Exchange Server - The name on the security certificate is invalid or does not match

Asked By Just Aski

18-Feb-07 02:50 PM

Outlook 2007 against Exchange Server 2007 internal clients receive the
following message on startup and periodically thereafter:

*************

Information you exchange with this site cannot be viewed or changed by
others. Howerever, there is a problem with the site's security certificate.

The security certificate is from a trusted certifying authority.
The security certificate date is valid
The name on the security certificate is invalid or does not match the name
of the site.

Do you want to proceed?

*****************

How is this best resolved?

Thanks!

18-Feb-07 04:56 PM

By getting a certificate that has the correct name in it. The name in the cert
must exactly match the name that is typed into the IE address bar. e.g. if you
get a cert for "myserver" it will not match "myserver.mydomain.com", equally a
cert for "myserver.mydomain.com" will not match "myserver". Also the IP address
will match neither of the above. You may need 2 certs or to educate your users.

On Sun, 18 Feb 2007 11:50:27 -0800, Just Askin <Just

--
Dave Mills
There are 10 type of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.

18-Feb-07 05:13 PM

Thanks Dave.

Where in Outlook 2007 do I check the IE address bar? I will need to educate my
LAN users about that.

19-Feb-07 01:20 AM

On Sun, 18 Feb 2007 14:13:38 -0800, Just Askin


Sorry I have not started to use Outlook 2007 so cannot say exactly but the error
indicates that an access to the server is finding a cert with a name that does
not match the one used to access the server. Often this is because the cert has
the FQDN but the name used to access the server is the simple host name.


--
Dave Mills
There are 10 type of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.

19-Feb-07 01:55 AM

I think this: http://www.sembee.co.uk/archive/2007/01/21/36.aspx is
probably what you need.

19-Feb-07 08:41 AM

Thanks!

From the link:

message on your self generated certificate, which will not be trusted by the
client. It has been confirmed that Outlook does not check the trust status
when connecting to Exchange on the internal network."

So this behavior serves no actual purpose but does generate significant user
impact,  work,  and administration. One way or another it's broke. I smell a
hotfix in the works.

Thanks for your help mark.