I found a PC with Outlook 2003. Initial results are not good. I think I need 2007.

Not good how? I could be wrong, but I don't think 2007 will help you.

In the setup wizard when setting up "E-mail Accounts" I get "The connection to the MS Exchange Server is unavailable." I'm putting in what I believe is the correct server name. I’ve played with security settings and the like. At least it thinks for awhile before I get the error. Plus it is asking for things like a mailbox which I'm not sure of the name (tried a lot of different things).

Nothing in the setup mentions OWA.

Like I said, I can't really test this, so you may have to search around for some of these options, but on the setup page (if you already have the account set up, as opposed to being stuck in the account setup wizard, you should be able to modify the existing config from Tools→Account Settings) you should see something like "More Settings". Then, maybe under a "Connection" tab, there will be a checkbox for something like "Connect to Microsoft Exchange using HTTP". Then there should be more config options related to that (an "Exchange Proxy Settings" button, maybe?). You should be given a place to enter the URL you use to access it from your web browser. There are probably a bunch of other options that you might have to play around with.

I didn't see this behavior by default in Outlook XP, 2003 or 2007 connected to Exchange 2003. There was a + next to group lists, and clicking it would do what you said.

I will generally stand by and say Outlook does suck though, along with Exchange IMAP support. I'm temporarily using Entourage 2004 (ugg) until Snow Leopard comes out, due to our IMAP access being borked due to a still in progress 2007 migration. Waiting for September to pay $29 is much easier then forking out whatever MS charges for Office upgrades these days. After demoing Entourage 2008, I wasn't too impressed, though I could finally change the buttons in the toolbar.

I currently use Outlook 2003 at home to connect to work using OWA. It's actually kinda nice. Howto HERE

Hmm... Url tag broken?

Hm. Maybe you're right. I could swear I saw it doing this somewhere.

Oh, here's another good one. Despite the fact that you can assign permissions to Exchange mailboxes such that you can let other people access your email through Outlook, Exchange doesn't pass those permissions through the IMAP server, despite IMAP having a very similar permissions mechanism. Not that I even want to be able to modify the permissions through IMAP; I'd just like to be able to access the mailboxes I do have permissions to, and Exchange doesn't even show me that they exist via IMAP.

Agreed, Outlook as a mail client is terrible. That's why I included "+IMAP" in the reasonable answer, so people who care can use Evolution or Eudora or whatever for mail, but still do their calendaring in Outlook.

Peter

------------------------------------------------------
From: wfaulk
Sent: 7/24/09 4:24pm EDT
To: Empeg BBS
Subject: Re: Lotus Notes to OWA - Am I in Hell?

Exchange+Outlook+IMAP is a reasonable thing to hear as an answer

I disagree.
[...]
Outlook also means that everyone will be top-posting.

I understand, but Exchange's IMAP support is terrible, and I included a lot of examples of that. The only Outlook-specific stuff I listed is stuff you'll have to deal with on a regular basis as a recipient.

Your pseudo-Outlook-response actually makes that point for me. Do you really want to be dealing with emails that look like that all the time?

(Oh, and the "From" line should have shown "Bitt Faulk", not "wfaulk".)

Also, if you're not using Windows, good luck using Outlook as your calendaring client. You're stuck with OWA, which, since you can't use IE, is complete dreck. And if you are using Windows, I can't tell you how much fun it is to have a calendaring client that consumes a third of a gigabyte of RAM.

I just remembered another one. At some point, someone is going to use Outlook's polling feature. Not only does that require Outlook to respond to, Exchange doesn't even bother to include any sort of information about the poll — not even in headers — via IMAP, so it's impossible to even write a Thunderbird extension to deal with it.

But how many people care? (Not excusing any failings in Exchange or Outlook)

In some places I've worked, that's been a really good question all round. But particularly when it comes to mail clients, at least people whose job may involve posting to external mailing lists need to care.

Peter

As an end user, I can't say enough bad things about Lotus Notes. I can't say much good about Exchange and OWA, but it's a little better. It's still bad, but relative to Notes I think it's an improvement for the users.

Well after a week of being on vacation I'm back into this.

Thanks for the link. Seems easy to follow. However I can't get past the logon to verify my mailbox. After I put in my Domain\username and password it thinks for awhile and then fails.

I've gone into More Settings tons of times and tried about every combination.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Try leaving off the domain and backslash and just enter your username.

Yea, tried that. The one thing I didn't do (and I don't think I can) is add the PC into the domain.

It looks like the fetchexc program gets passed the authentication process so it seems like it should work.

Well it looks like the owaauth.dll file has been locked down.

I think I have the correct path (FBApath=/owa/bin/auth/owaauth.dll) setup. When I try to access this directory with a browser I get no access allowed message so something is there.

I was thinking about finding owaauth.dll, downloading it to my PC and pointing there. However if I get a compromised dll my emails might end up in China.

If you happen to have one I could try that would be great.

However I don't know if I can get the fetchexc to access it locally instead from the sever.

I wish I could remember how I go it to work. It WAS a pain in the ass, however. I do remember that.

Thanks anyway, I think it might be that RPC over HTTP Proxy is not setup on the server. Or the fact that the FQDN/path is..

https://mail.mycompany.com/owa

....and not....

https://mail.mycompany.com/exchange

There seems to be no way in Outlook to set the path so "/exchange" may be hard coded somewhere.

Oh well, back to Fetchexc...