rpc https   

This is really driving me nuts.  I've got the rpc over https working
at my current company, this is using a frontend/backend exchange
2003.  It magically started working after I had been trying to get it
to work for about 2 years.  We changed firewalls, so that was the
problem.

Now I am trying to get it to work at my wife's company.  This is SBS
with exchange.  I have followed the docs for single server setup,
which aren't particularly easy to find, but as it turns out the SBS
server configuration program has actually configured the rpc/http
proxy and everything for me.  I have purchased and installed a
certificate from equifax on it... OWA access works fine... Mobile
device access works fine, which is quite curious as usually I have a
lot of trouble getting mobile access to work.   But rpc over https
will not authenticate.  Just keeps asking me for my credentials.

If I go to server.domian/rpc  I get the same thing, just keeps asking
for my credentials.

I have used .local  for my domain ... against my better judgement, but
I thought what the hell, it's what MS recommend, and now I'm wondering
if this is part of the problem  When I am setting up the account, it
says it can't contact the server.   I am using
hostname.domain.local   for the initial server and under the proxy
settings I am using mail.domain.com  which is the public name that
this server responds on.. and what I use for my OWA and mobile access
server and the SMTP server.  Ports 80 and 443 are open to this server
on the firewall..  but it does say it can't confirm my account because
the exchange server is not online etc.  But I do get a prompt for
credentials when I start up outlook with that profile and i have tried
my user id as domain\username  username@domain.com
username@domain.local  nothing works.

I know I should get an access denied page when I try the host.domain/
rpc and put credential in, but I don't.  Well, I do eventually, after
I put credentials in 3 times, i fails.  IIS is set up for basic auth,
anon disabled, I've followed instructions perfectly, all registry
entries are correct.

What I can't seem to find is any info on diagnosing this further.  Are
there any log files I can look into to see what is actually failing?
Is it talking to AD and AD is failinng to authenticate it, or is it
not getting as far as AD?

Probably the most frustrating thing for me and windows is that there
isn't one central place that everything is logged to.  I miss the
luxury of /var/lib/log.

Anyway, lamenting aside, can anyone tell me what I can try next?

date: Wed, 23 Apr 2008 02:59:23 -0700 (PDT)   author:   jogdial

Re: rpc https   

On 23 Apr, 10:59, jogdial  wrote:
> This is really driving me nuts.  I've got the rpc over https working
> at my current company, this is using a frontend/backend exchange
> 2003.  It magically started working after I had been trying to get it
> to work for about 2 years.  We changed firewalls, so that was the
> problem.
>
> Now I am trying to get it to work at my wife's company.  This is SBS
> with exchange.  I have followed the docs for single server setup,
> which aren't particularly easy to find, but as it turns out the SBS
> server configuration program has actually configured the rpc/http
> proxy and everything for me.  I have purchased and installed a
> certificate from equifax on it... OWA access works fine... Mobile
> device access works fine, which is quite curious as usually I have a
> lot of trouble getting mobile access to work.   But rpc over https
> will not authenticate.  Just keeps asking me for my credentials.
>
> If I go to server.domian/rpc  I get the same thing, just keeps asking
> for my credentials.
>
> I have used .local  for my domain ... against my better judgement, but
> I thought what the hell, it's what MS recommend, and now I'm wondering
> if this is part of the problem  When I am setting up the account, it
> says it can't contact the server.   I am using
> hostname.domain.local   for the initial server and under the proxy
> settings I am using mail.domain.com  which is the public name that
> this server responds on.. and what I use for my OWA and mobile access
> server and the SMTP server.  Ports 80 and 443 are open to this server
> on the firewall..  but it does say it can't confirm my account because
> the exchange server is not online etc.  But I do get a prompt for
> credentials when I start up outlook with that profile and i have tried
> my user id as domain\username  usern...@domain.com
> usern...@domain.local  nothing works.
>
> I know I should get an access denied page when I try the host.domain/
> rpc and put credential in, but I don't.  Well, I do eventually, after
> I put credentials in 3 times, i fails.  IIS is set up for basic auth,
> anon disabled, I've followed instructions perfectly, all registry
> entries are correct.
>
> What I can't seem to find is any info on diagnosing this further.  Are
> there any log files I can look into to see what is actually failing?
> Is it talking to AD and AD is failinng to authenticate it, or is it
> not getting as far as AD?
>
> Probably the most frustrating thing for me and windows is that there
> isn't one central place that everything is logged to.  I miss the
> luxury of /var/lib/log.
>
> Anyway, lamenting aside, can anyone tell me what I can try next?

