Outlook Web Access
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Outlook Web Access (OWA) is a webmail service of Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0 and later, originally called Exchange Web Connect (EWC).
OWA is used to access e-mail, calendars, contacts, tasks and other mailbox contents when not having access to Outlook. Microsoft provides Outlook Web Access as part of Exchange Server to allow users to connect remotely via a Web browser. Some of the functionality in Microsoft Outlook is also available in this web "look-alike". The most important difference is that Microsoft Outlook lets you work with e-mail, calendars etc. even when you don't have a network connection, while OWA requires a network connection to function.
OWA can be used from Internet cafes and any other location that provides connectivity to the Web. The OWA interface available in Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 is available in two flavors. The "Premium" UI is rendered for Internet Explorer 5 and later. The "Basic" UI is rendered for other browsers.
The first component to allow client-side script to issue HTTP requests (XMLHTTP) was originally written by the Outlook Web Access team. It soon became a part of Internet Explorer 5.0. Renamed XmlHttpRequest and standardised by international bodies, it has since become one of the cornerstones of the Ajax technology used to build advanced web applications today (2006).
