Wednesday, September 20, 2006
How to Determine if Exchange or IIS Causes the Error
Outlook Web Access is tightly integrated with IIS. As a result, problems in IIS can propagate into problems in Outlook Web Access. This section contains a series of procedures designed to help you determine if IIS is the cause of an Outlook Web Access error in your organization. The following procedures describe how to:
· Create a new virtual directory in IIS.
· Enable basic authentication and disable anonymous access on your new virtual directory.
· Add a sample HTML document to the directory.
· Verify that you can access the document from a Web browser.
If you can access your sample HTML document, you know the problem is not related to IIS. If you follow these procedures and cannot access the document, the problem is probably external to Exchange and Outlook Web Access, and you should investigate permissions or other configurations you may have made in IIS.
How to create a new virtual directory in IIS
1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Services Manager.
2. In Internet Information Services, click to expand the local computer object, and then click to expand Web Sites.
3. Right-click Default Web Site, point to New, and then click Virtual Directory. Virtual Directory Creation Wizard opens. Click Next.
4. In Virtual Directory Alias, type a name for the virtual directory, such as test, and then click Next.
5. In Web Site Content Directory, type the path on the local hard disk that will be accessible through this virtual directory. For example, create a directory named test on your hard disk, and point to this directory in the wizard.
6. In Access Permissions, leave Read selected, and clear all other check boxes. Click Next to complete the wizard.
How to enable Basic access and disable Anonymous access
1. In Internet Information Services, right-click your new virtual directory, and then click Properties.
2. On the Directory Security tab, under Anonymous access and authentication control, click Edit.
3. In Authentication Methods, under Authenticated access, click to select Basic authentication and click to clear all other options. Only Basic authentication should be selected.
How to create a file in this virtual directory
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In Run, type notepad.exe, and then click OK.
3. In Notepad, type some simple HTML text, such as “This is a test” (with or without the quotation marks).
4. Save the file with an .htm extension (not the default extension of .txt) in your virtual directory.
How to access this file with a web browser
1. Open your web browser.
2. Type the following URL: http:////. If your server name is myserver, and you named your virtual directory test and your document test.htm, you would type http://myserver/test/test.htm.
Note In place of above, you may need to enter the host header or the fully qualified domain name (such as server.fabrikam.com). You can also use the IP address of the server.
Important: To access files in a virtual directory created in the Internet Services Manager MMC snap-in, the account you use must have Log on Locally permissions (Outlook Web Access does not require these permissions).
· Create a new virtual directory in IIS.
· Enable basic authentication and disable anonymous access on your new virtual directory.
· Add a sample HTML document to the directory.
· Verify that you can access the document from a Web browser.
If you can access your sample HTML document, you know the problem is not related to IIS. If you follow these procedures and cannot access the document, the problem is probably external to Exchange and Outlook Web Access, and you should investigate permissions or other configurations you may have made in IIS.
How to create a new virtual directory in IIS
1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Services Manager.
2. In Internet Information Services, click to expand the local computer object, and then click to expand Web Sites.
3. Right-click Default Web Site, point to New, and then click Virtual Directory. Virtual Directory Creation Wizard opens. Click Next.
4. In Virtual Directory Alias, type a name for the virtual directory, such as test, and then click Next.
5. In Web Site Content Directory, type the path on the local hard disk that will be accessible through this virtual directory. For example, create a directory named test on your hard disk, and point to this directory in the wizard.
6. In Access Permissions, leave Read selected, and clear all other check boxes. Click Next to complete the wizard.
How to enable Basic access and disable Anonymous access
1. In Internet Information Services, right-click your new virtual directory, and then click Properties.
2. On the Directory Security tab, under Anonymous access and authentication control, click Edit.
3. In Authentication Methods, under Authenticated access, click to select Basic authentication and click to clear all other options. Only Basic authentication should be selected.
How to create a file in this virtual directory
1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In Run, type notepad.exe, and then click OK.
