XCCC: "Access Is Denied" Error Message When Accessing Folders in Outlook Web Access

When you click the Folders button and try to access public folders in Outlook Web Access (OWA), you may receive the following error message: You may also receive the following error after you click Folders in the OWA interface: NOTE: that after you click OK on the above error, the folder list is presented without the Public Folders.

You are using the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) in the URL. An example of a URL that uses the FQDN is: When you use an FQDN, the tree-view page is loaded from host servername.company.com, but the public folder location is set to servername on the page. The browser, therefore, interprets the access as being cross-domain. By default, Microsoft Internet Explorer security settings prevent cross-domain communication on the Internet.

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

There are three workarounds for this issue.

Method One

If you are using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), you can allow cross-domain access for the mailbox site in Internet Explorer by doing the following:

1. In Internet Explorer, click Internet Options on the Tools menu.
2. On the Security tab, click Trusted sites, and then click Sites.
3. Add your site to the zone.
4. Click Custom Level.
5. Under Miscellaneous/Access data sources across domains, click Enable.

Method Two

Deploy Exchange 2000 Server in a front-end and back-end environment. A front-end server accepts requests from clients, and then proxies them to the appropriate back-end server for processing. For information about deploying Exchange 2000 Server using front-end and back-end servers, please see the "Exchange 2000 Front-end and Back-end Topology" white paper available at the following Microsoft Web site:

Method Three

After you close the error dialog box, the folder tree list will function normally for the user's mailbox. To access public folders, open a Web browser, such as Internet Explorer, and type a URL directly to the public folders. The following is an example of such a URL:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Service Pack 1.