Validating Account BIS Exchange

Question

I have installed Exchange 2010 and trying to setup BIS (via my cellular providers website) to sync to one of my users email. I have entered correctly all the account details but I cant get the users account validated.

Two possible scenarios are; I am using a self-signed certificate and I have Forms Based Authentication enabled for Outlook web access.

Would using a self-signed certificate be a problem with BIS? Can forms based authentication be used with BIS?

Answer 1

yes a self-signed certificate is therefore a problem that BIS is acting like a sync-task executed by your cell providers system. This system doesn't trust your CA and thats why it stops with an error. Also the FBA is a problem. Automatic task (like the syncing from BIS) generally can't authenticate against a FBA website. Instead you have to use Standard Authentication.

You could create a new OWA VirtualDirectory and specify in the options Standard Authentications and publish this site with a trusted third-party certificate if you dont want take the FBA away from your general OWA site. But therefor you may need to publish this new OWA site with a new public IP address (I wouln't use non-standard ports for HTTPS to avoid losing 1 public IP), since it must be externally accessible to synchronize with BIS.

Hope that helps. Cheers Alex