3. In Notepad, type some simple HTML text, such as “This is a test” (with or without the quotation marks).
4. Save the file with an .htm extension (not the default extension of .txt) in your virtual directory.
How to access this file with a web browser
1. Open your web browser.
2. Type the following URL: http://
Note In place of
Important: To access files in a virtual directory created in the Internet Services Manager MMC snap-in, the account you use must have Log on Locally permissions (Outlook Web Access does not require these permissions).
How can I configure Exchange Server 2003 to block spam
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 now has built-in Open Relay Filter (ORFilter) or DNS Blacklist and Realtime Blackhole List (DNSBL, RBL) capabilities, which releases us from the need to rely on 3rd party software for the spam filtering.
Microsoft Exchange Intelligent Message Filter is a product developed by Microsoft to help companies reduce the amount of unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE), or spam, received by users.
Intelligent Message Filter is based on Microsoft SmartScreen Technology from Microsoft Research. By using e-mail characteristics tracked by SmartScreen technology, Intelligent Message Filter can help determine whether each incoming e-mail message is likely to be spam. Based on this likelihood, you can choose to block e-mail messages at the gateway or at the mailbox store.
Using 3rd party software
The anti-spam features in Exchange 2003 are far from complete, and using software like Policy Patrol and others is still recommended, but for small businesses or companies that cannot afford these products - Exchange Server 2003 can now handle most the job, especially with IMF around.
However, there are still many problematic "features" (as Microsoft likes to call them) in the built-in anti-spam support in Exchange 2003. One bad thing about the Exchange Server 2003 Spam protection options is the fact that there is no GUI-easy way to import or export blocked e-mail addresses or sending domains.
Another bad thing is that there is no default way to see if the filters are working, and how much spam is blocked.
To configure e-mail blocking do the following:
1 Go to Exchange system manager > properties of the Message Delivery settings.
2. Click new to add a connection filter.
3. Add the desired RBL service and click OK.
4. You can also configure exceptions for these rules. Click the Exceptions button
and enter your settings.
5 A warning shows that you have to enable the filtering at the SMTP virtual
Servers.
6. Go to the properties of your SMTP Virtual Server.
7. On the General tab, click the Advanced Button.
8. Click the Edit button.
9. Check the 'Apply Connection Filter' checkbox.
10. Click Ok.
Microsoft Exchange Intelligent Message Filter is a product developed by Microsoft to help companies reduce the amount of unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE), or spam, received by users.
Intelligent Message Filter is based on Microsoft SmartScreen Technology from Microsoft Research. By using e-mail characteristics tracked by SmartScreen technology, Intelligent Message Filter can help determine whether each incoming e-mail message is likely to be spam. Based on this likelihood, you can choose to block e-mail messages at the gateway or at the mailbox store.
Using 3rd party software
The anti-spam features in Exchange 2003 are far from complete, and using software like Policy Patrol and others is still recommended, but for small businesses or companies that cannot afford these products - Exchange Server 2003 can now handle most the job, especially with IMF around.
However, there are still many problematic "features" (as Microsoft likes to call them) in the built-in anti-spam support in Exchange 2003. One bad thing about the Exchange Server 2003 Spam protection options is the fact that there is no GUI-easy way to import or export blocked e-mail addresses or sending domains.
Another bad thing is that there is no default way to see if the filters are working, and how much spam is blocked.
To configure e-mail blocking do the following:
1 Go to Exchange system manager > properties of the Message Delivery settings.
2. Click new to add a connection filter.
3. Add the desired RBL service and click OK.
4. You can also configure exceptions for these rules. Click the Exceptions button
and enter your settings.
5 A warning shows that you have to enable the filtering at the SMTP virtual
Servers.
6. Go to the properties of your SMTP Virtual Server.
7. On the General tab, click the Advanced Button.
8. Click the Edit button.
9. Check the 'Apply Connection Filter' checkbox.
10. Click Ok.
