RPC over HTTP is suddenly broken?

I've been using RPC over HTTP successfully for many months now. Half a
dozen users, including myself, have Outlook 2003 installed at home and have
it configured to connect to our mailboxes without even prompting us for
credentials. It's wonderful. After applying all the components of SP1 for
SBS 2003 several weeks ago, I tested RPC over HTTP and still had no problem
with it.

Cut to a few days ago.

One of my users was having an authentication problem with his PocketPC when
trying to synch with the server over its wireless connection via OMA . In
attempting to fix the problem, I played with SSL and security settings for
OMA in IIS, and finally re-ran the Configure Email and Internet Connection
Wizard on the SBS, to no avail. In the end, his problem was finally solved
by simply deleting and re-entering his password in his Pocket PC. (Geez.)

Ever since then, RPC over HTTP has not worked. An Outlook 2003 client
attempting to connect via HTTP is prompted for credentials. The title bar
says "Connecting to sbsservername.domain.local". The "User name:" field is
pre-populated with "DOMAIN\username", and the "Password:" field is blank.
When a correct password is entered, it's rejected as though incorrect.

The clients are correctly configured, but the server configuration has
apparently changed.

One other interesting note; Remote Web Workplace now has issues for users
who do not already have the ActiveX control installed. A dialog box pops up
saying: "This portion of the Remote Web Workplace requires the Microsoft
Remote Desktop ActiveX Control. Your broswer's security settings may be
preventing you from downloading ActiveX controls. Adjust these settings,
and try to connect again."

My initial thought on this was that the Internet Explorer security settings
being configured via Group Policy had gone awry. I say this because in
applying SBS SP1, the only step I forgot was to export my Group Policy
configuration before applying the Service Pack components. Some settings
were reverted to SBS defaults, and I've been changing them back as I notice
them. The reason I don't think this is the real cause of the problem is
this: it even happens to computers at home that aren't members of the
domain. Lowering security settings to as low as possible does not correct
this problem.

Not sure how best to proceed at this point...any help appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Bryan


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