Member Avatar for tonygarcia

My client is running SBS 2003. When it was setup, their IT guy ran CEICW and RWW and OWA worked fine. A few days later (after their old IT guy left) they called me and said they couldn't connect thru RWW or OWA. I tried and got the Welcome screen but when you clicked any link IE was not able to display webpage. I was able to remote in using RDP, however. I ran CEICW again and then was able to use RWW or OWA but only for a day.

They are running SBS2003 (year old install) and a single nic. They have a cable internet connection and are using a Linksys wireless router as a firewall.

Again, I can remote in using RDP but not the web browser. Running CEICW (even just clicking through and not making any changes) allows you to connect but after about a day it "resets" itself.

Any suggestions?

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Short follow-up that may save time for others: confirmed the fix was swapping the Linksys, which matches the symptom pattern described earlier. CEICW appearing to "fix" things for a day while local access and RDP remain OK usually points at the edge device (router/NAT) rather than Exchange/IIS. and were right to look at logs and services first — those rule out server-side failures — but the next step is always to treat the router as the prime suspect when external access is intermittent.

  • Reserve a static LAN IP (or DHCP reservation) for the SBS server and create manual port-forwards for 80/443 on the router (avoid relying on UPnP/auto-mapping).
  • Check router firmware, system/log pages and uptime for reboots, NAT table messages, or DHCP churn; update firmware or replace the device if it shows instability.
  • Look for double-NAT (ISP modem + consumer router). Put the modem in bridge mode or forward through the modem as needed.
  • Increase NAT/TCP idle timeouts and disable problematic features (SIP ALG, aggressive SPI) that can drop persistent HTTPS/ActiveSync sessions.
  • Use an external monitor or a simple continuous request from an outside host to correlate failure times with the router log.

If iPhone ActiveSync drops too, that often has the same root cause: NAT/session timeouts or flaky port mapping. Ensure SSL is valid, IIS keep-alive is enabled, and test ActiveSync over cellular vs WiFi to distinguish device vs network. For long-term reliability and security, use a business-class edge device, keep firmware and server patches current, and plan to migrate off SBS 2003 (unsupported). If the problem persists after replacing the router, capture router logs/packet traces and post the router model and firmware so others (including ) can help analyze.

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Member Avatar for sknake

You're killing me with the acronyms :P! You should at least say the full name once before dropping CEICW . I have never heard of that until I read this thread.

Anyway back to your question. When you click links inside of OWA does the page immediately fail or does it take a while to time out? And have you checked the Windows Event Log? I would imagine some IIS errors are probably being logged.

Also -- When the website is down externally can you RDP in to the machine and browse the site locally? http://localhost/owa

Member Avatar for tonygarcia

You're killing me with the acronyms :P! You should at least say the full name once before dropping CEICW . I have never heard of that until I read this thread.

Anyway back to your question. When you click links inside of OWA does the page immediately fail or does it take a while to time out? And have you checked the Windows Event Log? I would imagine some IIS errors are probably being logged.

Also -- When the website is down externally can you RDP in to the machine and browse the site locally? http://localhost/owa

LOL you are in the wrong business to not want acronyms!! :)

Sorry, I thought in this section everyone would know what CEICW is. For clarity's sake it is Configure E-Mail and Internet Connection Wizard, RWW is Remote Web Workplace and OWA is Outlook Web Access.

The link fails immediately and yes I can access it locally. No IIS errors are being logged.

Member Avatar for HoustonIT

What do the logs say? Seems like I've had this problem before and it was related to a service failing and not restarting.

Member Avatar for Member #748099

I have the same problem and the iPhone users keeps losing their ActiveSync connection too. Did you find a solution?

Member Avatar for tonygarcia

I have the same problem and the iPhone users keeps losing their ActiveSync connection too. Did you find a solution?

Actually I did. In my case it was the router. Resetting the Internet Connection Wizard on the server would fix it for a day or so but then the router would quit forwarding for some reason. I replaced the router and all has worked for a couple weeks now.

Can't help you with the ActiveSync and iPhone issue. Sorry.

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