4 Protocol Examples

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The following topology is used in this example and is illustrated in the following diagram:

  • The Domain Name System (DNS) name of the mail server is mail.contoso.com.

  • The DNS name of the Web service computer is webservice.contoso.com. It has a valid SSL certificate.

  • Autodiscover web services are available at https://webservice.contoso.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml.

Client and server topology

Figure 1: Client and server topology

From executing the Autodiscover HTTP Service Protocol [MS-OXDISCO], the client has the following list of possible Autodiscover servers:

  • https://contoso.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml

  • https://webservice.contoso.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml

The Autodiscover service is only available on https://webservice.contoso.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml, but https://contoso.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml is configured to respond with an HTTP 302 Redirect response with the Location header set to "https://webservice.contoso.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml".

Client and server autodiscovery

Figure 2: Client and server autodiscovery

Step 1

The Autodiscover client is configured to use the email address user@contoso.com.

The client sends the Autodiscover request XML shown in section 4.1 via HTTP POST to the following URL: https://contoso.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml.

Step 2

The client is returned an HTTP 302 redirection to the following URL: https://webservice.contoso.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml.

Step 3

The client then reposts the request to this URL.

Step 4

The user's mailbox is on mail.contoso.com. The server returns the response XML shown in section 4.3.