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Securing Your Outlook Web Access 2000 Implementation Using SSL

Certificate Installation

  1. Open Internet Services Manager from your Administrative Tools.
  2. Open the Properties for the Web Site that is hosting OWA (normally the Default Web Site).
  3. Select the "Directory Security" tab, then click on the "Server Certificates" button.
  4. You will be presented with the "Pending Certificate Request" dialog box (below), select "Process the pending request and install the certificate", click Next.

    IIS Certificate Wizard - Pending Certificate Request

  5. The "Process a Pending Request" dialog box will appear (below) navigate to the site certificate that you received. click Next.

    IIS Certificate Wizard - Process Pending

  6. You will be presented with the "Certificate Summary" (below), click Next.

    IIS Certificate Wizard - Certificate Summary

  7. Next, you will need to install the intermediate certificate, please follow the instructions: here
Now that you have now installed the SSL certificate on your web site, the next step is to enable SSL for OWA - this is a simple task.
  1. Using the Internet Services Manager, open the properties for the "Exchange" virtual directory.

    Internet Services Management

  2. Select the "Directory Security" tab, and then click on the "Edit" button in the Secure Communication section.
  3. In the "Secure Communications" dialogue box (below), check the box "Require Secure Channel (SSL)". You could also check the box "Require 128-bit encryption," if you check the 128-bit checkbox, any browsers that do not support 128-bit encryption will be unable to connect to OWA.

Server communications

When users enter http://ahost.adomain.com/exchange, they will receive an "HTTP 403.4 - Forbidden: SSL required Internet Information Services" error message, because OWA is configured to require SSL. SSL uses the HTTPS protocol, so users would need to enter the url as https://ahost.adomain.com/exchange. Please see the Microsoft article regarding forcing the use of SSL with OWA: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;234022

One final step that you may need to take is to ensure that your Firewall is configured.