Offsite access to email

[Edu-IT]

I'm trying to configure my mail client for offsite access to email however the auto configuration keeps finding the internal server name as the server and obviously cannot therefore connect. Am I right in thinking that this suggests 'Outlook Anywhere' is not configured properly or is there something else I need to be looking at?

[glennda]

I would say so - what version of exchange?

[Edu-IT]

2007. Sorry I should have said

[m25man]

Start outlook manually from the run box:-

outlook.exe /rpcdiag

Might give you a clue, you also need Exchange setup correctly and the correct dns records for your client to resolve autodiscover.your domain.com and just to finish it all off a valid SSL certificate to make it work without any hassle.

[PiqueABoo]

My first stop for any Exchange WAN connectivity issue of any nature is: https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/.

 

It's very useful. With that you can decide whether the problem is client-side or server-side. If it is server side then you typically have enough information to figure out what you need to fix, although it isn't necessarily handed to you on a plate e.g. last time I used it to test autodiscovery somewhere is said autodiscovery was working - which it was, but looking at the XML it had obtained I knew there was some expected data missing.

 

Edit: I did initially/quickly question DNS but this essentially works by: a) establishing a tunnel to an RPC proxy which has to be an external (accessible from the net) name, b) connecting to your Exchange server's *internal* name via that tunnel. If for instance you try the testexchangeconnectivity RPC test you'll have to supply both names in the right places. I don't know, but I guess it's possible that you might see that internal name in some Outlook connection error.

Edited July 1, 2012 by PiqueABoo

[Edu-IT]

It's not using the correct autodiscover URL by the looks of it, when I tested for Outlook Anywhere.

 

It's not using the subdomain mail.ourdomain.co.uk

[sukh]

you have the correct autodiscover records?

 

Also, check the outlook providers and check.