Inspiration

Well,  I guess for me it's the quieter time, just mulling over that causes things to snap into focus at 1am,

The problem I'd been working on was a new area for me - WebDAV to inject appointments into calendars in Exchange 2003 server.  The problem was that the virtual server in the IIS (internet information server on the Windows/Exchange server) has to be configured in a particular way to allow Outlook Web Access to work (over HTTPS and not HTTP).

But OWA (and therefore the WebDAV programming to the exchange folder structure) will not work if you do not address the server with the URL that the certificate has been used for. This means you need to program to the URL of OWA.DOMAIN.CO.UK or whatever.  However internal network resolution will point that to your ISA box so that users can access OWA inside and outside the network with the same URL.

Inspiration - create a duplicate virtual directory with a different name and use different authentication methods (HTTP only) and therefore you can use the IP direct and not the URL, and bypass all this crud.  A quick note to myself at 1am (that's why I keep a pen with a torch in it by the bed), and within 30 minutes the next morning job done.  Hurrah.

NEXT!