So here’s a gap in the “Linux in the corporate world” thing…
I’ve been looking for a convenient way to access our Exchange 2007 server when not at my desk. Sure, I have a rather nice laptop… but it isn’t svelte and while at the office it is docked with a bunch of USB stuff and a pair of 24” monitors attached. I figure a smaller laptop that could just get me to my mail and tasks would be ideal, especially when out of the office.
To minimize licensing costs (OS and Outlook) I thought I’d start with Linux. I have Ubuntu on an older IBM ThinkPad and Ubuntu 10.04 NBR on my little 7” Eee netbook. Both are light, very portable and boot quickly.
Damned if I can figure out a way to conveniently connect to our Exchange server though!
Here’s the wrinkle: We don’t open a lot of ports on our Exchange server. No IMAP or POP3. We just use the HTTP connection options when out of the office.
First I tried Evolution. Turns out it doesn’t have the ability to access Exchange servers newer than 2003. Via Twitter, it was suggested that I try the Evolution-MAPI provider. This works pretty well when at the office but doesn’t make it through the firewall. Close, but no cigar.
Thunderbird? I didn’t find anything useful there either.
Outlook Web Access? Tolerable in a pinch, but the non-Internet Explorer experience is lacking. Good enough to check the inbox and send off a quick mail, but for longer term use – I use lots of rules that move mail to lots of folders – it gets a bit tedious.
Anyone cracked this nut yet? I really don’t want to have to fallback to opening up IMAP… surely someone has figured out “native” Exchange ‘07 from Linux?
Why don’t you open de MAPI ports instead of IMAP? It’d give you full access to your Exchange from outside, so you can use it even with your iphone
Well, to some extent it is a matter of principle at this point. We have iphones, android phones and Windows Outlook machines all working fine with this server over Exchange’s ActiveSync.
I figure a Linux option shouldn’t need extra configuration or [arguably] reducing the security footprint of the Exchange server by opening more ports.
But I feel like I’m tiling at windmills at this point…
was going to suggest Evolution, no way to get around the firewall?
shoot me an email, myself or my buddy may be able to help you out.
-Tyler Rueger
Sure there’s away around the firewall. But why should I have to when I have options for every other platform? (see my response to Vox, above).
I’m all ears if you and your friend have other ideas though!
VPN with virtualbox is about the best you can get. My 2 year old laptop can run 2 instances of windows 7 and is still snappy on ubuntu 10.10. plus with the transparent mode you might just forget that you’re not running native.
This is sort of starting to annoy me aswel. It hasn’t been working for years now, and when android first came out, exchange support was there right away! That made me think that it shouldn’t be THAT hard to implement. There’s just no priority towards supporting MS Exchange whatsoever.
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