Exchange OWA issues

[Grommit]

Hi

 

We have Exchange 2003 on a Windows 2000 server SP4

 

When the staff try to open \\server\exchange it asks for a logon and password

 

It keeps repeating for a logon and even tho the correct one is being entered refuses to allow access.

 

I can log on as administrator and access Admin OWA but the staff seem to cannot..

 

Any ideas ?

[john]

have you tried going to \\server\exchange\USERNAME ? that sometimes helps me with XP Home connecting to OWA. XP Pro passes the details on fine normally for me

[DMcCoy]

what about

http://server.domain.name/exchange/username

? What response does that give?

[meastaugh1]

Do your users have OWA access enabled?

[ChrisH]

I think Ric_ had this problem and he fixed it by resetting the IIS users password.

[Grommit]

I think Ric_ had this problem and he fixed it by resetting the IIS users password.

 

Thanks for the reply

 

How do I reset the IIS users passwords.. is it in AD ? or on the Exchange Server ?

[Grommit]

Do your users have OWA access enabled?

 

Now this is what I think it could be...... How do I check to see if they are enabled ?

[Ric_]

Indeed, it does sound similar...

 

To reset the password you just right-click the IIS_ user in local users and select reset password.

 

You then need to change the password used in IIS manager so that it is set to what you just changed it to.

 

Another way that 'supposedly' works is to remove OWA, remove IIS, reinstall IIS and reinstall OWA.

[webman]

If you are trying to access the webpage to login, it should be in the format of http://server/exchange/ and not a UNC path (\\server\exchange).

[Grommit]

Yes..... Sorry I am getting my UNC and URL mixed

 

The staff are trying http://server/exchange/

 

And it keeps asking for a password... even staff that have active and well used Outlook accounts..

 

All execpt me as domain Admin

 

Sorry for the double post dunno how that happened

[steve]

For Exchange 2000 OWA and 2000 Pro clients we had to logon as

 

domain\username

password

 

Worth a go

[tarquel]

You can edit the front page to automatically populate the domain/ part for the username....

 

Well i did at any rate

 

Here's how:

 

Take a look at the file logon.asp in notepad [or in a program that won't save formatting hehe] - the file is located in a default install at:

 

C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\exchweb\bin\auth\usa

 

search for the following:

 

<% If g_fIsMSIE5Rich Then %>

 

((( Before you change anything, backup any files you change so you can restore them should things not work out for you )))

 

and change this:

 

<% If g_fIsMSIE5Rich Then %>

	</pre><form action="/exchweb/bin/auth/owaauth.dll" method="POST" name="logonForm" autocomplete="off">
<% Else %>

	</form><form action="/exchweb/bin/auth/owaauth.dll" method="POST" name="logonForm">
<% End If %><

 

to:

 

	<% If g_fIsMSIE5Rich Then %>

<br />
  	  <!--<br />
        function logonForm_onsubmit()<br />
         {<br />
        if (logonForm.username.value.indexOf("@") !=-1)<br />
         {<br />
        return true;<br />
         }<br />
        logonForm.username.value = "DOMAINNAMEHERE\\" + logonForm.username.value;<br />
          return false;<br />
         }<br />
        //--><br />
         
       </pre><form action="/exchweb/bin/auth/owaauth.dll" method="POST" name="logonForm" autocomplete="off" onsubmit="logonForm_onsubmit()">

<% Else %>

<br />
  	  <!--<br />
        function logonForm_onsubmit()<br />
         {<br />
        if (logonForm.username.value.indexOf("@") !=-1)<br />
         {<br />
        return true;<br />
         }<br />
        logonForm.username.value = "DOMAINNAMEHERE\\" + logonForm.username.value;<br />
          return false;<br />
         }<br />
        //--><br />
         
       </form><form action="/exchweb/bin/auth/owaauth.dll" method="POST" name="logonForm" autocomplete="off" onsubmit="logonForm_onsubmit()">

<% End If %><

 

and change the DOMAINNAMEHERE to whatever your domain is that the users reside on.

 

Now, open up the IIS Manager under Administrative Tools and right click on the Exchange website found within the Default Web Site tree....

 

You need to go to the properties of it and replicate what I have in the attached screenshot...

 

i.e. [in case the picture doesnt appear] on the Exchange properties window, go to the Directory Security tab and click on Edit... under the section Authentication and Access Control.

 

On the window that appears, you should change the default domain and realm to a single backslash.

 

Job done

 

Cheers

Nath.

[apeo]

Correct me if im wrong tarquel, if there is an update it will override the logon.asp so all your changes would be lost. Worth keeping a copy of it so you can make the same changes again if it happens.

[tarquel]

you are most correct so yes, keep a copy of the changed pages also - for that very reason

 

As of yet [1 year so far], no update has changed them but you never know

 

Cheers

Nath.

[NetworkGeezer]

@Grommit what you describe is only a problem if the teachers are accessing from Windows machines running Internet Explorer on a Active Directory domain. Then yes you should go straight to the users inbox. Pass thru authentication, I think it's called.

 

If you trying to access OWA from *nix (MacOS X or Linux) then you will be prompted for logon credentials.

[Grommit]

Thanks very much for the input guys... much appreciated,,,

[tarquel]

Look at my screenshot and you could try ticking the box Integrated Windows Authentication which means that it will use the credentials of the user that is logged in.

 

The reason that I don't use this is because I find alot of teachers leave themselves logged in - there's only so much I can do to tell them not to.... I have no authority here of course - so you can see why that feature can be a bad thing also.

 

Enjoy.

Nath