Multiple email devices - Will Exchange Server help?

techguy

Hi,

With the addition of my new HTC Hero, I now have three devices that I receive emails on.(PC+Desktop)

It's all fine when I'm working at one of these. I get my emails but then the next time I log on to the other two computers I get all of my previously read messages into my box as unread mail. Also, if I send an e-mail I can only access that message on the device it was sent from.

I use outlook 2003 on on both windows computers then Android 1.5 on Hero (Willing to upgrade to 2.0 for Exchange support)

I also have a server running Windows Server 2003.

Just wondering can I set up my e-mail accounts on Exchange Server and point all my devices towards this to have one consolidated account. And within one exchange mailbox can I have multiple e-mail accounts like in Outlook 2003 ?

Am I just complicating things considerably and should just put up with it.

Jonathan

IMAP is your friend.

testicle

Jonathan wrote: »

IMAP is your friend.

As is Exchange. Great platform, if you want to use it. I have it myself, I have Outlook on my PC, Outlook ActiveSync via Outlook Mobile on my phone, and Outlook Web App for everywhere else.

ravydavygravy

Heres a free imap server for windows: http://www.hmailserver.com/ (Exchange isn't cheap)

Capt'n Midnight

Just to be aware that Outlook is a poor IMAP client, you have to manually refresh and and other fun stuff


If using outlook with PST's then the email stays in that PST on that PC

Exchange works well with Outlook , no suprise there !
Not sure if you could get a decent client for it for the Android that allows using similar functionality of an .OST (offline store) because if you dont' then you are back ot square one wrt to sent emails.


or ditch outlook and get a better IMAP client like thunderbird

Jonathan

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

or ditch outlook and get a better IMAP client like thunderbird

That reminds me.
/wanders off to check out thunderbird 3

techguy

I've just been playing around with IMAP on one of my accounts. It seems to be exactly what I want.

It's actually really easy. All I did was just choose IMAP instead of POP3 when setting up a new account. It alsos give me a unique set of folders for each account where I was previously using rules to divert mail for each account into seperate folders.

Just one more thing to clarify before I make a complete changeover.

Take for instance: I am in one of my 3 clients. I get a new batch of emails (count=5). I read 3 of them in this client and close it out. I then go to another client and check for emails. I then get a list of new e-mails(Count=2) these 2 are the e-mails I got earlier but didn't read them. It will also put the 3 previously read e-mails in this second clients inbox also.??

Next: What kind of problems should I be aware of with Outlook as an IMAP client. Manual refresh? I have it set to send/receive every 3 minutes. Will this solve it?

Also, I won't be able to switch to Thunderbird as I am using Outlook with Google sync.

I just noticed that I deleted a message on one client. It didn't disapper, just greyed out the message and gave them a strikethrough. Same happened when I refreshed my 2nd client. Why don't the messages disappear?

Thanks.

Fysh

techguy wrote: »

Take for instance: I am in one of my 3 clients. I get a new batch of emails (count=5). I read 3 of them in this client and close it out. I then go to another client and check for emails. I then get a list of new e-mails(Count=2) these 2 are the e-mails I got earlier but didn't read them. It will also put the 3 previously read e-mails in this second clients inbox also.??

Yep - any client configured to retrieve your mail via IMAP is basically creating a local copy of the mail on your server where everything is slaved to the server. Thus your inbox should look the same on any client that is synchronised and up to date, because they're all just creating local copies of what's on the server.

techguy wrote: »

Next: What kind of problems should I be aware of with Outlook as an IMAP client. Manual refresh? I have it set to send/receive every 3 minutes. Will this solve it?

It'll be ok, but we have a few people using Outlook via IMAP at work and they complain about it throwing tantrums of the "Cannot connect to mailserver" variety every once in a while. It's definitely a client issue rather than a server issue as I've been getting my mail from the same server over IMAP in Thunderbird at the time and not had a problem.

techguy wrote: »

Also, I won't be able to switch to Thunderbird as I am using Outlook with Google sync.

