Retrieving mail from MS exchange

[fortytwo]

Hi all,

At work I have to use an MS box for my desktop for a couple of reasons, the main one being that all mail is handled by an exchange server that pushes the mail each users PC in real time. It isn't IMAP or POP as far as I can tell but it acts *like* IMAP in the way it works. Does anyone know of a way of interfacing with the exchange server from my linux machine so I can collect my mail? I can't use POP or IMAP unfortunatly as it is 'company policy' for us to use this system. It is also 'company policy' to be obstructionist aswell :-|

Thanks
Will.
fortytwo
will@hellacool.co.uk

 

[Nogg]

Will, I have made the switch. I use mandrake 7.2 and use TKrat to connect to our company M$exchange server using IMAP.
This works well

Nogg

(don't worry about the world - I have tar'ed it onto a floppy!!)

 

[fortytwo]

The problem is that the company won't provide IMAP or POP accounts on the exchange server, it is some MS proprietary system and only outlook can handle it. I have resorted to trying to run my NT machine in VMware just to get my company email. Wine I have found can't really handle outlook well enough.
fortytwo
will@hellacool.co.uk

 

[ErikZ]

If you can come up with a business reason for using Linux, then you should be able to go to the company IT department and ask them to use a more universal mail server. After all, they are there to serve your IT needs.

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

I also have used m$/outlook under vmware and that works fine. I'm fairly certain there is nothing yet out there that operates with the native M$ (proprietary) APIs. Wine definitely supposed to support Outlook successfully but I can't claim to have tried myself. You might have a go using the codeweavers wine packaging which is supposed to be a bit easier to use -->

http://wine.codeweavers.com/

.

One other possible salvation is if your company are running the Exchange server web interface. Try to do a

http://ntserver/exchange

and see if you get a logon prompt. If so, the way it usually works is you enter the part of your email address before the '@domain.com' at the login prompt on the first screen then, when the pop-up appears, you logon using NTDOMAIN\userid and your domain password.

Hope this helps

 

[Bluecrack]

FYI

Exchange 5.5 has IMAP turned on by default. I'm currently running Exchange 5.5 on a Windows 2000 and have Redhat 7.1 on my laptop. I've used Evolution and Mozilla to connect to the Exchange server via IMAP. Both retreive my folders and work pretty well for sending email. I use Evolution on a daily basis and I'm pretty happy with it. The downside is that Microsoft is using a proprietary protocol for everything else so Calendaring and appointments don't work. When someone sends me a meeting request Evolution displays it as an email with a link to the webform.

My suggestion is try IMAP and see if it works.

Bluecrack

 

[Zantor]

There are a few solutions.

Check out

http://linuxpr.com/releases/4195.html

for Insight which is an Exchange client for Linux/Unix.

You could also talk to your NT Sysadmins about Outlook Web Access. This requires configuration on the Exchange Server and then allows full access to Exchange functionality via a Browser.

 

[fortytwo]

Thanks everyone. I will check out all the options. The Insight thing would be OK if you didn't have to pay for it

I am going to continue with the VMware route for the time being until I can get web access working. I can get the initial page for login at:

http://server/exchange

but it won't let me log in for some reason, it just keeps rejecting my password.
fortytwo
will@hellacool.co.uk

 

[MrTom]

from when i used exchange web frontend i remember it having a weird login thing. it may not be your password but the login name that's wrong. i used to have to do something like "users\mrtom" as a login name. ask in a windoze group.
you could also try being friendly to the exchange admin and get him to forward your mail to your linux box (maybe you can do this on your own as a user??). you'd have to run an smtp server on your linux box then tho, which may be a problem if you don't have a static IP.

 

[ifincham]

Hi,

On the bynari insight, when this was first talked about they gave the impression that it would work with the M$ mail api but in fact it transpires that this is not the case. So, compared to something like evolution, I'm not too sure what the advantages are if it just uses imap & pop3.

For the web interface it should work like this (using these examples ):

email : joe.user@user.com
ntdomain : ntdom1
nt userid : userj
nt password : pass1

At the first screen your would enter 'joe.user' and click on the 'click-here' link. When you get the enter network password dialog box you'd enter 'NTDOM1\userj' in the User Name field and 'pass1' in the Password field. This assumes that outlook is configured to use domain logon autentication which is normal.

Hope this helps