Connecting to Exchange IM

  • Thread starter Thread starter BR
  • Start date Start date
B

BR

I have an Exchange server running IM.

I can connect fine from a client installed on the same machine, and on one
other machine.

2 other machines report:

"Signing in to Microsoft Exchange Instant Messenger failed because the
service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."

On the machine that fails (this one) I am running Windows Messenger
5.0.0381, identical to the machine that works.

My machine is XP Pro, SP1.

?

Thanks,

Bill Ross
 
I have an Exchange server running IM.

I can connect fine from a client installed on the same machine, and on one
other machine.

2 other machines report:

"Signing in to Microsoft Exchange Instant Messenger failed because the
service is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."

On the machine that fails (this one) I am running Windows Messenger
5.0.0381, identical to the machine that works.

My machine is XP Pro, SP1.
Click to expand...

I just went through all the fun of getting IM w/Exchange to work, so
I'm willing to share some knowledge???

As it appears that the setup is working, I would check the user
account details, and double check the DNS settings on the server, and
flush the DNS caches on the clients...

eg, ensure that the client settings in AD are correct (ie pointing to
the correct IM virutal host), and that the IP address resolves
correctly when querying your DNS server...

The problem I had was that mydomain.com was resolving to a different
IP address (the IP address of the DC, rather than the Exchange svr).
After removing the host entries to all the other entries for
mydomain.com, it worked like a charm...
 
Thanks for the feedback.

Apparently mydomain.com resolves to the wrong server.

I'm going to place this IM virtual server on a new port so I can keep it
open for IM. What port would be appropriate for Messenger, visible to the
outside world?

Also, does IM send login/password info in plain text across the internet?

Is there a way add an entry in my DNS on the wrong machine to point to the
right machine? Ie: an SRV record?

Ie: from inside my firewall, my email points to (e-mail address removed), which
resolves to my file server, not my web/exchange server.

Thanks,

Bill Ross
 
"BR" wrote in message
Thanks for the feedback.

Apparently mydomain.com resolves to the wrong server.

I'm going to place this IM virtual server on a new port so I can keep it
open for IM. What port would be appropriate for Messenger, visible to the
outside world?

Also, does IM send login/password info in plain text across the internet?

Is there a way add an entry in my DNS on the wrong machine to point to the
right machine? Ie: an SRV record?

Ie: from inside my firewall, my email points to (e-mail address removed), which
resolves to my file server, not my web/exchange server.
Click to expand...

So when you ping mydomain.com (from internal), you get the wrong
server? Have a look at your DNS server, and check for "host" records
that point to mydomain.com. In my case I had 7 entries (1 for each
server, plus additional RRAS entries). On each of the servers I
disabled "register in DNS", and then removed the additional host
entries (normally something like "(same as parent folder) Host
192.168.0.1"), so that only a single host entry remains, which points
to the exchange server. eg "(same as parent folder) Host 192.168.0.1"

Once done, restart the DNS server, and flush the DNS caches on the
server and clients (ipconfig /flushdns). Now try and ping
mydomain.com. It should resolve correctly... If not, using ipconfig
/displaydns, and look for mydomain.com entries, and see what IP
addresses are listed... Go back into the DNS manager, and try to find
those entries and remove them, and repeat the above procedure, to
ensure that mydomain.com resolves to a single IP address of your
choosing...

Ports to be used? You can use any, (that won't interfere with any
other running network services) but 1863 is always good, but in all
seriousness, DON'T DO IT. Don't open this to be wide world... If you
want to allow external messenging, use .net passport instead...
(messenging w/exchange is internal use only).

Password security> by default, messenger w/exchange will use NTLM to
auth to exchange/IIS...
 
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