newbie exchange server

[rdgordon]

We currently run outlook and have it point to a pop server to download mail. We have about 25 user email accounts.

Can i install an exchange server at my site and somehow configure it to not be the mail server but have it point to the POP servers and have it either download the mail to itself and then have each individual user connect via outlook to the exchanger server and download their individual mail or some variation of such...

We arn't ready to bring the mail "in-house" but someday we will. Right now we're happy to let someone else do that. The only reason we want to install exchange server is to take advantage of group calenders and such...

Thanks

 

[wallsa]

In Outlook you can have an exchange account and a POP3 account in the same profile. The simplest way to get what you are describing is setup a mailbox for each of your users in Exchange, then when configuring their e-mail on Outlook add the exchange account and change their delivery location from the pst it is pointing to now to the new exchange mailbox. I know in Exchange 5.5 there were some POP3 connectors where the download would take place at the server layer, instead of the client layer, to optimize bandwith and e-mail access, never used them but knew they were available. I'm not sure if 2000 has similar connectors, but besides that, you can still use the clients to deliver the mail for you.

 

[gurner]

This is a good question, personnally i have never tried it.

I do know that you can configure your server 'as a POP3' server in DOMAIN(Exchange)>Administrative Groups>SITEname>Servers>SERVERname>Protocols>POP3 (right click)

Or alternatively, in a POP3 configuration you 'Send' via SMTP and 'Retrieve' via POP3

You could configure your 'Default SMTP Virtual Server' to send to your ISP via DOMAIN(Exchange)>Administrative Groups>SITEname>Servers>SERVERname>Protocols>SMTP (right click) in Properties>Delivery>Advanced>Smart host (smtp.yourISP.co.uk?)

You will need to ask the ISP if your Mail server has to issue or request HELOs or ETRN/TURNs for mail retrieval.

Saw one site that had to configure 2 SMTP Connectors in DOMAIN(Exchange)>Administrative Groups>SITEname>Routing Groups>SITEname>Connectors that for Outbound mail it has to send a HELO rather than the default EHLO and to retrieve it has to issue a ETRN/TURN to collect.

These were both, however, SMTP connectors, i don't know whether you can configure one for POP3?

There appears to be support for SMTP, X400, MSMAIL, CCMAIL, Lotus NOTES, Groupwise and Other (?)

Although you may be able to retrieve POP3 mail using an ETRN request from an SMTP Connector (ask your ISP if they support it)

ETRN (Extended Turn) is an extension to the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) that allows an SMTP server to send a request to another SMTP server to send any e-mail messages it has. Typically, SMTP is used with two other protocols, Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) or Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), to request messages from a server because SMTP by itself cannot request mail to be sent.

HELO is defined by EHLO (Extended Hello) messages that are sent by Microsoft Exchange 5.5 and 2000 by default when starting an ESMTP conversation with another server. There are a few, although not many, servers that cannot handle ESMTP for inbound messages and can only accept mail sent via standard SMTP. A server that cannot handle EHLO will generally respond with a 550 error message with the descriptor "Unknown command" when the EHLO is sent.

If you are administering an Exchange server and you find that you cannot send mail to a given domain because of this problem, it is possible to set Exchange to send mail using HELO (standard SMTP) rather than EHLO (ESMTP).

Hope this isn't too much, i think you need to talk to your ISP.