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Exchange 2010 Autodiscovery Issue

So I see that you need both

https://<smtp-address-domain>/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml
https://autodiscover.<smtp-address-domain>/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml

to resolve for EWS external access. The latter resolves fine as I created the DNS record with no issue and tested successfully.  The problem is the host record @<smtp_address_domain> points to our corporate website.  Is there a way I can resolve this?

Thanks!
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Adam Farage
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So ...

That isnt really a huge problem. The way autodiscover works is that it will try the domain.com/autodiscover/... first and then fail back to autodiscover.domain.com/autodiscover...

You can leave it the way it is, and as long as the A record is pointing to the correct external address / SSL is valid it should work without an issue.
Avatar of btassure
You could put a redirect on that URL on your corporate website?

But if you don't have an entry for https://<smtp-address-domain> it will then fall back to trying https://autodiscover.<smtp-address-domain>

More info here:

http://acbrownit.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/internal-dns-and-exchange-autodiscover/
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ecosys

ASKER

So I tested from Outlook client outside domain. I configure new profile and enter email address and password. A separate box appears and prompts for authentication with my email address already filled. My password does not work in this box for some reason. I assume it's looking at the https://<smtp_address_domain> which points to our web site and is failing to authenticate. So I cancel the authentication box and it finishes the profile successfully.  Then I try to log in but it drags me through profile creation again.  I get to authentication, again, and cancel and then it finally opens my mailbox.   This isn't ideal.
What happens when you enter the URL for
https://<smtp-address-domain>/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml
in a browser?

Does it prompt for credentials or give a 404? The former would validate your suspicion, and be harder to fix, the latter would suggest it is behaving as expected at that point and that your credentials issue is with the CAS?
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ASKER

This URL: https://<smtp-address-domain>/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml takes me an invalid cert page of our company website.


As I said the A record @domain.net points to our company website. I've set up autodiscover@domain.net and that works fine but from a client perspective there are issues as I noted earlier.
This is becoming a pretty common problem and is due to your web host.
One of the major control panel vendors has an Autodiscover module for configuring email services hosted by the web hosting company. From what I can tell, this can be disabled, but most web hosts either don't know how or presume that all of their clients are using their email services.

This sits on https://example.com/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml

If you browse to that address and don't get a 404 then that is the problem and you need to get your web host to disable the Autodiscover feature for your domain. I don't think it can be done in the control panel yourself.

Simon.
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ASKER

Well, what I can do is delete the @ record that points to my web server, but won't external users be unable to resolve my web server? So you are saying the web server has a feature that needs to be disabled?
They would only be unable to resolve domainname.tld which, depending on your website design and SEO might not be too bad as generally you would use www.domainname.tld but it would certainly not be my first choice. I would definitely follow what Sembee said, and I would talk to the hosting provider.

If you have enough control over those parts of your site, you could also put a redirect page on (or possibly even see the files yourself on the website and delete them!) the URL mentioned.
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ASKER

We host our own mail server so I'm still not sure I understand how our web server could control autodiscover settings. Our provider only provides DNS and SSL.  Can you explain?
I am talking about your WEB server.
From an external host, check where the root of the domain resolves to - so example.com, not www.example.com.

Simon.
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ASKER

It resolves to our web server.
That is where the problem is, or requires investigation.
What happens when you try the URL I posted above?

Simon.
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ASKER

The https://example.com/Autodiscover/Autodiscover.xml URL takes me to our company website "Page Not Found."

Both www.example.com and example.com resolve to same - our company website.
What is your web hosting platform? Is it easy to put redirects in place with it? It looks like that might be the way to go if you don't want to change the DNS resolution of example.com (but still leave www.example.com pointing at your webhost).
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ASKER

The web server is a CentOS Linux 6.2 box running Apache hosted by GoDaddy.  I can make the request to have something changed to the 3rd party that manages it.
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ecosys

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Problem resolved with wildcard cert.