I'm just in the final stages of upgrading from Exchange 2007 to 2013. I'm dismayed to find that OWA 2013 doesn't have the Remote File Server access feature that the previous version did. Is there an off-the-shelf alternative we can use so that internal file shares can be accessed from a browser on the internet? SharePoint maybe?

Hi Andy,

As you mentioned, this feature is no longer available in Exchange 2010 and Exchange 2013. For your reference:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998911(EXCHG.140).aspx

Why not use public folder?
Public folders are designed for shared access and provide an easy and effective way to collect, organize, and share information with other people in your workgroup or organization. Public folders help organize content in a deep hierarchy thats easy to browse. Users will see the full hierarchy in Outlook, which makes it easy for them to browse for the content theyre interested in.
Public folders can also be used as an archiving method for distribution groups. More details about Public folder, please refer to:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj150538(v=exchg.150).aspx

Best Regards,
Allen Wang

• Proposed as answer by Allen_WangJFMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Sunday, February 08, 2015 8:29 AM
• Marked as answer by Mavis_HuangMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Sunday, February 08, 2015 11:54 AM
• Unmarked as answer by AndyChips Wednesday, February 11, 2015 8:29 AM

Hi Allen,

Sorry for the late reply. Been away. Thanks for your suggestion but Public folders are not the answer, I'm afraid. We need OWA to access SMB file shares like Exchange 2007 used to do.

A.

Did you ever find a solution to this?

Nope. Sorry.

Poor, isn't it?

Public folders is the option in 2010 or 2013, if that doesn't fit your need then you have to go to either VPN, work folders, or direct access. This was a nice feature in 2007 and the dialogs were still in 2010 but didn't do anything.

SharePoint can work as a document library and I believe you can still map them to a drive letter, you could in sharepoint 2010, I haven not tried in 2013.

I don't work for Microsoft but I think it opened to many security holes for them to patch, it was basically tunneling smb through https which made access simple but maybe abuse simpler.