Exchanging notes…

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Well, that was an experience.

Recently, in the process of self hosting on our [[wp:T-1]] I have been moving the email system to Exchange 2003 Server. I had a few basic hopes for this set up:

  1. Outlook Web Access to enable checking email on the road
  2. Use the features of Exchange to enable group scheduling, file sharing and calendar functions
  3. More secure remote access than [[wp:POP3]]/[[wp:SMTP]], including encrypted communications ([[wp:RPC]] over [[wp:HTTP]])
  4. Retain the ability for my users to have multiple accounts they can send from
  5. Replace the [[wp:IRC]] server we are currently using

Now, there is a lot involved in setting up Exchange, and this post is far from a guide to handling it. It is simply a small pointer int he right direction for some of the abilities listed above. In specific, we will talk about #3… configuring RPC over HTTP for Exchange 2003/Outlook 2003 under Windows Server 2003.

For this post, lets assume you have the Exchange Server running. Then in order, you should do the following:

  1. Setup a [[wp:SSL]] certificate for the website you want to host the RPC proxy, if your running Server 2K3 you can set up your own certificate authority on your domain controller and self sign them
  2. If your RPC proxy web server is behind a firewall, punch a hole for port 80 and the SSL port you chose
  3. Download and read chapter 2 of the What’s New document
  4. Go ahead and grab the RPC Updates for your Outlook 2003 client, install them even though they say they are for the [[wp:Beta]] version
  5. Check out the configuring Outlook for RPC document

That’s it. It’s going to work just fine. Sound easy? It isn’t too bad really… but it took about two days of searching to find the right documents that explain it all.

You’re welcome.

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