[WinMac] Mac Exchange clients from MacCentral
Derek K. Miller [at Home](dkmiller[at]pobox.com)
Tue, 11 Aug 1998 12:13:51 -0800
I thought this might be useful for those of us discussing Exchange
server/Mac client issues.
Alternatives to using Outlook Client for Exchange server
by Dennis Sellers dsellers@maccentral.com
August 10, 10:10 a.m. ET
This week Microsoft released "Outlook: Microsoft Exchange Server
Version for Power Macintosh." Although lacking the full
functionality of the Windows Outlook 98 client, it has more than
its predecessor did. It also closely resembles Microsoft Office
98 in interface design.
The updated Exchange client for the Mac OS includes support for
OS 8, and was released as part of the Exchange 5.5 SP1 update
that came out this week. Check out
http://www.Microsoft.com/macoffice for more info.
Meanwhile, there are alternatives to using Outlook Client for
Exchange server. With the release of Exchange server 5.5 the
Exchange team added the ability for the server to act as an IMAP
server.
This lets any Internet mail client to send and receive mail via
Exchange server. You'll need to find out the Exchange server's
IMAP and SMTP address and place them in the preferences dialog
in your e-mail program. You can determine if you want to keep
messages on the server or have your e-mail client download all
messages locally. You can also have your e-mail client check
mail on other IMAP or POP servers.
Plus, you can use a new feature of Exchange server called
Outlook Web Access (OWA). With OWA, Mac users can check their
e-mail, schedule appointments and even explore public folders
all from any browser on the network. The limitations are that
you don't have access to local messages, you must have a
connection to the server (no offline use) and it's a little
slow. Interested in this solution? You can find a white paper on
OWA at:
http://www.microsoft.com/outlook/outlook98/documents/owafact/web
acc.asp?pre
Meanwhile, MacCentral reader, Craig A. Berry, says the real
interoperability issue involving Macs and Outlook/Exchange is
the proprietary attachment handling in Outlook for Windows. He
says that while it uses MIME encoding, it does so in a way that
no other mail client can decode.
"For a message originating in a Windows/Outlook/Exchange
environment, the formatting of the message itself is sent as an
attachment, but it is glued to any other attachment(s) as one
big attachment that nothing else on the planet-not even
Microsoft's own Outlook Express for either Windows or
Macintosh-can decode," Berry says. "Actually I haven't seen the
Exchange client for Mac OS (whatever it's currently called), so
that may be an exception."
Recent versions of Exchange Server work fine for POP/SMTP, but
using the native Exchange protocols is a bad idea unless you can
guarantee that either no one or everyone uses Outlook as an
Exchange client, he adds.
Derek K. Miller
dkmiller@pobox.com
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