XWEB: Attachments Cannot Be Opened in OWA 5.5 SP3

ID: Q252494

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Exchange Server, version 5.5 SP3

SYMPTOMS

After Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 3 (SP3) is applied to your Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) server, you cannot open many attachments, such as Microsoft Office documents, when you access OWA from an Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 browser. When you attempt to open an attachment, you are prompted for a username and password. What happens subsequently depends on whether you have administrator privileges on the OWA server:

If you have administrator privileges, you browser opens a blank window instead of the attachment.

If you do not have administrator privileges, you keep getting prompted for credentials until you cancel.

However, you are able to open attachments with the following file extensions: *.gif, *.htm, *.html, *.jpg, *.txt and *.xbm.

CAUSE

Service Pack 3 modified the Webdata\CountryAbbreviation\Attach\Read.asp file so that Internet Explorer 5 can render certain file types that it considers to be "inline" (or in native format). However, a logic mistake causes all file types to be passed to Internet Explorer 5 as inline. Because Internet Explorer 5 cannot process non-native formats inline, you receive the errors described in the "Symptoms" section.

RESOLUTION

A supported fix that corrects this problem is now available from Microsoft, but it has not been fully regression tested and should be applied only to systems experiencing this specific problem. If you are not severely affected by this specific problem, Microsoft recommends that you wait for the next Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 service pack that contains this fix.

To resolve this problem immediately, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the fix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services phone numbers and information on support costs, please go to the following address on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

Component: OWA

File name	Date
Read.asp	January 20, 2000

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 3.

Additional query words: in-line *.doc *.xls *.mdb *.ppt IE IE5

Keywords : exc55sp3
Version : winnt:5.5 SP3
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbbug