Absolute newbie - Panther on SBS 3000 windows server

[Danster]

I'm trying to connect a Mac OS X Panther (dunno how to find the exact OS version). I'm an abolsute novice on Macs, although I've been working on Windows PC since version 2.x!! (15 years-ish).

I've got TCP/IP running and the Mac is a DHCP client. It has obtained a valid IP address.

Where to from there? I need to connect the email client on the Mac to Exchange 2003 on the Small Business Server 2003. Each time (on the Mac) I try to configure the email client on the Mac, it says it can't find the Exchange server name.

If I use Safari to try to connect to OWA on the Exchange server, it also can't find the server name. Must be something else which needs doing/installing but I just have absolutely no idea.

I installed Mac services on the Windows server, but if protocol is TCP/IP then not sure if Mac Services required on Windows server.

cheers

Danster

 

[Danster]

Sorry, found the OS version. Its a G5 running OS 10.3.4 Is that Panther?

 

[Danster]

And something else...
I can connect Safari to OWA via IPaddress/Exchange.

I'm suspecting that the IP address isn't resolving to hostname. On a Mac, I couldn't find the ARP table, DNS table or find out how to put in a static host name. I think that may help the Mac mail client find the Exchange server.
Further ideas?

 

[Zelandakh]

You should not need a hosts file if the PCs don't. Under System Prefs, Network, manually add the DNS servers and see if that cures it.

Once Safari can get to OWA, email should work too. Mind you, bin the Safari icon and use IE instead...

<signature sold. new owner moving in shortly>

 

[ObviousTroll]

Danster - is the SBS box providing DNS?

To see if you're getting DNS service to the Mac, open a terminal window (/Applications/Utilities/Terminal) and type "host xxxx" where "xxxx" is the name of your SBS box.

Another possibility is that the Mac doesn't have the same domainname as the SBS server so it isn't doing the lookups properly. Try specifying the fully qualified host name for the Exchange server ("sbs.mycompany.com")

Finally, if you absolutely have to, the hardcoded hosts file is in "/etc/hosts" - you will need root access to alter it, and I'd recommend finding a book on UNIX system administration to learn the ins and outs of such work.