I would seriously suggest making the switch - Thunderbird is a bit different to Outlook but much nicer for working with IMAP. Aside from which if you're not working on a full exchange environment using calendaring, there's not really any advantage to using Outlook over any other mail client out there.

techguy wrote: »

I just noticed that I deleted a message on one client. It didn't disapper, just greyed out the message and gave them a strikethrough. Same happened when I refreshed my 2nd client. Why don't the messages disappear?
Thanks.

That's a display setting in your client - I think in Outlook it's under View > Hide deleted messages or something like that.

techguy

Sorry to be bumping this thread!!

I have just one more question..

How does Outlook/MAPI work with offline access ? Can I view message folders when offline?

Thanks.

Capt'n Midnight

IIRC it sets up a PST file to store a mirror of the IMAP , but it's a pig of an IMAP client since M$ already have a solution , exchange, and if you have an exchange CAL then Outlook client is a freebie

techguy

Why is it such a pig?? I've noticed a bit of a delay sometimes when opening my inbox but other than that it seems to work ok?

If it serves it's purpose then it's fine with me but saying that I will check out the latest Thunderbird and see about it's ability to sync with Android.

Jonathan

I've switched to thunderbird with lightening. With one add on it supports two way google calendar, which (i assume) syncs well with android.

testicle

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

and if you have an exchange CAL then Outlook client is a freebie

Wot????

Fysh

testicle wrote: »

Wot????

Microsoft's server products rely on Client Access Licences as an additional revenue source. So if you have a Server 2k3 box with its own licence, you also need to have a Client Access Licence for each machine that connects to the server - whether to use it as an Exchange server or as a remote desktop server or even just to authenticate against it via Active Directory. (More info on Wikipedia here)

This is all part of the reason that running a Server 2k3/8 box with an Exchange server on it seems like overkill in terms of keeping your mailbox available on several devices.

testicle

Fysh wrote: »

Microsoft's server products rely on Client Access Licences as an additional revenue source. So if you have a Server 2k3 box with its own licence, you also need to have a Client Access Licence for each machine that connects to the server - whether to use it as an Exchange server or as a remote desktop server or even just to authenticate against it via Active Directory. (More info on Wikipedia here)

This is all part of the reason that running a Server 2k3/8 box with an Exchange server on it seems like overkill in terms of keeping your mailbox available on several devices.

I'm aware of that. Exchange is sold by SALs, you still need an Office/Outlook CAL to connect to it as a user.

Fysh

testicle wrote: »

I'm aware of that. Exchange is sold by SALs, you still need an Office/Outlook CAL to connect to it as a user.

That depends on what licence you buy it under, some of the higher-end volume licence agreements can include the Core CALs.

Sorry if my answer sounded like I was talking down to you, but from your previous post it's hard to tell whether you disagree or are just confused by the mention of a CAL.

Capt'n Midnight

testicle wrote: »

Wot????

Sorry my bad

the goalposts moved when I wasn't looking http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2007/01/02/220827/microsoft-restricts-free-outlook-software-for-exchange.htm

Microsoft is limiting the free use of Outlook 2007 to Exchange 2007 users.

Licensing terms for the new Exchange e-mail platform software only give free Outlook e-mail software use to registered Microsoft Software Assurance upgrade subscription users.

As firms normally want to run Outlook with Exchange, the licensing change could prove costly to many firms.

Exchange 2007 was released last month, but it does not include Outlook 2007 in its Client-Access License (CAL).

Previous versions of Exchange saw customers given a free copy of Outlook with each Exchange CAL. For instance, with Exchange 2003, if a firm installed the platform along with 150 CALs, they would also be given 150 copies of Outlook 2003.

TBH I'm really getting tired of the way Microsoft keep arsing about with licenses, it makes it really difficult to approve an upgrade when you have buy extra licenses as well as the ones you've upgraded. It also means you can't plan ahead

With exchange 2003 , you could put openoffice + outlook on the pc's and with outlook you got lots of other goodies on the CD.