Getting Outlook to connect to Exchange from outside the network

[Guest richard_s]

Is it possible to get Outlook to connect to an Exchange server from outside the network as I have been asked by a client to set up several email accounts for them that will be accessed by people who need no other access. OWA is in place and working but they have said that they want to use Outlook only.

[SYNACK]

Yes, I just did this the other day for a school and it works great. If you have Exchange 2007 then you are after outlook anywhere otherwise with Exchange 2003 you are after RPC over HTTPS. There are a couple of articles that I followed for the setup here:

How can I configure RPC over HTTP/S on Exchange 2003 (single server scenario)?

Configure Outlook 2003 to use RPC over HTTP/S

 

If you have OWA already setup pretty much all of the firewall side stuff has been done anyway which is a bonus.

 

Heres the stuff for 2007:

http://www.exchange-genie.com/2008/02/configuring-outlook-anywhere-for-exchange-2007-sp1/

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Outlook-Anywhere-2007-ISA-Server-2006.html

Edited March 6, 2009 by SYNACK

[Guest richard_s]

Its Exchange 2003 on an SBS server.

[SYNACK]

In which case the wizard probably has set it up for you:

How to Deploy RPC over HTTP for the First Time in Small Business Server 2003 (Standard or Premium)

 

You just need to follow the configure outlook 2003 link from above to get it to connect. Certificates are the big thing with this so you need to make sure that your client computers trust the certificate that is used by OWA and the RPC over HTTPS stuff.

[Guest richard_s]

In which case the wizard probably has set it up for you:

How to Deploy RPC over HTTP for the First Time in Small Business Server 2003 (Standard or Premium)

 

You just need to follow the configure outlook 2003 link from above to get it to connect. Certificates are the big thing with this so you need to make sure that your client computers trust the certificate that is used by OWA and the RPC over HTTPS stuff.

 

This could be interesting as the people who need to connect are in another country and have no real IT skills.

[SYNACK]

In which case you may need to package up a single click UltraVNC app so that they can initiate a connection through any firewalls and connect to your VNC console so that you can do it for them:

 

Geek to Live: Tech support with UltraVNC SingleClick

 

You just need to email them the file after configuring it with your ip and then have them run it. All of the setup is on your end so its a simple case of setting up a time and remote controlling the PC through the process. They can even watch, if they are into that kind of thing

[Guest richard_s]

Just found out that the people want to use a whole variety of clients to connect and the the exchange server is behind some heavy duty firewalls, the company is located in a center in the grounds of a school and is on part of there network

[SYNACK]

Set them up with IMAP and POP3 if the firewall guardians will allow you, if not tell them to get their own net connection and stop being cheap or be happy with Outlook + OWA.

[OutToLunch]

How many people? Is it possible you could set up VPN instead? If you use SBS, once you have VPN setup it will make a lovely "Network setup disk" or something similar namewise which will create the VPN connection at their end when you run it. I use SBS+VPN+Outlook for a few members of SMT here rather than rolling out a sitewide solution..