How can I check my work email (Exchange 5.5) without using Microsoft Outlook on my Win 7 netbook? More inside...

July 23, 2010 12:35 PM

How can I check my work email (Exchange 5.5) without using Microsoft Outlook on my Win 7 netbook? More inside...

Looking for alternatives to Outlook for my Win 7 netbook.
I've tried Evolution, but it doesn't work with Exchange 5.5. Looked at Thunderbird & Zimbra but they don't seem to like Exchange unless I get my work to setup IMAP/SMTP and that's not an option.

Anyone have any suggestions? I'd love to find something that's:
- Lightweight (at least lighter than Outlook)
- Can work offline
- Optional: Calendar syncing

posted by cuando to computers & internet (7 answers total)

Wow, as an exchange engineer, I'm really saddened that people are still on exchange 5.5.

If they will not enable POP or IMAP one, you aren't going to have much in the way of options.
posted by Karmic_Enigma at 12:40 PM on July 23, 2010 [1 favorite]

Does Exchange 5.5 support OWA? That would be an option as well.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 12:42 PM on July 23, 2010

Here are a few possibilities.

Seconding Karmic_Enigma. Tell someone at your company that using an email server that has been out of support for 7 years a is a huge security risk.
posted by gregr at 12:54 PM on July 23, 2010

Asking your admin to enable IMAP or POP is your best bet, but yeah, your IT department really needs to get themselves up to date ASAP.
posted by BZArcher at 12:59 PM on July 23, 2010

I'm surprised that someone has an Exchange server older than ours (we're at 2000)... but I disagree about the "security risk" element of it. ANY server has holes, no matter how new it is. If they have a good firewall in front of it, it's not a big deal, because it still works.

I'd upgrade exchange to at least 2003 to enable Activesync (which we're doing, BTW).. which gets a lot of mobile devices into the magical "supported" category for us.

I second seeing about OWA - Outlook Web Access, a web site where you can view your email... usually at http://mailservername/exchange
posted by MikeWarot at 1:17 PM on July 23, 2010

Well, if they're running 5.5 then its a good idea they are not letting pop3/imap onto the internet. Its something of a miracle 5.5 is still running. Don't expect much out of it. I imagine your company is also on NT4 domain servers.

Lightweight (at least lighter than Outlook)

What version of Outlook are you using? A slightly older version of Outlook can help you with performance. I'm also skeptical that Evolution is going to outperform Outlook. Evolution is notorious for being a resource hog.

ANY server has holes, no matter how new it is.

Yes, there are probably lots of unknown and unpublished holes, but 5.5 is no longer supported by MS. That means no more patches. Some patched exploits for 2000 work for 5.5. I also don't see firewalling as a solution. If its used for general email then smtp is open to the world.
posted by damn dirty ape at 4:12 PM on July 23, 2010

Evolution requires OWA to connect to Exchange, so unless you can already get on to OWA then it'll be no use to you. OWA first appeared in Exchange 2000, so I think your options are limited.
posted by robertc at 5:57 PM on July 23, 2010