rkopischke
asked on
Can you restrict OWA access in Exchange 2003 to internal users?
I am working on an Inter-Org migration from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003. The customer requires that OWA be available for some users via the Internet and Intranet, but for some users OWA should only be available on the Intranet (users have a VPN connection). With Exchange 2000, there was a way to provision OWA access for internal use only. Refer to following tech article for more details. http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;%5Bln%5D;830827
However, this capability does not seem possible with Exchange 2003 because the Web DAV address check is not present in Exchange 2003. I know I can disable the http protocol, but then users cannot access OWA at all. Is there a way to allow some users to access OWA internally, and others to use OWA both via the Internet and Intranet? We are migrating to Exchange 2003 SP2. One workaround may be able to post two different URLS, and have the internal one only on the internal DNS, so it is not accessible from the outside. But if users know what the external posted URL is, they will would be able to get into OWA from the Internet.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Robyn
However, this capability does not seem possible with Exchange 2003 because the Web DAV address check is not present in Exchange 2003. I know I can disable the http protocol, but then users cannot access OWA at all. Is there a way to allow some users to access OWA internally, and others to use OWA both via the Internet and Intranet? We are migrating to Exchange 2003 SP2. One workaround may be able to post two different URLS, and have the internal one only on the internal DNS, so it is not accessible from the outside. But if users know what the external posted URL is, they will would be able to get into OWA from the Internet.
Thanks for any suggestions.
Robyn
ASKER
Thank you so much for the quick response. The Exchange server does sit behind an ISA server, so that may be an option. I'm not familair with ISA configuration and how they would athenticate. Would I set up a group or rule, and if they are a member of the group they can pass through? I will look into this further. Thanks again.
-Robyn
-Robyn
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With Exchange 2003 the only control you have over OWA is on or off. If it is enabled for the user account then the user can access it anyway that they like. OWA doesn't care and you cannot control the access with Exchange.
The only way that I am aware that you could control access would be to use an ISA server. Publish OWA through the ISA and then have the users who are allowed to access OWA authenticate when they hit the ISA address.
Internal users would hit the Exchange directly so wouldn't be under the same control.
Simon.