Very Novice Exchange Problems

[Charnondall]

Hi guys, i got a few questions that are gonna sound really silly but after spending hours looking for guides and FAQ's im at a loss. So i came to here, cause you guys will know.

Ok basically i im working with windows server 2003 and i installed exchange 2003 for the first time today having no past knowledge or anything about it. After figuring some of it out im still stuck on a few things;


1) Setting up exchange to recieve email? I have no idea how this works, my company currently uses pop3 for recieving email through outlook. Is it possible to have exchange recieve all the emails from the root account of my domain name and then route them to the various user accounts? Or even just as simple as how do i get my Exchange to recieve emails from a webmail server using pop3 or whatever will do the trick.

2) Mailboxes, ive created them for the user accounts on my domain but how do i access them on client computers? does it have to be through outlook? And if it is can say John Smith log onto one computer and see his emails then go to another computer in the office log on there and see his emails too without having to set up outlook for him on both computers?


These are my 2 problems. Basically i want my company to recieve all its emails on the Server then have the server split them up based on who they are for John, bill, mary whoever. And then said person can log on to a machine and access their mailbox and see their emails.

But i have no idea how to do that >< I hope you guys can help me, im tempted to go back to a workgroup setting lol =/

 

[Zelandakh]

We all have to start somewhere

1. Get your Exchange server on the Internet. Usually you have a private IP for Exchange, a reserved public IP on your firewall and a routing rule. Then you open ports 25 (email) and 80 (web). Then get your ISP to set the MX record for your domain to point at your public IP. Then make sure that your users all have email addresses. Then make sure you have an SMTP connector in Exchange System Manager (telnet to the mail server on port 25 and see if you get a response).

2. You need something called roaming profiles. Read up on it.

Workgroup will stop Exchange.

 

[jpm121]

Ugh. I'd hesitate to throw Exchange on the internet without some knowledge of what you're getting into. That's a good way to end up with (a) a compromised or mis-configured server and (b) lots of blacklist entries for your company.

How about baby steps? Set up Exchange and use it for internal e-mail while everyone keeps using POP3 for internet mail? Their POP3 mail could get added to their Exchange box via Outlook. Once you're comfortable with that, maybe set up something like Popcon to download everyone's POP3 mail to Exchange and SMTP to route outbound mail. After that if it makes sense you can throw the Exchange server out to the wolves!