Network security is a big concern nowadays, and administrators make every effort to keep the bad guys out of their network, for that reason they block almost every port on their network firewalls, leaving only port 80 and 443 open.

Microsoft in improving exchange server and outlook availability makes it possible to connect to a exchange server using outlook client from anywhere in the world, as long as you have Internet connection. I’m not talking about OWA here (Outlook Web Access) I’m talking of using the full Outlook client over the Internet.

You need to get some basic information about exchange server and certification installation from your network administrator in order to setup outlook to use the RPC protocol. if you already have this information, lets proceed with the configuration. RPC over HTTP is supported on Windows XP SP2, SP3, and Windows Vista, and on Outlook 2003 and up.

To setup RPC over HTTP on windows XP using Outlook 2007 click on Start and then click on Control Panel then click on the Mail applet in control panel.

The mail setup window should show up:

Mail Seup - Outlook

Click on E-mail Accounts..then on Account Settings, click on New:

Account Settings

The new E-mail Account Setup should come up:

New E-mail Accounts

Click on “Manually configure server settings or additional server type. then click Next:

Select Microsoft Exchange on the next screen. click Next. On the next screen, enter the name of the exchange server, and the Username:

Enter e-mail accounts settings

After you have entered the info, click on More Settings. Click on the Connection tab on the Microsoft Exchange window:

Microsoft Exchange

Check the dial box to connect to Microsoft Exchange using HTTP and then click on Exchange Proxy Settings.

The Microsoft Exchange Proxy Settings windows should come up:

Microsoft Exchange Proxy settings

Check Connect Using SSL Only if your organization exchange server is configured for SSL socket using the 443 port. otherwise uncheck it. enter the information about your exchange server as the screen shot below:

Exchange server proxy settings

As I advised at the beginning of the tutorial, you should get this information from your network administrator to get it right, because every server is configured differently.

After you have enter all the information, close out of all the windows, and restart Outlook 2007. Your Outlook 2007 should work from anywhere now.

Post any questions you might have in the comment sections.