Stop smartphone email from Exchange 2007 OWA

[guitarzan]

I have a number of users here that retrieve emails on their smartphones, via OWA on SBS 2008 with Exchange 2007. I thought (mistakenly) that removing OWA access for a user (via the Windows SBS Console, User Properties, Web Sites, and un-checking OWA) would prevent that user from receiving emails on their phone. But, I was wrong! Emails still come through. I cannot understand why, since the phone is using OWA to get the mail! Is there a way to cut off email access from their smartphone without disabling their account / changing their password?

 

[ShackDaddy]

Are you sure it's using OWA and not ActiveSync? As far as I know, BlackBerries are the main devices that use the OWA URL to retrieve mail, but the more common method is with ActiveSync. How about you try disabling ActiveSync and see if they can still retrieve mail?

The better way to do what you are trying to do (assuming that you do indeed want to block OWA) is to use the Exchange Management console: open the recipient's properties, go to the Mail Features tab and disable OWA and ActiveSync from there.

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net
TrainSignal.com

 

[guitarzan]

ShackDaddy,

Thanks for the reply. I did a test using my account. Last year I set up my blackberry to sync with Exchange using BIS, putting in my owa site, user account, password and mailbox name etc. I just went to the SBS console and un-checked OWA for my account. I then went to the Exchange Management console as you suggested, and "Outlook Web Access" showed as being disabled. Still, I receive email on my blackberry. I then also disabled "Exchange ActiveSync" for my mailbox in EMC, and im STILL receiving email!

 

[ShackDaddy]

If you are using BIS it might be simply using POP/IMAP, so you could try disabling those as a final thing to try.

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net
TrainSignal.com

 

[gmannatl]

Why not just have them remove the account on the phone?

 

[guitarzan]

gmannatl,

A fair point, and to that I would also add "disable their user account" or even "change their password", all of which would stop the emails from coming in. The quick version of what happened is, I was asked to cut off someone's remote access to business resources, but leaving their on-premises access intact, which I did by disabling RWW and OWA for that user. This worked, except they still were receiving and sending email at night, which was puzzling.

So I used myself as a test. I know how I set up the synch to my blackberry (BIS, using the OWA URL, username / password / mailbox name). I cut off my OWA access, and still the emails came through to my phone. I also disabled Active Sync, no change. And now at ShackDaddy's latest suggestion, I also disabled IMAP4 and POP3. All that's enabled now is MAPI.

And still the emails come

So, how can OWA be used by any other software to retrieve mail from my account? If I can't log onto OWA, how can other software? Or is it just that the OWA gateway becomes restricted, but mail authentication still happens?

 

[ShackDaddy]

I bet they are running BlackBerry Desktop on their PC, which will forward email to their phone whenever Outlook is open!

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net
TrainSignal.com

 

[guitarzan]

ShackDaddy,

Nope... I'm doing these tests on my own phone, and I am not using Desktop Manager and no forwarding to my phone. I only set up receiving emails through BIS. Apparently the device can communicate with exchange regardless of the user's access to OWA. Changing the users password does disable receipt of emails on the phone, btw.

You bring up a good point though, even if disabling OWA DID work as I would have expected, there are still other ways for a user to get emails on their phone... and more advanced ways of blocking this. It's just that this behavior surprised me.