Got an email from a client this morning complaining that he could not access his SBS 2003 Remote Web Workplace.

He was getting a 403.6 error -- IP Address rejected.

This didn't make any sense, since we want every IP address to be able to access the site and access to the site was fine earlier in the week.

Even after re-running the CEICW (Configure E-Mail and Internet Connection Wizard) a few times, I couldn't connect to the site from outside the local subnet.

The only thing that had changed recently was our swapping out of their existing router for a new Linksys WRT110.

I've set up enough SBS boxes to know which ports we want to open. So I clicked on the "Applications and Gaming" tab and put in the mappings for ports 25, 80, 110, 143, 443-444, 3389 and 4125.

However, I didn't put them where I thought I did.

When you click on the "Applications and Gaming" tab in a WRT54G router, you're taken to a "Port Range Forwarding" page.

Linksys has been doing itthis way for years.

Not so in the WRT110 series!

Now you're brought to a "Single Port Forwarding" page. It looks kinda similar:

But instead of there being a port RANGE, it's a single port. So when you put 443 in the first box and 444 in the second box of the WRT110, it MAPS 443 to 444, and that causes your SSL authentication to fail and your IP to be rejected. It doesn't work like you think. For that, you need to go here:

And if you were to put 443 and 444 in the boxes, then it all works...

So, the moral of the story is, make sure you're forwarding your ports correctly.

Just a quick post to trumpet the virtues of the Exchange Wireless Connector and how it's helped us at Cuyler Burk.

I chose my SmartPhone, a Treo 700w, because my previous PDA (a Dell Axim) was Windows Mobile based, and I was familiar with it. I also knew that Cuyler Burk, as an all Microsoft shop -- sure, we have a few Linux boxes (this blog is sitting on one) -- that Exchange 2003 would support my phone out of the box. I didn't realize how cool it is.

Now, any calendar item I add at the office shows up on my phone automatically. Any contact I add to my phone pops up in Outlook and I don't have to do anything. Mail just streams to the phone without me having to hit send/receive (like I do with my IMAP based mail accounts) and I can send to internal mailing lists, which is something I can't do through our internet gateway...

Over the past year many of our attorneys have gotten Windows Mobile based phones. Deployment takes only a few minutes -- copy and install the remote certificate and type in their username and password, and they're off. They love that their secretaries can schedule calls and appointments and they just shows up on their home screen as upcoming events.

To sweeten the deal, this was all bundled with Microsoft Small Business Server 2003, so we didn't have to spend an extra thousand bucks on the Blackberry Connector.

Plus -- if the phone is broken -- just get a new one... since everything is stored in Exchange, the new phone will automatically sync itself up and all your contacts, speed dials, appointments, etc. are right back to where you expect them. Gone are the days of losing your address book when you lost your phone.

So, if you're running SBS2003, I would highly recommend taking a look at a Windows Mobile based device for your next phone -- you might wonder how you lived without it. I know I do.

(This sounds a bit shill-y, but I can assure you I'm a big fan of this technology. Next time, I'll rant a little bit about my Treo 700w.)