Mobile Access to Exchange Mail...?

[TechCarnivore]

Hi Gang,
Here is my problem. Per the Microsoft Newsgroups -by design, Outlook tasks lose functionality when sent via POP email. Specifically when tasks are sent via POP mail my end users cannot accept or decline, they can only look at the task and nothing more.

Evidently this is where exchange comes in. When sending tasks via exchange they do not lose funtionality. My problem is I have users that work in the field via a wireless broadband connection on their laptop & through blackberry devices.

How can I provide my mobile users with access to their exchange mailbox while maintaining functionality of tools like shared calendars and tasks?

Based on my experience we have 2 choices.
1) A VPN. Which we have in place through RRAS. But something more simple, for the end user would be nice.

2) RPC over HTTP. Which I'm hesitant to try as I've never implemented it previously and cannot find a tutorial that I completly understand.

We're of course using SBS 2003/Exchange 2003 and Win XP Clients.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[58sniper]

OWA?

RPC is still the best option.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[dotobi]

For your laptop users, they could use Outlook Web Access.

On your internal network, using internet explorer, you should be able to browse to

https://<i>yourserver</i>/exchange

where you will see the Outlook Web Access logon screen.

For users to be able to access this from externally, it could just be a case of configuring your firewall/router properly…

If you have just one network card in your server then just forward HTTPS traffic (TCP Port 443) to your server.

If you have 2 network cards and your server acts as the internet gateway for your network then you will have to configure the router as above and configure the server to allow HTTPS traffic in:
Administrative Tools >
Routing and Remote Access >
<i>ServerName</i> >
IP Routing >
NAT/Basic Firewall >
Right-Click on your Router LAN >
Properties >
Services & Ports Tab >

You may also need to set the Outlook Web Access page to allow external traffic in:
Administrative Tools >
Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager >
Local Computer>
Default Website >
Right-Click on Exchange >
Properties >
Directory Security Tab >
IP Address & Domain Restrictions (click edit...)>
and check that "By Default, All computers will be Granted Access".

Provided this is all OK, your external users would just need to browse to

https://<i>your_external_ip_address</i>/exchange

and they would have all the functionality found in Outlook Web Access.

Regarding blackberry users… Blackberries can be fully integrated with exchange but they need to be on a corporate contract. This way, your providers can send you software that syncs the Blackberry devices with your exchange server. However, this is an expensive approach from what I can tell.

Call your Blackberry contract provider’s tech support and find out your options. Tell them you want to have full integration with your exchange server.

NOTE: You can contact your domain's hosting company and setup office.yourdomain.com so external users would simply have to goto "

https://office.yourdomain.com/exchange".

OR you could set up a redirection page at

http://yourdomain/mail.

NOTE: With the Outlook Web Accress setup I've mentioned above, external users would get a warning about your servers cetificate, which they can ignore. However you can set up your server with a valid certificate, so please ask if you need to know how.

Thanks

Thanks