Update 10/4/2007: Since this post has been published, we've updated the Exchange 2007 Autodiscover Service whitepaper to include this information. Please consult the whitepaper for most up-to-date ...
Updated Jul 01, 2019
Version 2.0
Blog Post
They key to getting everything to work without having to connect to any additional virtual directories or to have any problems with unexpected name spaces is to get everything in AD configured properly.
For internal clients they are going to get their connection point exclusively from the Service Connection Point. So you need to set that value to autodiscover.domain.com. You need to make sure that you can resolve autodiscover.domain.com to the internal IP of the CAS server internally ... or your router allows you to loop back in using the public IP. ( this is set using the Set-ClientAccessServer )
Then you need to tell ALL of the virtual directories on the CAS server what their Internal URLs are so that Autodiscover can hand the correct URLs out to the 2007 client. You set those directories on a PER CAS server basis using the set-XVirtualDirectory cmdlet.
For External Client they are going to Exclusively connect to company.com or autodiscover.company.com. So again here the key is to just make sure that the Autodiscover service is handing out the correct URLs. You do this again with the set-XVirtualDirectory cmdlet.
If you are seeing that your outlook 2007 client is trying to connect to an unexpected URL (thus you are getting prompted) It is easy to determine where Outlook is getting that URL from.
1) Press and hold the ctrl key then right click on the Outlook icon in the task tray
2) Select the option "Test E-Mail Autoconfiguration"
3) Uncheck the two Guessmart options
4) Make sure the correct email address and password are entered
5) Hit Test
The Results tab will contain the information that the Autodiscover service returned to the client. The "Exchange RPC" section is for internal clients ... the "Exchange HTTP" section is for external clients.
The Log Tab will show you how that information was obtained; if it was obtained thru the URL (and what URL) or thru the SCP.
So just to recap using either one of these method if you are getting a prompt or being requested to connect to "cas.domain.local" then most likely we are getting a XML file back from Autodiscover indicating we need to connect to that URL; or the service connection point for the CAS server is still set to "cas.domain.local".
Hopefully John and David this has cleared things up.
-Matt
For internal clients they are going to get their connection point exclusively from the Service Connection Point. So you need to set that value to autodiscover.domain.com. You need to make sure that you can resolve autodiscover.domain.com to the internal IP of the CAS server internally ... or your router allows you to loop back in using the public IP. ( this is set using the Set-ClientAccessServer )
Then you need to tell ALL of the virtual directories on the CAS server what their Internal URLs are so that Autodiscover can hand the correct URLs out to the 2007 client. You set those directories on a PER CAS server basis using the set-XVirtualDirectory cmdlet.
For External Client they are going to Exclusively connect to company.com or autodiscover.company.com. So again here the key is to just make sure that the Autodiscover service is handing out the correct URLs. You do this again with the set-XVirtualDirectory cmdlet.
If you are seeing that your outlook 2007 client is trying to connect to an unexpected URL (thus you are getting prompted) It is easy to determine where Outlook is getting that URL from.
1) Press and hold the ctrl key then right click on the Outlook icon in the task tray
2) Select the option "Test E-Mail Autoconfiguration"
3) Uncheck the two Guessmart options
4) Make sure the correct email address and password are entered
5) Hit Test
The Results tab will contain the information that the Autodiscover service returned to the client. The "Exchange RPC" section is for internal clients ... the "Exchange HTTP" section is for external clients.
The Log Tab will show you how that information was obtained; if it was obtained thru the URL (and what URL) or thru the SCP.
So just to recap using either one of these method if you are getting a prompt or being requested to connect to "cas.domain.local" then most likely we are getting a XML file back from Autodiscover indicating we need to connect to that URL; or the service connection point for the CAS server is still set to "cas.domain.local".
Hopefully John and David this has cleared things up.
-Matt