Web Folders and OWA

Microsoft Outlook WebAccess and XP have an almost ready for prime time integration solution — Web Folders. To create a web folder, go into windows explorer (not IE) –>My_Network_Places –>Add_Network_Place –>Next –>Next –>paste in one of the links below –>next –>login as yourself –>next –>finish.

• Public folder https://mailowa.domain.com/public/
• Your email https://mailowa.domain.com/exchange/emailname/

Next you can drag the “web folder” into your C-Drive or desktop for quick access. This can be nice for spreadsheets, word documents, and all.

Cons:

1. You can’t map a drive to the Web Folder
2. If you copy it to your desktop, it is just a shortcut
3. Creating them is awkward
4. You can’t easily create files in them by right-clicking, only from the spreadsheet
5. The login box keeps popping up
6. It may be slower than a mapped drive
7. You can get to these files from the Internet – a pro and a con here
8. If a second user opens the same file, he won’t be notified that it is already open

Exchange 2003 Mail Limits

Exchange 2003 has many nooks and crannys that have to be known when you want to limit email size. Here are the four locations that I know of:

1. Exchange SMTP
2. Exchange Global Settings
3. User Settings
4. Windows 2003 Server IIS SMTP

1. Exchange SMTP. MMC–>Console_Root\Domain_(Exchange)\Administrative_Groups \MailDomain \Servers \ServerName \Protococols \SMTP \Default SMTP Virtual Server –> properties –> Messages tab. This one affects incoming message size from the Internet.

2. Exchange Global Settings. MMC–>Console_Root\Domain_(Exchange)\Global_Settings\Message_Delivery –> properties –> Defaults tab. This one is applied secondly to incoming messages from the Internet. It is also the primary setting for internal mail limits. It can be overridden per user.

3. User Settings. MMC –>Console_Root \Active_Directory_Users_and_Computers[ad.domain.com] \domain.com \Users \Administrator –>Properties –>Exchange_General_Tab –>Delivery_Restrictions. This can be used to override the global settings for power users.

4. Windows 2003 Server IIS SMTP. MMC –>Console_Root \Internet_Information_Services_(IIS6)_Manager \Windows2003Server \Default_SMTP_Virtual_Server –>properties –>Messages_tab. This was only used by me temporarily because our pop clients needed the old Mail 55 style of login that isn’t compatible with Mail2003. Our pop users used this for their outgoing mail to the corporate headquarters and out to the Internet. This is similar to the first location, but is managed in an entirely different place.

OWA 2003 web link redirect fix

In Microsoft Outlook Web Access 2003, sometimes an email link to http://www.something.com doesn’t work. It brings up something like:

https://mail.domain.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.something.com

Additionally, it either gives an error saying that the web page cannot be found, or a password prompt pops up.  When you try to close OWA by clicking Logoff, it also annoyingly asks for a password.

The “exchweb/bin/redir.asp” is a clue that you are now being transferred to a different part of the mail web server that has a problem with authentication.

The fix: bring up your MMC –> Internet Information Services (IIS6) Manager\mailserver\Web Sites\Default Web Site\ExchWeb –> right-click ExchWeb and select Properties –> Directory Security tab –> Authentication and access control “Edit” button –> Check the box that says “Basic Authentication” –> Fill in the default domain –> ok –> ok –> if it asks for sub-directories, Check all –> ok.

Microsoft info: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/817312

Screenshot of change: