Muliptle email accounts using Entourage and Outlook

Hi Ed,

I don't quite understand exactly what you are trying to accomplish and why. I assume we are dealing with OWA access to these mailboxes. Why do want a separate website for each mailbox? Generally, how OWA works is you go to the OWA site, enter your credentials and Exchange automatically logs you on to the mailbox that matches those credentials. Do you have multiple domains? Is that why you want to setup multiple websites?

Making a single mailbox available to multiple account is a little tricky with OWA because as I said, it works by matching the credentials entered with the mailbox that is attached to those credentials. In order to access a mailbox that is not attached to a set of credentials, you need to to enter the direct URL to the mailbox (ie http://server/exchange/mailbox). You can write a custom logon page to ask for the mailbox name then use a script to redirect to the full URL path of the mailbox if you don't want users to have the enter the full URL.

JJ

Hi JJ,

Basically I want it to work the same way POP/IMAP would if you had e.g. 3 different accounts on different websites.

I want to have e.g. 2 users that can check/reply to any email on any of our websites. Say if User 1 replied to a email from a customer I (User 2) need to be able to see that the email was replied to so I do not reply again.

At the moment we have e.g. 2 x Laptops that staff use on the move, rarely going into the office. No I need those 2 users (lets call them support) to e able to see what the other person has read/replied to or flagged etc.

No I do not even know if this is possible yet thats what I am trying to find out and we do not use OWA just Outlook & Entourage.

Thanks for the help!

Ed

I think I have a clearer picture of what you are trying to do. What protocol are your users using to connect (POP, IMAP, MAPI, etc).

JJ

Currently POP but I configured that as a temporary measure only. I would like to change to IMAP though but some people are saying it is a old protocol now.

Ed

I would recommend that you use MAPI, preferably RPC over HTTPS. The problem with POP is that you won't be able to tell if other people have replied to the e-mails. With MAPI, you can assign rights to a mailbox to as many people as you want and they will be able to see when e-mails have been replied to.

JJ

Will that work ok with Mail on OS X too?

Ed

No. You would need to use Outlook 2003 on Windows XP. Your options are going to be a littled limited with OS X. OWA may be your best option in this case.

JJ

Ok, but if I was to use IMAP this would work on OS X too?

Ed

Yes, it should work.

JJ

Ok, can you point me the right direction on how to setup the IMAP accounts in SBS please?

Ed

IMAP is just a connection protocol. There is nothing special about the accounts - just create those as normal using the wizard.

IMAP isn't enabled by default in Exchange, you have to enable it. The SBS wizard should be able to help you with that.
Once it is enabled, you simply enter the server and account details in to client as you would for any other IMAP account.

Did I mention to use the wizards? With SBS you must use the wizards for everything - if you don't then it very often breaks something.

Simon.

Hi,

Yeah I have sorted it all now, and is all working good except one thing... I when I reply from a external email acount I get this return error.

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification

Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

    email@address.com

Technical details of permanent failure:
PERM_FAILURE: SMTP Error (state 9): 550 5.7.1 Unable to relay for email@address.com

Ed

What did you use for SMTP settings in the client?
The Exchange server or something else?
Are you authenticating when you use SMTP for sending email? If not, then you should.

Simon.

Hi,

Right I have setup authentication on the outgoing SMTP and it solved the error message, however I dont get any incoming emails still.

Ed

Incoming as in new messages being delivered to the Exchange server itself, or incoming as in new messages that the client picks up (which can be seen in OWA for example)?

Simon.

Yes when mail in sent to me from anyone else. People used to get a error when sending me a email but that stopped when I setup authentication on outgoing SMTP.

Getting urgent now so any comments/help would be great guys!

Ed

If you put your domain name in to dnsreport.com what does it flag back?
What did the error message say?

You need to have authenticated AND anonymous access granted on the SMTP virtual server. Otherwise no one can send you email.

Simon.

I have checked and can not see anything wrong with the MX records.

server001.mobtec-servers.co.uk if you could double check for me please?

Ed

There isn't an Exchange server answering email for mobtec-servers.co.uk.
It looks like it is a Postfix server answering.

http://www.dnsreport.com/tools/dnsreport.ch?domain=mobtec-servers.co.uk

Whoever manages your DNS servers needs to be given a clip round the ear. They are wide open to the world which is not a good idea.

Simon.

What do I need to do then m8?

Ed

Its your environment - not mine.
Your Exchange server isn't responding to outside requests - a postfix server is.
Even when I telnet to port 25 of server001.mobtec-servers.co.uk I still get a postfix server answering the request.

Do you manage your DNS yourself?
Does an ISP or hosting company do it for you?

Externally, the name you have posted above resolves to the IP address of 217.174.250.43. That IP address then resolves to another machine altogether, at live-servers.net

C:\>nslookup 217.174.250.43
Server:  server.domain.co.uk
Address:  192.168.1.1

Name:    server217-174-250-43.live-servers.net
Address:  217.174.250.43

You need to speak to whoever is managing your DNS and see what they have got up to with your domain, it looks from here to be in a real mess.

Simon.

Simon,

Sorry m8, we have a local server here in the office and I sorted the DNS myself (sorry) from our dedicated webserver.

If you could let me know what I need to do to fix things it#ll be great :D

Thanks,
Ed

Your DNS is in an awful state.

Who manages 217.174.250.42 and 217.174.250.43
They are open DNS servers which is a very bad thing. If you setup the DNS on those servers then you need to review their configuration. There is some information on what you need to do here: http://www.dnsreport.com/info/opendns.htm

Next.
In your DNS zones you need to add a new host that points to your Exchange server's IP address.
I would probably a completely new host, called post - so that post.mobtec-servers.co.uk resolves tot he Exchange server's IP address and that you can telnet from outside the network to that address on port 25 and get a response from an Exchange server.

Once you have that set correctly, you can then change your MX records to use post.mobtec-servers.co.uk as the server and email should come in.
The changes may take 48 hours to replicate. Use the dnsreport link I proved above to confirm whether it is working or not.

Simon.

Hi,

I have done that as far as I can see. The main dedicated server url is mobtec-servers.co.uk and I have created a new sub-domain called server001.mobtec-servers.co.uk and pointed the 'mail' to the Exchange IP address.

I am a novist here as you can tell ;-)

Ed

mail.server001.mobtec-servers.co.uk  does respond as an Exchange server.

What are you expecting this Exchange server to receive email for?

username@server001.mobtec-servers.co.uk
username@mobtec-servers.co.uk

something else?

At the moment it would only receive email for the first option, not the second.
Your DNS servers are still wide open - and that puts you open to abuse or even a denial of service of attack.

Simon.

Simon,

Yes I know I am trying to sort that today.

I want to add other email addresses (i.e. info:anotherwebsite.com) and also be able to reply using that address.

Thanks,
Ed

Multiple domains is not a problem for Exchange.
However due to the way that DNS works it is best if you have a single set of hosts, reverse lookups and what the server announces itself as, and use the same host as the MX record for every domain.
You then have to configure Exchange to accept email for the additional domains. As this is SBS you must use the wizards to do that.

Simon.

Sorry for being think, but you mean I need to add additional domains for each different email address I want to use?

E.G.

1) info@site1.com
2) info@site2.com

etc etc.

Ed

If you want to use different domains (internet/smtp domains, not Windows domains) then you have to go through the wizard to configure Exchange to recognise them. If you don't,then you cannot receive email for them.

Simon.

Guys, still stuck on this problem.

I decided to change to using SBS pop3 to retrieve all our email from our websites. The problem now is I want 2 users to have access to all email and be able to reply to them using the correct email address they received them from automatically.

I have tried using IMAP but can not get it to work.

Ed

The only way that you can do that without third party tools is for the two users to have an Outlook profile for every user and open the relevant one when they want to reply to the message. Otherwise they will need to use the "From" field in Outlook to enter the correct address that the message would appear to come from.

Simon.

Ok we also use OS X so do you know of any tools I can use to help?

Thanks for you info btw.

Ed