jassyca
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quote:
ORIGINAL: wizzler
I'm quite new to exchange and outlook but my encounter with it has been great sofar. I use it at work but also on my "own" server.
Anyways... my question is what do I have to configure to make it possible to create a connection with my outlook client to an exchange server? Atm I'm working with smtp and it's not as powerful as it can be!
heh.. well, you did say you were a newbie.
A quick "internet basics" lesson: SMTP is just for sending mail. It's not for reading mail. SMTP (and ESMTP) is just a protocol that allows one email server to give messages to another email server.
A "protocol", by the way, is just a way of formalizing the communication steps. For instance, there's a "protocol" that you have to follow for sending your parents a Christmas card. The "protocol" for sending a Christmas card would something like: put a Christmas card into an envelope, seal the envelope, put the right kind of stamp on it in a particular corner of the envelope, put your parents' address on the envelope in a particular part of the envelope (so the postman knows where the card is going) and your address on the envelope in a particular corner (so the postman knows where to return the card if there's a problem) and, finally, place the envelope into your mailbox so your mailman can pick it up or drop it off at your post office. If you don't follow the "protocol", there's a chance your Christmas card won't arrive at your parents' house, right? So a "protocol" just something that defines the communication steps between computers so they are able to smoothly communicate with one another. Just like there's a protocol for addressing a snail-mail envelope.
Anyway, SMTP and ESMTP are just protocols for sending email and they are not used by someone who wants to read an email that was sent to them.
In order for you to read messages that your email server has for you, there are a couple of protocols that you might be able to use but not all of them might be turned on for your server. POP3, for instance, would be a way for someone to read their email by downloading their email messages, that is: removing the messages off of their email server to their local computer so they could read them using an email client (such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Eudora, etc..) This method allows you to read your messages even though you cannot connect to your email server. But your Exchange administrator might not have POP3 enabled. It's not enabled on my server, for instance, because we don't want people downloading and leaving their messages all over hither and yon.
Another protocol that you can use to read messages would be IMAP4. This protocol allows you to read your email yet leave it on your email server. Downside is: if you can't connect to your email server, you can't read your messages. I don't think I've ever run into a work environment where the email administrator turned off IMAP4 but I suppose it's possible. Just not very likely. Chances are good, however, that IMAP4 is what your Exchange administrator is using to allow you and your fellow employees to read your work email.
Now, as to the configuration of your email client, well that's up to your Exchange administrator to tell you. If you happen to know the name of the Exchange server, you might be able to configure Outlook to find your mailbox. Especially if you know your Active Directory logon name and if that logon name is the same as your email mailbox name. Otherwise, we're left with just guessing in the dark.
quote:
Also is it even possible? I've heared something about HTTP connection but what I do with my email account from work is I have to connect via their VPN to get access to my mailbox.
It should be possible to connect from an external address right?
Not necessarily. Because SMTP, POP3, IMAP4 and HTTP all use different ports it therefore also depends if there's a firewall between your servers and the outside world (which is quite likely given the dangerous nature of the internet for servers that are just shoved out there all nekkid). Okay, another not-so-quickie internet lesson: A "port" is a way for the other side to know what it is that you want to do. HTTP is port 80, HTTPS (secure web) is port 443, SMTP / ESMTP is port 25, POP3 is port 110, so on.
Suppose I have a server that does multiple functions. It's an email server, it's a web server, it's hosts a chat channel, etc.. When it receives a request to connect from someone, that request will have within it the port that the person wants to connect to. That way, my server knows what the connection wants to do. "Oh, this connection wants to give me an email message for one of my users" or "Oh, this connection wants to start a session on the chat channel", etc. The server has to be told (via the port number) what the connection wants to do because computers are horrible at guessing. 
Meanwhile, most businesses have a firewall of some type to protect their internal networks from all the nasties on the internet. If your company's firewall has been configured so it allows only SMTP / ESMTP traffic to get to your Exchange server, then, no, you can't use Web Outlook to read your messages on your Exchange server because Web Outlook uses HTTP (port 80) or HTTPS (port 443) and the firewall was told only allow SMTP / ESMTP (port 25). (They're very hard-headed that way, them firewalls.)
Make sense? 
< Message edited by jassyca -- 5.Dec.2007 3:30:25 PM >
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