Outlook Web Access

Outlook Web Access (OWA)

Microsoft Outlook (OL) is a separate program from the Microsoft Outlook Express (OE) program that comes bundled with Microsoft Windows.

OE can only be used for email purposes to connect to mail servers of different types, such as POP3 and IMAP servers.

On the other hand, OL offers much more facilities than OE. These include calendaring, shared task management and so on. Most importantly, OL allows connection to Microsoft Exchange Servers for groupware applications. Most corporate organisations that run Microsoft Exchange Servers provide OL licenses for their users.

For accessing emails, calendars and groupware applets while on the go, Microsoft provides an add-on facility for Exchange servers to allow users to connect remotely via Web browsers. This service, that shows an OL style view in browsers is known as Outlook Web Access.

Complete details are available on Microsoft's Web site at [1].

OWA can used from Cyber Cafes and any other location that provides connectivity to the Web. For security, the OWA server component may be installed on a server in the DMZ to protect the main Exchange Server itself.