modifying the OWA logon.asp file

[bostonianman79]

My company last year upgraded from Exchange 2000 to 2003. The new OWA interface on it looks great.

Recently I was working with someone who happened to be checking their outside company email through OWA and I noticed they have the Forms-based authentication pages and how they are customized very well.

Now I am working to modify my logon.asp file for the same. I figured out where to substitute the microsoft logo with our company logo. And I also have the fix to add in the default domain and modified the text strings on the screen.

The only piece i'm having trouble with is removing the client (where you choose premium or basic) and security (where you choose public or private computer) sections of the logon page. I notice that your OWA logon page has these removed.

I know it has something to do with modifying the flags post parameter but i'm not sure where the modification is needed.

I know it can be done. Would someone be able to assist by sharing a piece of their usa logon.asp file? Or share some thoughts?

 

[markdmac]

I would not recommend removing access to either function.

They are there for a reason. The Public vs private will make the session timeout faster if runnign from a public computer, this helps to ensure that unauthorized personell will not use your system. As an example, using IE 7. Open a few tabs to different sites. Open one tab to your OWA page. Close the OWA tab but leave the rest of IE open. Now visit OWA again. You are directed right back to the mailbox without having to log on.

What I would recommend instead of disabling this feature is to use MS KBs to configure custom timeouts. This way if you have users that use OWA from home PCs you can specify a much longer timeout for Private computers.

The premium vs basic views are really important to keep for your road warriors. Basic view is not as nice looking but is a lot faster and is fine tuned for slow connections. Futhermore there have been MANY times for me where a client problem has prevented OWA from displaying in premium view but the basic view has always worked for me.

[red]Sent while vactioning in lovely Cancun Mexico, please excuse any incomplete thoughts or spelling errors which may or may not be the result of too many strawberry daqueries.[/red]

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

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[bostonianman79]

I understand your recommendation but my I.S. Director doesn't like the choice of security and client experience because he feels it will confuse our users. We are a small company but a number of our users are always in a hurry or not the most literate.

So right now we have the forms based authentication turned off for OWA signons. I'd like to turn it on if I can remove the security and client pieces.... or at least hide it from the screen and embed the default settings of public and premium. That would apply to many anyways.

 

[58sniper]

Also, keep in mind that any time you apply a rollup or service pack, your changes will be lost.

Pat Richard
Microsoft Exchange MVP

 

[zoeythecat]

I'm not sure if this link will help you out? I think you can hide the explanations, but not remove the Basic Versus Premium, but if you say someone else has this removed then I would verify with them how they did it.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996007(EXCHG.65).aspx

 

[bostonianman79]

I have been to that link a number of times. Thats how I got involved with this post.

 

[TROUTMAN22]

I found out that if you open the logon.asp page in notepad and search for "radio" then change it to "hidden" the radio buttons disappear. Then you have to go to the top of the page and remove the text from the constants. This works, however there is still () left that I can't find where to remove.

So, what I did instead of all of that is change the following code on line 98 thru 100 to false instead of true. This removes the security display all together. You don't have to worry about changing the radio buttons or the constants. I have not tested this on a production box, so please make a copy of the logon.asp file before you make any changes. That way if you need to revert back to the original you can.

' Variable to turn display of Security on and off
'
g_fTrust = False

 

[bostonianman79]

Ok we're halfway there!!

Modifying the g_fTrust variable to false removes the security section. Now I just need a modification in the logon.asp code to also hide the Client experience selection (where you choose premium or basic).