How to POP an Exchange 2k3 server using Outlook

August 2, 2005 2:21 PM

I need to allow a few people to access our mail server using Outlook from outside the building. They use OWA yet do not like having to use a web page to do this (yeah, I know...). I thought of setting up POP3 but am not sure what ports I need to open on the firewall (110, 25 do not seem to cut it). What is the functional difference between POP3 and IMAP and is either one better/easier to setup? (File folder sharing would be an optional objective). Microsoft's KB system sucks...any other useful articles out there?
posted by SparkyPine to Computers & Internet (11 answers total)

Best answer: 110 and 25 are the POP3 ports, so that should work, unless for some reason exchange can be set to allow only SSL POP3. If you set up an Internet Only account in outlook, then this should all work just fine, and IMAP should work pretty similarly.

IMAP is cool in that you only download message HEADERS instead of the whole email, being awesome if say, you're on the run and on dialup. However, IMAP seems to confuse the hell out of a lot of users.

File folder sharing is gonna be something that is set up outside of the mail setup and more to do with the windows networking setup, so it sounds like you're wanting to configure an Exchange account which is sufficiently more complex than just allowing POP3 access to your exchange mail (but comes with significantly more benefits). It's not totally simple, but there's some resources out there to help you with setup. You might want to buy a book about exchange setup, and possibly a book about windows server administration (i'd actually recommend the latter over the former, but you might be able to fake enough windows admin to get the exchange set up fine). Mark Minasi writes an awesome windows 2k3 server guide.
posted by fishfucker at 2:28 PM on August 2, 2005

er, that should read "110 and 25 are the POP3 and SMTP ports respectively"*

* correction only made before some pedant jumps on my back about my lack of accuracy. Hey, i'm sure there's more niggling technical errors left up there though, so jump in guy!
posted by fishfucker at 2:30 PM on August 2, 2005

You didn't mention what version of Exchange you use. If you're using Exchange 2003, you could try running RPC over HTTP. It provides more functionality than POP3/IMAP, however it's more complicated to set up.
posted by blue mustard at 2:37 PM on August 2, 2005

Are you running a proxy server that is redirecting the traffic? Is OWA running on a different server than Exchange?

For other resources besides MS you can check Slipstick or MSExchange.org
posted by pgoes at 3:11 PM on August 2, 2005

Some of our users connect over a VPN which allows them direct access to the Exchange server. They prefer that to OWA, and as a bonus, they have access to other network drives and resources as well.
posted by willnot at 3:48 PM on August 2, 2005

Response by poster: fishfucker: What would be the POP3 and SMTP names in the Outlook setup? MAIL.[domain name].COM for both? I have my firewall directing traffic for those two ports directly to my mail server (running Exchange 2k3 on Server 2k3, blue mustard) and outlook cannot seem to "find" the server.

Not using a proxy server and OWA is on the same Exchange server (very basic topology...separate domain controller, tho).

My Sonicwall Pro 200 has built in VPN and I have licenses (and it works for Citrix), just never thought they'd work for email. Do you have any insight on how that's set up, willnot?

Looked at the RPC over HTTP paper from Microsoft...lotta horsin' around just for email it seems. Not sure what the best solution would be considering security re: spammers, etc.
posted by SparkyPine at 4:35 PM on August 2, 2005

VPN effectively makes remote computers act like they're on the local network, thus getting around all the firewall BS.

is traffic for 110 allowed both ways? In and out? Are you using NAT? is your firewall also doing some sort of DNS for you? because if mail.yourdomain.com doesn't resolve to any IP (like the IP of your firewall), well, those requests aren't gonna get anywhere.
posted by fishfucker at 4:56 PM on August 2, 2005

Second this:

You didn't mention what version of Exchange you use. If you're using Exchange 2003, you could try running RPC over HTTP. It provides more functionality than POP3/IMAP, however it's more complicated to set up.
posted by k8t at 5:57 AM on August 3, 2005

Response by poster: I did mention the version on my 4:35pm response:

(running Exchange 2k3 on Server 2k3, blue mustard)

I got POP3 to work. Have to restart the POP3 service each time you make a change or it won't reflect that change...doh. I'm sending in clear text so I guess I better figure out how to set up SSL.
posted by SparkyPine at 10:40 AM on August 3, 2005

I have to ask - blue mustard? What the..?
posted by coriolisdave at 3:21 PM on August 3, 2005

I've not configured RPC over HTTP for deployment, but I have to say, its pretty cool to use once its set up. They rolled it out at work and once they did, I hardly used the VPN anymore.
posted by Good Brain at 10:11 PM on August 3, 2005