federico

Hi, i have set up windows 2000 server with exchange 2003 and active directory
and everything its going fine. I have configured owa to access through
https://webmail.mydomain.com and its working fine. At the same time i made a
script to redirect to https by tiping http://webmail.mydomanin.com, my
problem is that webmail and www are set up in the same ip in the DNS so when
i go to http://webmail.mydomain.com, instead of redirecting me to OWA i get
to my homepage.
Hope you understand, any help here ???

Thank you

acray

I do not remember off hand if IIS 5 (in Windows 2000) supports binding
websites to host header values, if not your best bet is to make two
separate websites in IIS and bind each to a different IP and go from
there. But judging by your subject line I assume you only have on
public IP to work with.

A second solution is to change DNS and move webmail.mydomain.com to a
different (free) web server and have it redirect back to
www.mydomain.com/exchange. It will get them back to OWA, but it won't
remain "webmail." in the address bar.

A third solution is to create a new home page, call it redirect.asp,
and have it inspect the URL and redirect to the appropriate 'real'
homepage. Something like this: (note, I don't know VB asp, so I doubt

Code:
--------------------
<%
IF Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_HOST") == "webmail.mydomain.com" THEN
Document.Redirect("https://webmail.mydomain.com/exchange")
ELSE Document.Redirect("http://www.mydomain.com/default.asp") ENDIF
%>
--------------------


I've read that Request.ServerVariables("HTTP_HOST") can't always be
relied upon, but it's severed me true when I've used it in similar
situations.


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ace fekay [microsoft certified trainer]

In news:8D4C1911-0CCD-4958-B06B-5A3A2CC6D6D0@microsoft.com,
Federico <Federico@discussions.microsoft.com>, posted the following:


I like Acray's idea. However if I may suggest, for ease of webmail (OWA)
use, I let everyone connect by http://mail.domain.com and redirected it with
a simple default.asp file I created under c:\inetpub\wwwroot. In the file
(open with notepad), I have one line in it:

<% response.redirect("https://mail.domain.com/exchange")%>

Then in IIS, default website properties, Documents Tab, I added Default.asp,
then moved it to the top of the list.

With this method, they simply type in mail.domain.com, and it redirects it
to the above site in the default.asp page.

If any other websites are required on the Exchange box, I would suggest to
definitely create a separate website, and to NOT put it under the default
site, and use hostheaders, which Windows 2000 IIS 5.0 supports.

If you need to create something under the default website, you'll need to
specifically state the subsite, such as:
http://domain.com/subsite

Keep in mind, since this is on a DC, if you try to simply connect to:
http://domain.com
You will connect to the default website of the DC. If you have more than one
domain controller in your infrastructure (which is suggested to insure you
do not lose any AD data if something were to go wrong), you will randomly
connect to any of the DCs. This is because of the LdapIpAddress entry in
DNS. It is also known as the 'blank' domain entry that allows connecting in
a URL without www. With AD, each DC creates an entry. There is a trick to
overcome this, but since you have Exchange on the DC, it complicates it and
will be confusing, therefore I won't post the workaround, or what you are
trying to do may not work.

I would like to close with this an FYI concerning Exchange on a DC, unless
it is SBS. But I do not believe you have SBS because the Exchange version is
a step above the Windows version. It is highly recommended by all engineers,
that Exchange never be installed on a DC. It complicates a recovery, and
because the DC disabled Write-Cache on the controller, it simply slows the
machine down affecting Exchange functionality and speed. There is no way to
enable this setting if it is a DC. And if the DC part failed, but Exchange
is still functioning, you can always set Exchange to use the other DC
(assuming you have more than one) for the RUS, GC and other functions.

I had a recent gig where I needed to recover an Exchange/DC box. I suggested
to the company that after I recover it, to not make the machine a DC again.
It would vastly enhance Exchange performance, as well as simplify recovery,
especially if the DC portion failed. Reason why is you can't demote a DC if
Exchange is on it, or Exchange will fail to function. There's a tech article
describing this. You would have to uninstall Exchange, then demote the
machine, etc. So what I did for the company is install an Exchange swing
server to move everything over to it, then unistalled Exchnage on the bad
DC, then forcedemoted it, cleaned up AD, then rejoined it as a non-DC, then
installed Exchange, and moved everything back to this machine with the same
name, then uninstalled the swing server.

I hope the extra info helps.
Ace

--
Ace

This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties or guarantees and
confers no rights.

Ace Fekay, MCSE 2003 & 2000, MCSA 2003 & 2000, MCT
Microsoft Certified Trainer
aceman@mvps.RemoveThisPart.org

For urgent issues, you may want to contact Microsoft PSS directly. Please
check http://support.microsoft.com for regional support phone numbers.

federico

Thank you both guys. Acray i used your third solution and created a java
script with a similar script of yours and its working.
Thanks a lot

ace fekay [microsoft certified trainer]

In news:2C818514-647C-4E90-9B1A-B0CBA430FBAE@microsoft.com,
Federico <Federico@discussions.microsoft.com>, posted the following:


Glad to hear Acray's solution worked.

:-)

Cheers!

Ace