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Hotmail website and ISA Server

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by Member 30851234 1 view

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Hi all, We have a client running an sbs 2000 server. Whenever anyone tries to access the hotmail website, they can get to the main login page, but after logging in the mail page never loads it eventually times out, with the message that the gateway has lost the connection, we have the same problem for a few people who (for whatever reason) try to access the aol.com website for their personal mail. No other websites are affected and I have yet to find one besides these two that have the same result. Currently packet filters are set up to allow all ip traffic but these two sites still do not work, any help would be appreciated. Thanks

9 replies

by edrossius

Did you check that HTTPS and SSL were allowed through the ISA server ?

Note that after a modification about the way ISA is working, you have to restart ISA services and, just to be sure, you have to refresh ISA clients settings on PCs.

by Member 30851234

Thanks, but both are already allowed, and no other secure website is affected. Several people (myself included) have used online banking services, ordering etc. Also of note, yahoo works fine, its just aol and hotmail.

by curlergirl

I'm not sure that your problem has anything to do w/ISA at all. If you have no packet filters set up for specific ports and no policies set to prevent connection to certain IP addresses, then it's highly unlikely that the problem is w/ISA. Do you possibly have other software running either on your server or workstations that might interfere w/these websites? For example, if you have any software loaded to prevent banner ads and popups (such as AdSubtract or WebWasher), this can cause problems with sites like hotmail, aol and (as a matter of fact) Outlook Web Access. Usually you can customize the software so that it allows access to these particular sites. Hope this helps!

by Member 30851234

Found the problem, you came the closest and helped point me in the right direction. The upstream router had port filters enabled but no filters defined (which should have had no net effect) but disabling the filter all together solved the problem, ISA wasn't the culprit

by tictag

You could try:

1. Check IE Zones, reduce security to see if this is causing a problem.
2. Use Network Monitor to filtered-capture a Hotmail logon on a client connected before and after the ISA server (after will require some manual IP configuration but will also provide another layer of troubleshooting) and compare the capture differences.
3. Ensure no rogue packet level software is installed on ISA server. After installing Ethereal network sniffer (which uses the WinPCap packet level monitor) on a client, that client could no longer logon to Hotmail.

Mind you, it?s probably something a lot simpler?.

Regards,
Tictag.

by alin selicean

Hi Chris

There's an slight mistake in your post:

==== quote ===========================
Currently packet filters are set up to allow all ip traffic but these two sites still do not work, ...
==== end quote =======================

It should be protocol rules. With packet filters you can only control access to a specific protocol/port.

Have you checked your site & content rules ? What are your ISA logs telling you (activate logging for *all* fields before trying to diagnose anything using the logs) ? Do you use destination sets for allowing access to websites ? If yes, check your logs. They surely have the details you need.

Cheers,
Alin Selicean
MCSA, MCDBA, MCT

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