Allowing AOL

At great risk to my own credibility and against my own firm belief that AOL should not be used in a corporate network I submit this blog entry. The fact of the matter is that AOL is still being used by small businesses and some individuals in those businesses will not budge from it no matter how convincing the argument. So for those with clients that resemble ostriches here are some notes and kb links for how to go about making AOL work behind an ISA server. Follow these notes but never give up the good fight to get AOL off your corporate networks.

TechNet: AOL 9 through ISA 2004
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/isa/2004/plan/aol.mspx

KB: AOL6 through ISA 2000
http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=297479


Amy's notes on AOL7 & AOL8 through ISA2000

Create a Destination Set

1. Open ISA Management
2. Expand
3. Expand Policy Elements
4. Right click on Destination Sets, choose New, then Set
5. Give the set a name you'll remember like To AOL, press Next
6. Click Add, Click Destination and put in *.aol.com. This will provide access to all of the AOL domains. Click Finished.

Create a Client Address Set

7. Right click on Client Address Sets, choose New, then Set
8. Give the sat a name you'll remember like AOL Users, click Next
9. Click Add and add the IP address range in which your AOL users reside. Click OK, then Finished.

Create a Site and Content Rule

10. Expand Access Policy
11. Right click on Site and Content Rules, select New and then Rule
12. Enter a name for the rule that you'll remember like AOL, press Next
13. Click Allow, press Next
14. Click Allow Based on Destination, press Next
15. In the drop down box for Apply this Rule To choose Specified Destination Set and choose the destination set that you created above. Click Next, click Finish.

Pull it all together by creating a Protocol Rule

16. Right click on Protocol Rules, choose new, Rule
17. Enter a name for the rule that you will remember like Allow AOL, click Next
18. Click Allow, click Next
19. In the Apply this Rule To drop down box click All Protocols. This will allow all of the components of AOL access to any protocol configured on the ISA Server. Click Next.
20. Apply a Schedule if you wish, click Next
21. Click Specified Computers, click Next
22. Click Add, choose the client set that you created above, click OK, then click Next and Finish.