OWA has stopped giving graphical mailbox, I just get a text listing of all folders

Dear Experts

When I log into my SBS2003 server remotely to collect email via OWA, I
happily get a login screen, and can successfully login as various users, but
after logging in all I get is the directory listing of all the mailboxes. I
can enter the logged on mailbox, but still as a directory listing, even down
to seeing all the .eml mails. I dont see the nice graphical Outlook '03 like
pages any more.

This happens either from a PC on the internet or a local PC in the domain.
It all was working fine, the only thing I can think that has been done to
this server is installing php on it, but I have removed that but no there is
improvement.

Has anyone got an idea how this went wrong, and how I can fix it again?

Kind regards

Simon

 

Hi Simon,

This solved the issue for another with the same symptoms:

It's likely the davex.dll is missing from the exchange virtual directory, to
fix this:

Go into Control Panel/ Add/Remove Programs and select Windows Small Business
Server 2003 and click the change/remove button.

Follow the wizard to the Component Selection screen.

In the dropdown next to Exchange select reinstall, then complete the wizard.

Once you complete the wizard see if you can then access OWA..

 

Hi Simon,

Thanks for using the SBS newsgroup. Les thanks for valuable information.

According to your description, I understand that when you accessed OWA you
could only see the folder list, not the graphical based web pages.

It might be caused by corruption of the Exchange virtual directory data, so
please check the follow setting of your SBS according to the steps below:


1. Navigate to: <server name> | Web Sites | Default Web Site |
Exchange.
2. Right-click Exchange and select "Properties". Click the "Virtual
Directory" tab.
3. At the bottom, under "Application Settings", click the
Configuration button.
4. In the Application Configuration window, under "Wildcard
application maps", click "Insert".
5. In the Add/Edit Application Extension Mapping window, click
"Browse".
6. Browse to "Program Files\ExchSrvr\bin\davex.dll" and click the
Open button.
7. In the "Executable:" text box, place quotation marks around the
file path.
8. Click OK three times to exit.

If the problem still existed, you have to consider delete and recreate the
Exchange virtual directories using the following steps:

1. Open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. Right-click the server, and then click Properties.
3. Check "Enable Direct Metabase Edit" and then click OK.
4. Expand the server object, and then expand Web Sites.
5. Delete the Exchange, Exchweb, Public and Exadmin virtual
directories under the Default Web Site. To do this, right-click each
virtual directory, and then click Delete.
6. In Windows Explorer, open the folder: %windir%\System32\inetsrv.
7. In the inetsrv folder, right-click Metabase.xml, point to Open
With, and then click Notepad.
8. Press Ctrl+F.
9. In the "Find what" box, type "61472" (without quotation marks),
and then click Find Next.
10. Look for text that is similar to the following:

Location ="/LM/DS2MB/HighWaterMarks/{A1076A56-A118-42D5-8624-5C07FDC4DB91}"<Custom
Name="UnknownName_61472"
ID="61472"
Value="61485"
Type="STRING"
UserType="IIS_MD_UT_SERVER"
Attributes="NO_ATTRIBUTES"

Change the Value line to the following text:

Value="0"

11. Press Ctrl+S to save the change, and then close Notepad.
12. Open the Services console.
13. Right-click the Microsoft Exchange System Attendant service, and then
click Restart.
14. Click Yes to restart the other dependent services.
15. Open a command prompt and enter "iisreset" (without quotation marks).

I appreciate your taking the time to perform the tests. In the meantime, if
you have any further concerns, please feel free to let me know. I am glad
to be waiting here for any further updates.


Best regards,

Charles Yang (MSFT)

Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

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Dear Charles

Many thanks for your help, I followed the first part of your suggestions, at
first there was no application set, therefore the configuration button was
greyed out. I clicked on create and it automatically filled out Exchange as
the application and gave me the config button. Then I was able to follow
your instructions. At first I got a 401 error screen, saying unable to run
scripts, then it got worse and now all I get a Windows logon prompt, asking
for username and password for the SBS server! I tried a few likely
combinations but to no avail. It was NOT the OWA logon screen.

Then I thought I would go and try Les's suggestion, as if it installs itself
it should do it properly! But, just as I get to choose the re-install option
I get an error "The NNTP compnent of MS IIS is either not installed or
disabled". If I go to services there is not a NNTP service, but in Exchange
under protocols there is, but if I try to start it (if it was disabled it
would not offer me the start option) it goes away for a while then say "did
not start in a timely manner".

So I am going round in circles a bit here, I doubt at the moment (tho am
prepared to try) that the metabase edit will acheive more.

Please if you ahve any further thoughts, I am very grateful.

Thanks

Simon

 

HI Simon,

Thanks for updates.

As your description, I understand you have tried part of my suggestion,
here I would like to suggest you try the second part, for we have a test on
our machine it did resolve the issue. And all deleted directory will be
recreated by this process. So please cooperate with us on this issue to try
that steps, this can prevent the reinstallation of Exchange components.

I appreciate your understanding on this issue.

Best regards,

Charles Yang (MSFT)

Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security

=====================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader so
that others may learn and benefit from your issue.
=====================================================

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.