OWA 2000 WEBDAV Firewall issue

[cviator]

<BACKGROUND>I have roaming consultants at client sites that rely on email provided through OWA at our home office. It appears that there is some capability problem with either WebDav or HTTP1.1 and some firewalls and proxy servers. Basically, they are unable to use OWA if they use an MS IE but can if they use Netscape. Unfortunately, I cannot dictate browser brands and versions at these client sites. I have heard of using SSL as a workaround the the performance hits seem to be excessive at some of these bandwidth challenged sites.</BACKGROUND>
<QUESTION>Has anyone found an alternative solution?</QUESTION>
<RANT>MS, The primary benefit to browser-based system is simplicity in deployment. Please, please do not sacrifice this for the sake of modest improvements to the interface. We already have a great &quot;fat-client&quot; in Outlook.</RANT>

 

[Xybertron]

Upgrade your proxy and firewalls Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft

 

[cviator]

Dan,
It is not my proxy or firewall that is the problem. Our roaming consultants need to be able to connect from anywhere including our client sites. Obviously, we have no control over their infrastructure. This is where we found the problem to exist.
Chuck

 

[dput]

The only solution that we found with this issue was to use SSL. Performance may take a hit, but security is improved. I decided that I could live with that.

Dan Dan

 

[cviator]

Dan,
We are looking at this option. Some of our clients are bandwidth challenged and we have found that adding SSL to another application caused timeouts.
Can we set up 2 OWA sites on the same box and only SSL enable one of them? This way we address the needs of all of our users.
Thanks,
Chuck

 

[Xybertron]

You &quot;should&quot; be able to.

I would do it with Metaedit since you can import and export. Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft

 

[cviator]

We were able to setup a second site and SSL enable it. Some of our users that connect to this site from client locations have reported that the site is so slow that it takes upwards of 5 minutes to fully load the initial page and then it takes minutes for opening and reply to a message. Hide me, they are coming with pitch forks and torches!

 

[Xybertron]

Get another 28.8 so its twice as fast Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft

 

[cviator]

Actaully, these are huge, well-known companies with massive but overworked pipes.

 

[Xybertron]

Well I would use SSL over a 56k and at most it would take 1-2 mins to load up the first time and then 10 seconds to open an e-mail. If it takes longer then something is more than likely messed up in your deployment. Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft

 

[cviator]

Dan,
I experience the same results under most conditions, except at a few major clients. That is why I suspected a bandwidth problem there. What deployment issues would you look at and if it was a deployment issue, wouldn't you expect it to affect all locations?
Chuck

 

[Xybertron]

Do they have at least 56k? If so it should be way faster. What if you try a generic ISP? Is it fast then? If so it is something with the location setup. Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft

 

[cviator]

They have T1's or better.

When you say location setup, do you mean our's or theirs?

 

[Xybertron]

Theirs if it doesn't happen for other places getting to you. Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft

 

[cviator]

Is it a simple fix on their part or are we back to replacing their firewalls and/or proxy servers?

 

[Xybertron]

I dunno I'm just pointing out the logical stuff in what your saying.

You will need to get a netmon and read it and see whats missing on the broke clients compared to a netmon of a working client. Dan
Microsoft Exchange Support @ Microsoft