Webmail won't work, unless you put the domain name in!

Hi all,

Last week webmail wouldn't let users log in, after abit of investergation I worked out if you typed in 'domain\username' into the log in box it would let users log in. We are on Server 2003 and exchange 2003.

Has one got any ideas why it would start to do this??

Thank you
dsquared2

Hi

Check the following setting.

Start Exchange System Manager.
If administrative groups are enabled, expand Administrative Groups.
Expand Servers, and then expand your back-end server.
Expand Protocols, expand HTTP, and then expand Exchange Virtual Server.
Right-click the Exchange virtual directory that appears under the Exchange Virtual Server container, and then click Properties.
Click the Access tab, and then click Authentication.
If it is not already selected, click to select the Basic authentication check box.
Enter a backslash (\) in the Default Domain box.
Click OK two times to close the property windows

Regards
Sukh

Thanks you Sukh, I have a look and it all looks fine.

On a machine outside of the network is when you enter your log in details on the webmail on our website it re-shows the log box again, as if your got your log on wrong, then next the time it copmes up in the log on box it say's the 'local machines name\user name' so you have to change the local machine name to our domain name and then it will work.

Could anyone help and tell me why is it defaulting to the users local machine name?

Thank you

It sounds like you have Integrated Windows authentication enabled for the OWA site. Machines in school will work correctly with this because they are on the same domain, but non-domain machines will try to send the local computer name as the domain part of the logon.

If you are using a separate OWA site for external access, you can simply turn off Integrated auth and use Basic (over HTTPS, of course). If you use the same site for internal and external access, you'll have to decide which is more inconvenient: your current problem, or not having Integrated auth when on site.

Hi Dsquared2

1. Can you please check the authentication setting for OWA.
2. Can you also post a clear capture of the prompt.
3. When you checked the setting I posted, can confirm Basic Authentication is ticked in addition to Windows Authentication?
4. You say it's defaulting to the users local machine. Can you confirm this happens when a user tries to access OWA, say from home?

Regards
Sukh

There is also a hack online somewhere that i used where you can edit the html of the login page and make it automatically insert the domain name ... i'll find the link from my favourites when i'm in the office.