Troubleshooting OWA when the contents frame displays "Loading" (280823)

RESOLUTION

1. To work around this behavior if the proxy server or firewall does not support HTTP-DAV verbs, use one of the following methods:
   • Method 1 Force OWA to treat Internet Explorer version 5.0 and later as earlier versions. For more information about how to force OWA to treat Internet Explorer version 5.0 and later as earlier versions, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

     296232 Empty Inbox when using Internet Explorer 5 and later to gain access to OWA

     For more information about HTTP-DAV and "rich" versus "reach" clients, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

     310594 How to hard code the reach client for Internet Explorer 5.0 and later

   • Method 2 Use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) on the OWA Web site. This step encrypts the HTTP traffic so that the firewall cannot determine what HTTP verbs are being sent.
   • Method 3 If the Exchange server is behind a computer that is running Microsoft Proxy Server 2.0, make sure that the proxy server publishes the Exchweb directory in addition to the Exchange directory. To do this, follow these steps:
     1. On the proxy server, start Internet Services Manager (ISM).
     2. Click Web Proxy, and then click Properties on the Action menu.
     3. On the Publishing tab, click to select the Enable Web Publishing check box.
     4. Click Send incoming requests to the local server.
     5. Add an exception to send requests for the following items, where FQDN is the registered mail exchanger (MX) resource record and Server is the NetBIOS name or the IP address of the Exchange computer. Add an exception to send requests for:
        • http://FQDN/Exchweb
          
          -to-
        • http://Server/Exchweb
     6. When you access OWA through Proxy Server, use the fully qualified domain name (FQDN). For more information about how to configure Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) behind Proxy Server, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

        207655 Setting up Web Publishing and OWA access through a proxy

2. To resolve this problem if a language is not specified in the Internet Explorer language preferences, follow these steps:
   1. Open Internet Explorer.
   2. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
   3. On the General tab, click Languages, click Add, click the language that you want to add, and then click OK two times.
   4. Close all open browser windows.
3. For more information about how to work around this behavior if a logic error has occurred in the server-side scripting code for Outlook Web Access, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   330220 Outlook Web Access does not display Inbox messages when a "Loading..." message is displayed

4. To work around this behavior if the proxy server has not been configured to publish the Exchweb directory, follow these steps:
   1. On the proxy server, start Internet Services Manager.
   2. Click Web Proxy, and then click Properties on the Action menu.
   3. On the Publishing tab, click to select the Enable Web Publishing check box.
   4. Click Send incoming requests to the local server.
   5. Add an exception to send requests for the following items, where FQDN is the registered MX record, and Server is the NetBIOS name or the IP address of the Exchange computer. Add an exception to send requests for:
      • http://FQDN/Exchweb
        
        -to-
      • http://Server/Exchweb
   6. When you access OWA through Proxy Server, use the fully qualified domain name (FQDN)>. For more information about how to configure Outlook Web Access behind Proxy Server, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

      207655 Setting up Web Publishing and OWA access through a proxy

5. To resolve this behavior if placeholder images appear where your toolbar buttons and icons typically appear, give the Authenticated Users group access to the Exchsrvr\Exchweb folder. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Start Microsoft Windows Explorer, and then locate the Exchweb folder.
      
      Note On a new installation of Exchange 2000, the default location of the Exchweb folder is C:\Program files\Exchsrvr\Exchweb. If you upgraded to Exchange 2000 from Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 or earlier, the default location of the folder is C:\Exchsrvr\Exchweb.
   2. Right-click the Exchweb folder, and then click Properties.
   3. Click the Security tab.
      
      Note If the Security tab is missing, you are not using an NTFS file system formatted drive. In this scenario, the OWA issue is not caused by incorrect permissions.
   4. Verify that the Authenticated Users group has the following permissions:
      • Read and execute
      • List folder contents
      • Read
   5. If the Authenticated Users group is not listed, click Add to add the Authenticated Users group to the list of users with permissions.
   6. After you have verified that the Authenticated Users group has the correct permissions, click OK.
6. The Exchweb virtual directory must have the Anonymous access option enabled. The Exchweb virtual directory must not restrict the IP address or the domain of users who must have access to OWA. To verify that the Exchweb virtual directory is configured correctly, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, click Programs, click Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Services Manager.
   2. Open the Web site that contains the Exchweb virtual directory. The default Web site is the default location for all the virtual directories that are used by OWA.
      
      Note If the Exchweb virtual directory is not listed on any part of the Web sites, and if the Exchange, Public, and Exadmin virtual directories are listed, you must manually add the Exchweb virtual directory. To do this, follow these steps:
      1. Click Start, click Programs, click Administrative Tools, and then click Internet Services Manager.
      2. Right-click the Web site, point to New, and then click Virtual Directory.
      3. When the Virtual Directory Creation wizard starts, click Next.
      4. Type Exchweb in the Alias box, and then click Next.
      5. Click the Browse button, locate the Exchsrvr\Exchweb folder, and then click OK.
      6. Click Next, and then click Next again to accept the default access permission.
      7. Click Finish.
      Verify that the following virtual directories are located in Exchweb:
      • Bin
      • Cabs
      • Controls
      • Help
      • Img
      • Views
      If any one of these folders are missing, repeat steps 1 through 7 to re-create the Exchweb virtual directory.
   3. Verify that the directory has the Anonymous access option enabled. To do this, follow these steps.
      
      Note If you have enabled the Integrated Windows Authentication option for the Exchweb directory, you receive a message that asks if you also want to apply the changes to the subdirectories. If you receive this message, click Select All and then apply the changes.
      1. Right-click the Exchweb virtual directory, click Properties, and then click the Directory Security tab.
      2. Under Anonymous access and authentication control, click Edit.
      3. Verify that the Anonymous access option is enabled, and then click OK.
      4. Under IP address and domain name restrictions, click Edit.
      5. Make sure that the Granted Access option is selected and that only the specific IP addresses or the domains that you want to restrict from the OWA site are in the exception list.
      6. Click OK two times.
   If the issue continues, verify that the Anonymous access option is configured correctly. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   187506 Required NTFS permissions and user rights for IIS 4.0

7. To resolve this behavior if the S/MIME update described in KB 883543 has been applied on an Exchange back-end server but has not been applied on a front-end server, install the S/MIME update on both front-end and back-end servers.
8. To resolve this behavior if the Require secure channel (SSL) check box is selected on the Exchweb virtual directory in IIS on the back-end Exchange computer, follow these steps:
   1. Open the IIS Management Console on the back-end Exchange 2003 server.
   2. Right click the Exchweb virtual directory under the default Web site, and then click Properties.
   3. Click the Directory Security tab.
   4. Click Edit in the Secure Communications area.
   5. Click to clear the Require secure channel (SSL) check box, and then click OK for all windows.