Exchange 2003 OWA Forms Based Authentication Problem.

My exchange 2003 OWA was working perfect until recently. I had a problem with the receipient update services not updating the GFI Faxmaker address. After fixing this, I applied SP1 once agian and thats where I started getting this wierd problem. When I try logging on to OWA with forms based authentication enabled and type the username and password, I am redirected to a frame (supposed to show the mailbox and contents) which gives me the login screen in both frames. But when I disable Forms Based Authentication, I can log on without any problems, with or without SSL enabled.

Please note that the MAPI clients connect to their mailboxes through RPC over HTTP and thats working perfect.

For reference:
DefaultAppPool runs under Network Service identity
ExchangeApplicationPool runs under Local System and the rest as needed.

Tried configuring Exchange Folder with Basic, Integrated security and different combinations, but of no use.

If someone has experienced this problem, please suggest me a solution and I'd be thankful.

It sounds like you have done your homework with this problem.  I was wondering if you were logging in with DOMAIN\User or just User.  There is a known issue if you do not:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=820378

You didn't mention if this was with just one mailbox or just one client, if that is the case try using another computer to access OWA.  Also if you haven't already you might want to clear your IE cache and downloaded components.

If you have already tried this with multiple clients and have cleared the IE cache.

Make sure the default domain in authentication is set to "\" and that basic authentication is enabled.

If you have more information, please let us know

Thanks Jstidley for your reply.

Yes, I have done everything possible on this. Tried logging in with DOMAIN\Username and Username@Domain. As I mentioned, it works perfect with Forms Based Authentication is disabled.

I even tried creative the exchange virtual directory as mentioned in KB817379
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;817379 and article 883380 http://support.microsoft.com/?id=883380 with no luck.

No matter I try with any mailbox or from any computer (internal or external) the result is the same.

Someone please help!!!

When you are prompted again for logon credentials in the frames and you logon again what happens?  Do you get any errors in the event logs?

You are running the Exchange folders in the ExchangeApplicatio pool and it is running as local system?

You may want to reinstall E2k3 and then re-apply SP1.

When I key in the credentials in the frames, the error messages I get depends on the security configurations in IIS. Mostly they are security based. None of the configuration change makes the forms based authentication work. And there are no events logged on in event logs.

Yes Exchange folders are running in ExchangeApplication Pool under local system.

Isn't there any other way than reinstalling E2K3? What if a reinstall doesn't rectify this problem? I would prefer to switch off forms based authentication which works perfectly, rather than reinstalling and messing around with a live server which otherwise works without any problem.

Reinstalling may not be as bad as you think.  You just run setup.exe and choose "reinstall" and then run the service pack again and reboot.

Before doing that though, take a look at the Exchange Server Setup Log in the root of your C: drive and see if there were any errors when you originally installed it.