Topic: user panel and remote access

[Paperguides]

I have a client with 5 offices using SME server at the HQ for their mail.  The offices are not linked by VPN so users outside the HQ were using

http://www.xxx.org.uk/user-panel

to make changes to their vacation message, passwords etc.  

A new web site has been built that requires a MS infrastructure so it has been moved to an external host. Obviously using www no longer works so  I thought that mail.xxx.org.uk would work but it doesn't.

I get a 404 error

Not Found
The requested URL /user-manager was not found on this server.

How can I make this work again?

TIA,

Tony
Office IT PLus Ltd

[bpivk]

Well your requests are taken to the new M$ server so this is normal and works like it should.

You should check your M$ user manual for routing this one adress to SME because this is not SME realted.

[Paperguides]

I don't think this is related to the M$ server as pinging mail.xxx.org.uk responds as the SME server.  THe 404 is therefore from SME.

Tony
Office IT Plus Ltd

[Confucius]

Tried it already with the IP-address instead of the www.domain.tld ?
Maybe cloaking is another option.

It has indeed nothing to do with M$. It's a DNS issue in combination with SME's security.

Harro

[Paperguides]

Using 217.146.123.xxx produces the same result as mail.xxx.org.uk.

Tony
Office IT Plus Ltd

[bpivk]

Off course it does. As i said... you get the M$ server.

I don't think this is related to the M$ server as pinging mail.xxx.org.uk responds as the SME server. THe 404 is therefore from SME.

Where do you ping it from? LAN?

[Paperguides]

The M$ server is a completely different IP address 82.96.92.xxx.

All the users successfully collect their mail from mail.xxx.org.uk which MUST be on the SME server.

I am pinging from my LAN.

Tony
Office IT Plus Ltd

[jonic]

Do you have port 80 forwarded to the new ip? Or the change is only at dns level (pointing www.yourdomain.tld to this new ip)?

Anyway try using https://.../user-manager - this should work even if port 80 is forwarded.

[bpivk]

All the users successfully collect their mail from mail.xxx.org.uk which MUST be on the SME server.

This doesn't tell you anything because sme listens to that port and M$ isn't configured to so SME intercepts mail without a problem.

Try (just for a test) disabling and forwarding port 80 to sme and see what happens.

The M$ server is a completely different IP address 82.96.92.xxx.

So you have two WAN lines? Not one ?
Then it's a SME server issue.

[shell]

can you confirm the follwoing
www.xxx.org.uk should point to 82.96.92.xxx and
mail.xxx.org.uk should point to 217.146.123.xxx

note: this will need to be checked externally as when you r on the LAN pinging the www address and the mail address will give you results in the local range - with non-routable IP's - ie 192.168.0.1

are you using 2 separate connections externally (physically)?  if not then the port forwarding suggestions on your router are definitely where you need to be looking.

if you are on two separate connections, and both pinging mail. and mail collection is working as expected from the WAN then it might simply be that user-manager is not setup to be available externally.  isn't this the default?

have you tried making a (or do you have any existing) externally available ibay?  or you could try /webmail if you have this available externally.  if this is available externally from mail.xxx.org.uk/testibay then the  user-manager issue is specific to this page, and isn't dns related.

[bpivk]

I am pinging from my LAN

This won't get you anywhere. If you ping from lan you get your first server (SME) and that's why your server-manager works from lan. You should ping from wan because that is the line that gives you problems and that is intercepted by M$ server.

If you have two lines then check what shell said. Or just use VPN and SSH.

[Paperguides]

I think I didn't fully describe the environment and this has confused things.

1)  All the testing has been done from my LAN not the customers.

2)  While I do have a VPN connection to the customer I was trying to connect via the Internet.

3) SME server is set up a private server only.  I have always used the Firewall in the ADSL router.

4)  I've solved my problem!!!  I did a re-install of the userpanel rpm's.  I probably should have done this first but I was going round in circles with my testing.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions. They all helped me get things clear in my head.  

One of the problems of being a one-man-band is there is no-one to bounce ideas off.

Tony
Office IT Plus Ltd
Wokingham, UK