hmm...  didn't touch a thing, but it started working today... just
started outlook and typed in password and it took it and when I look a
the first page of the email account the sever host.domain.local was
underlined and my full name was verified and underlined.  And I swear
I didn't touch a thing.  This is on a workstation, it seems like it's
better if you actually configure this in the office and get it working
before you try it from afar or something... Such as with a laptop,
configure it, get it working on the LAN before you go roaming, though
this did work eventually.  YAY!

date: Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:38:37 -0700 (PDT)   author:   jogdial

Re: rpc https   

On 23 Apr, 15:38, jogdial  wrote:
> On 23 Apr, 10:59, jogdial  wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > This is really driving me nuts.  I've got the rpc over https working
> > at my current company, this is using a frontend/backend exchange
> > 2003.  It magically started working after I had been trying to get it
> > to work for about 2 years.  We changed firewalls, so that was the
> > problem.
>
> > Now I am trying to get it to work at my wife's company.  This is SBS
> > with exchange.  I have followed the docs for single server setup,
> > which aren't particularly easy to find, but as it turns out the SBS
> > server configuration program has actually configured the rpc/http
> > proxy and everything for me.  I have purchased and installed a
> > certificate from equifax on it... OWA access works fine... Mobile
> > device access works fine, which is quite curious as usually I have a
> > lot of trouble getting mobile access to work.   But rpc over https
> > will not authenticate.  Just keeps asking me for my credentials.
>
> > If I go to server.domian/rpc  I get the same thing, just keeps asking
> > for my credentials.
>
> > I have used .local  for my domain ... against my better judgement, but> > I thought what the hell, it's what MS recommend, and now I'm wondering
> > if this is part of the problem  When I am setting up the account, it
> > says it can't contact the server.   I am using
> > hostname.domain.local   for the initial server and under the proxy
> > settings I am using mail.domain.com  which is the public name that
> > this server responds on.. and what I use for my OWA and mobile access
> > server and the SMTP server.  Ports 80 and 443 are open to this server
> > on the firewall..  but it does say it can't confirm my account because> > the exchange server is not online etc.  But I do get a prompt for
> > credentials when I start up outlook with that profile and i have tried
> > my user id as domain\username  usern...@domain.com
> > usern...@domain.local  nothing works.
>
> > I know I should get an access denied page when I try the host.domain/
> > rpc and put credential in, but I don't.  Well, I do eventually, after
> > I put credentials in 3 times, i fails.  IIS is set up for basic auth,
> > anon disabled, I've followed instructions perfectly, all registry
> > entries are correct.
>
> > What I can't seem to find is any info on diagnosing this further.  Are> > there any log files I can look into to see what is actually failing?
> > Is it talking to AD and AD is failinng to authenticate it, or is it
> > not getting as far as AD?
>
> > Probably the most frustrating thing for me and windows is that there
> > isn't one central place that everything is logged to.  I miss the
> > luxury of /var/lib/log.
>
> > Anyway, lamenting aside, can anyone tell me what I can try next?
>
> hmm...  didn't touch a thing, but it started working today... just
> started outlook and typed in password and it took it and when I look a
> the first page of the email account the sever host.domain.local was
> underlined and my full name was verified and underlined.  And I swear
> I didn't touch a thing.  This is on a workstation, it seems like it's
> better if you actually configure this in the office and get it working
> before you try it from afar or something... Such as with a laptop,
> configure it, get it working on the LAN before you go roaming, though
> this did work eventually.  YAY!- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Just as a final reply to this here problem... it wasn't quite magic
after all.  I had changed from NTLM to Basic authenication in the HTTP
proxy settings, and don't think I restarted, or something and didn't
really try again until the following day, but which time I had
properly shut down Outlook and restarted and it worked.

My firewall, or somerhing could be causing this, but also these
computers are working remote and not part of  the domain, so that
could also be problems.

It this case, as I have a store bought cert and have it requires SSL,
the only downside is typing in my creds when I start up outlook.  I
can live with that, nice to finally figure what the problem was for
future references.  Love not having to fire a VPN up everytime I want
to check my email now.

Cheers

date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:59:20 -0700 (PDT)   author:   jogdial