Need to access Exchange server over VPN connection

rbatton,

OK...you mentioned SMTP so I'm going to try and hunt that rabbit for a second. As you may be aware, several ISP's here in the States are blocking traffic on port 25 (SMTP) except to their own servers. This is supposed to reduce the risk of unaware spambots running because of the ID10T's out there that get hit with trojans because they just have to see Britney Spears naked or some other such stupidity.

So, here's something he can try - with a VPN connection established, have your mate down under try to telnet to the exchange server from a command prompt. It will look something like: telnet my.exchangeserver.com 25

If he gets a "greeting" from the server then he's not having an issue with SMTP being blocked by either his ISP or your corporate firewall. If he's not getting the greeting, then he's being blocked by one of those two things.

I'm not sure about Exchange, but I know with several other mail servers such as Ipswitch's IMail server, you can specify alternate SMTP ports to circumvent these ISP's. Of course, if you do set up and alternate port, you will have to make adjustments to your firewall as appropriate.

I hope this helps get you folks back on track...and I'd be happy to help more if necessary.

Take care,
Ric

he might be setup to use exchange with RPC over HTTPS, you will be able to tell this since it will prompt for him to enter a username and password every time he opens outlook.
but with a VPN connection that doesn't have internet access, the https requests will time out and fail. what he needs to do is:
while outlook is closed, go to the control panel and go to the mail icon. then click on email accounts and change.
for good measure, I don't like to use exchange cached mode (too much file copying) so uncheck it. and click on more settings.
under the connection tab there should be a button for exchange proxy settings. go to that and write down everything EXACTLY as shown, he will need to reenter this info if he's using outlook without a vpn. don't change any settings in this box, just ok out of it and uncheck "connect to exchange using http"
now his laptop should connect to the exchange server.

on a side note, if his laptop is not a member of the domain, this won't work and he'll need to disconnect the vpn and only use outlook with a regular internet connection or authenticate his laptop using other means.

Thank you rcastagna and oracleofDelphi for your replies....

I'm going to follow rcastagna's instructions first as the end-user is using VPN and he does have an Internet connection....thanks again....rcastagna I'll let you know the results of the telnet session.

ok, but be aware that exchange email doesn't use SMTP communication at all.

Yes, I'm aware it uses RPC but it will respond with an acknowledgement...thanks oracleofDelphi...

OracleofDelphi and rcastagna....thanks again for your replies....I've decided to let the Australian tech take care of this issue since she has come back from vacation....she can actually get her hands on the laptop. Troubleshooting something a world away from you with the vast time difference and a semi-literate end-user is not fun....thanks again for your input....I'll consider this a problem solved.

I have a user who cannot access emails using vpn but when he comes to the offices its OK.He can access other network resources thru vpn except emails.It just times out.Sometimes it asks him if he can work offline but nothing comes up after accepting to work offline.He is a 1000ks away from me.How can I solve this