Product Support Article
Article ID: PSA200300 

Article Topic:

How to setup Directory Assistant to allow users to modify their directory information over the Internet using Secure Sockets Layer and Windows Certificate Services on Windows NT Server 4.0 with IIS 4.0 or later.

Applies To:

Directory Assistant 5.0 for Exchange 4.0, 5.0, and 5.5

Conditions / Symptoms

Users can not access Directory Assistant when not connected to the corporate environment from the inside of the firewall.

Users can not see the Directory Assistant web pages or modify their information.

Issue / Cause

Directory Assistant is designed to work on a corporation's Internet Information Server.  In order to allow users to modify their directory information, the users must be able to access the server from the Internet. In addition to having user's be able to access the web server, the Directory Assistant service must be able to access the Internet Information Server to retrieve and write files to the DA subfolder within the web server.

Work Around / Fix

Install the Directory Assistant web pages on an Internet Information Server that has a public address. (Example:  www.MyCompany.com)  Since Directory Assistant requires a user to login if they have not already, the user must transmit their user account, domain and password over the Internet.  MADSolutions recommends installing at minimum, Secure Sockets Layer and Certificate Services to help minimize the risk of intercepting user account information.

Please refer to the Microsoft Knowledge base article: Q218445 for assistance on setting up SSL and Certificate services.

A common issue is: Error Message: The Certificate Server Did Not Start: Unable to Initialize the Database Connection.  See Microsoft's article: Q241060

For more information on Secure Sockets Layer and Certificate Services using Microsoft NT Server or Windows 2000 Server, please refer to your Microsoft NT Server/2000 Server support materials.