange server.

Also, since your running 2003, which has a very nice OWA interface...If you are thinking of setting up a VPN just to provide email access, you may wish to think of OWA since its much easier. Obviously VPN has the added security layer, but just throwing out OWA just in case...

 

[robinnorth]

I use Netgear VPN Firewalls and have set up office to office VPNs with these firewalls at each end, so I feel ok about setting up a connection for Internet users to connect to an exchange server.

Thanks for pointing me towards Outlook Web Access - I'm reading up on it now. I'm using SBS 2003 and hope this retains all the features of OWA, or maybe I'll need to buy as an addon?

I've seen a set up where a VPN connection worked like Web Mail, which you could access within a browser, rather than setting up Outlook and OWA seems to do this. Is this so??

Thanks for your advice,

Rob

 

[sab4you]

Yes OWA comes with SBS.

OWA is the web mail interface to Exchange. It looks similar to Outlook 2003, but uses your web browser.

I forgot how SBS comes out of the box, but I wouldnt be suprised if you already automatically have OWA up and running LOL

On your exchange server try doing this in a web browser

http://localhost/exchange

 

[robinnorth]

Great!!! I like it, sab4you, I like it!!!

As you know when I type in

http://localhost/exchange

I get the OWA for the user I'm logged on as, exactly how I wanted it.

From your first reply you say I don't need to set up a VPN for OWA, how would I connect remotely - (through a browser? I've tried

http://ipaddress/exchange),

and what if I was logged under a different user name.

Thanks,

Rob

 

[sab4you]

to connect remotely, you will need to open up your firewall and/or do port forwarding.

Your exchange server is essentially hosting a website. You need a method from external users to be able to visit your external IP address and be redirected to the Exchange server.

For example, if you just have a firewall, you would open port 80 and then point it to your exchange IP address.

But keep in mind this is a basic setup. Its not the highest security, but I would think its the recomended SBS configuration. Once you get things rolling and understand them, you may wish to learn about making an Exchange Server Front End (FE) or learning to configure the ISA 2004. The more expensive SBS has ISA built in, so you may alredy have it?

 

[robinnorth]

Sorry for delay in reply, I'm on GMT and it's now 8.45am.

I'm beginning to see the logic and have opened the hardware firewall, but the ISA is blocking me out. I get the message "You are not authorized to view this page" HTTP error 403.6 as if my IP was restricted, but no limitations were set.

I checked out MS article KB327003 and Directory Browsing is ticked.

ISA is very finely tuned and working fine at the moment, so I do not want to screw it up while people are working. I'll read up on ISA and tackle in nine hours when everyone has finished.

Thanks a million, you have really saved me so much time.

Best regards,

Rob

 

[Zelandakh]

Rob,
Go have a look at RPC over HTTP. If you are using Exchange behind ISA, also have a look at Mark Arnold's excellent troubleshooting guide on RPC over HTTPS at

http://www.msexchange.me.uk

(half way down the front page).

That should get them working correctly "by magic"...

 

[robinnorth]

I've OWA working fine now, but will check out RPC over HTTP as an alternative. Both avoid the need of a VPN, is the RPC much more secure.

Thanks for the ideas.

Rob