Remote Web Workplace access 1

[Lostone2002]

In SBS 2003 I was able to connect Remote Web Workplace entering

https://70.xx.xx.xx/remote

and now I cannot connect properly using

https://remote.xxxxxx.com/remote

for SBS 2008. I am missing something in configuration/certificates/dns and not sure what. Our website/e-mail pop3 is hosted by an ISP that is not one of SBS 2008 approved (and we will not be changing) so I opted to manage the domain name myself in SBS 2008. If I type in

https://70.xx.xx.xx/remote

I do get the RWW however the certificates do not match the self-signed that i created on the server even after installing the one from the server. It does however let me log into my outlook and company web page. I get invalid certificate error and when trying to connect to my client computers/server. if i type in

https://remote.xxxxxx.com/remote

it cannot find it. I tried to enter DNS records in server but not sure i was putting them in right spot. I put them under remote.micromould.com trying to get it to point to the WAN address. I tried to generate a new self-signed certificate and add on my remote PC but that still gave me same error. I used the default when setting up my address because I wasn't sure if there was a way to enter the IP address instead. Its like it is 'half' right. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. I am scratching my head. I know it has to do with the self signed certificate and DNS pointers just not sure how to fix it.

 

[ShackDaddy]

It sounds like when you are out there on an external system, you can't resolve the remote.micromould.com domain name due to a missing A-record in the public DNS.

You need to create an A-record in your EXTERNAL DNS for remote.micromould.com, not in your internal DNS. Your internal DNS is only used internally, and can't be accessed by any external clients. Your ISP should provide some sort of management console that will allow you to create\edit DNS records.



Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net

 

[Lostone2002]

Okay.. I am going to have a huge problem then because the ISP (Bell)tech people are very difficult to try and get to understand what is needed. I tried already... got sent in many different departments for over an hour and ultimately got disconnected.

What could be going wrong if I now cannot resolve our website that resides with an ISP that is not part of the 'approved' list. The website does not reside on our server (SBS 2008). This only happens internally. Outside of our network this is not an issue. I cannot figure out where the problem is. We retrieve our e-mail with no problem. I cannot get to the FTP site either either via browser (Internet cannot display page), using the ISP's admin panel (says permissions error 404) and using CuteFTP (CuteFTP says cannot resolve). This worked no problem before we switched from SBS 2003. When setting up Internet Address Wizard, I chose manage my own domain etc. Internet access to everything else is fine. I have flushed dns on my workstation (happens on all internal w/s), cleared cache on server, cleared browser history, cookies etc on my workstation, turned router off and on, re-did internet access setup. Used ISP's forwarders instead of root hints, I cannot think of anything else to do.

 

[biglebowski]

What do you get one you lookup up your RWW address here?

http://www.dnswatch.info/

It should give the IP address of your SBS 2008.

"Anything that’s invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary, and you can probably get a career in it.
Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things."

 

[ShackDaddy]

If your internal domain name is .com instead of .local, and it matches your external domain name, then you may have this issue. What you would then want to do is open your internal DNS and create new A-records for

http://www and

ftp. If you don't know what IP addresses those should point to, then first you should ping those addresses from an external location and write down the correct IP addresses, since you won't be able to ping them internally. Once you add those records, you shouldn't have the problem that you describe above.

Dave Shackelford MVP
ThirdTier.net

 

[Lostone2002]

Thank you for all of your assistance. Problem rectified re: accessing my website. Thought of it same time as you responded.

Remote Web Access is probably going to end up a lost cause because of the communications issue with our ISP. Some of them didn't even know what DNS was... sigh.

 

[PaulGillespie]

I think you need to look at changing ISPs!