Mail and VPN...

[SpitUK]

Please can someone explain this. I have a work email address that I use for everything. We run exchange 2003 and I get my emails through my android phone and iPad no problem. On my windows 7 PC I use Outlook 2010 but have to open a VPN connection to be able to connect to the server at work as I am always off site.

I have a Mac book Pro arriving this week, is there anyway of me using the inbuilt Mail app with or without VPN on the Mac? How come it works fine on the iPad and phone but my computer needs VPN?

I would love to be able to use Mail in Mountain Lion as I find it much nicer than Outlook.

 

[mrapplegate]

Please can someone explain this. I have a work email address that I use for everything. We run exchange 2003 and I get my emails through my android phone and iPad no problem. On my windows 7 PC I use Outlook 2010 but have to open a VPN connection to be able to connect to the server at work as I am always off site.

I have a Mac book Pro arriving this week, is there anyway of me using the inbuilt Mail app with or without VPN on the Mac? How come it works fine on the iPad and phone but my computer needs VPN?

I would love to be able to use Mail in Mountain Lion as I find it much nicer than Outlook.

I think you need to talk to your company's IT department. We can't answer questions about their requirements.

 

[SpitUK]

Tried but they know nothing about Macs

 

[mrapplegate]

Tried but they know nothing about Macs

It should not be a PC/Mac issue. Tell them to explain the requirements about which device needs a VPN and why. Either way you can use Apple mail with or without a VPN to connect to Exchange servers.

 

[matt2053]

EWS is what is used to make VPN-less connection from your Mac to Exchange.

EWS was introduced in Exchange 2007.

To connect to Exchange Server 2003 you will need to use VPN.

The reason it works on iPad/Phone is because they use ActiveSync, not EWS. But ActiveSync is only licensed by Microsoft for mobile devices.

 

[SpitUK]

http://www.intrasection.com/pjmorr/2010/01/21/snow-leopard-and-exchange-2003/

Does that article help my cause?

 

[matt2053]

http://www.intrasection.com/pjmorr/2010/01/21/snow-leopard-and-exchange-2003/

Does that article help my cause?

Yes there are some work arounds.

I used to use Davmail to get my Exchange 2003 mail on an Ubuntu machine, it works well enough.

If your IT allows Outlook Web Access (OWA-- Can you get your email through browser?) then Davmail uses that connection to read your emails via OWA and push them to your local mail client. It would just run in the background on your Mac. It then forwards that mail on to your Mail client via IMAP.

It was a pain to set up, at least on Ubuntu. But once I got it set up, it worked and I didn't have to think about it too much.