SBS 2008 Remote Web Workplace not available externally, works internally

Also make sure you have run the Internet address wizard and completed all the details correctly.  It's worth checking it even if you have run it in the past.

The remote management on the router is disabled and if I watch the logs I can see it forwarding the request from the external IP to port 443 on the internal IP. If I go to that IP it just pauses on a blank screen for about 15secs then goes to the default 'diagnose connection problem' page

The internet address wizard has been run, several times now, I believe I have completed the details correctly, don't think there is a whole lot to get wrong.

You might have done this :

Have you tried restarting your router ?

What router are you using ?

have you got any other router just to test?

I am suggesting the above only because if everything is working fine locally it should work externally as long as the ports are opened ;

http://www.canyouseeme.org/

try the above website to see if the ports are visible (again you may already have done that but just a suggestion).

sometimes MTU size also matters, but before going into that I would recommend to restart the router, check the ports on router to be opened and test or replace the router and see if that helps.

check with netstat -na | more
to see if the ports are opened locally (you can redirect the output to a txt file and attach here).

Yes I have restarted the router.

The router is a draytek 2900 series with a linksys am300 modem bridged in

I have used both canyouseeme and grc shields up to check the ports are open

netstat output attached.

Hi There,

You need to forward two ports to your SBS on your router to enable RWW:

4125 (port used by RWW)

443 (it uses SSL)

Forwarding both of these should suffice.

Tony

Yes make sure 4125 is opened as well ?

I can't see that in your netstat .

TAken the MTU down to 1300 and get the same response (or lack of!)

Ports 4125, 443 and 987 are all forwarded to the SBS server.

Thanks for your input guys and I will try a new router tomorrow.

You can also try updating firmware on your draytek and linksys

and see if that helps ; also make sure you take your mtu to where it was originally

Port 4125 is no longer needed for RWW in SBS 2008; that was only in SBS 2003.  Port 987 is not strictly required for RWW either, although it is required for accessing SharePoint (companyweb) via RWW.  Port 443 is all that is required to perform most functions of RWW in SBS 2008.

The symptoms suggest that port 443 is not being correctly forwarded to the server, either because of a misconfiguration or failure of the router.  Just to make sure DNS is not involved, what results do you get if you try to browse to https://your_public_IP/owa from an external machine?

if I go to https://your_public_IP/owa from outside the network I get the same response, no activity for a while then a failure to connect page.

It was the router in the end, swapped it out and all worked fine. Tried a factory reset and new firmware but despite all looking good it would not work. The 2900 is on its way back to Draytek confirmed faulty.

Thank you for your help on this, I was thinking it was going to be some firewall/permissions issue in IIS. Nice to be kept on track for the simplest solution.