Question : Basic Authentication Box Is Displayed When You Log on to OWA 2003 with HTTP

Basic Authentication Box Is Displayed When You Log on to OWA 2003 with HTTP

When trying to log on to OWA (Outlook Web Access) on Exchange 2003 (SBS 2003) the basic authentication box is displayed instead of the OWA login page when using HTTP.  If you try and login using HTTPS then you get the OWA logon page.

I fixed all the Exchange virtual directories by deleting the six folders associated with OWA (Exadmin, Exchange, ExchWeb, Microsoft-Server-ActiveSync, OMA and Public) and removed the DS2MB key from the IIS Metabase and reset the permission on the Exchweb directory per the instruction at

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Fixing-Damaged-Incorrectly-Configured-OWA-2003-Installation.html

but I keep getting the basic authentication box every time OWA is accessed via HTTP.

I have setup other servers with OWA access on Exchange 2003 and when using HTTP it will automatically redirect to HTTPS and display the OWA logon page if using a 3rd party certificate or the warning/not recommended page if using a self signed certificate.  This server show a basic authentication dialog box with a warning saying that the server is requesting that your username and password be sent in an insecure manner (basic authentication without a secure connection). If you type in your username and password it will log you into OWA but never redirects to HTTPS.

Attachments:

Basic-Authentication.jpg (32 KB) (File Type Details) 

Basic Authentication Dialog Box

Answer : Basic Authentication Box Is Displayed When You Log on to OWA 2003 with HTTP

You need to disable HTTP access to the website:
In Internet Services Manager, in the console tree, expand SERVERNAME (your local computer), and then expand Web Sites, then expand Default Web Site.
In the console tree, right-click the EXCHANGE virtual directory, and then click Properties.
In the Default Web Site Properties dialog box, on the Directory Security tab, in the Secure communications area, click Edit.
In the Secure Communications dialog box, click the Require secure channel (SSL) check box, click the Require 128-bit encryption check box, and then click OK.