# read Microsoft exchange mail from Linux

## jax1

Hey,

I am (just like many of you, I bet) stuck with using a M$-exchange server for sending/receiving mail at work. I can't begin to describe how much I hate being dependent on Outlook to read/send email. I have fiddled a bit with evolution/ximian-connector, and it works, but since it uses the "OWA" (exchange's web interface), its way too slow and doesn't update properly without me clicking on "check for new email". And, more importantly, I hate having to use a GUI webclient. I've been trying to get to Microsoft-people here at work to enable IMAP, but they won't, because it's a "security risk" *sigh*.

Ideally, I'd like to use pine for my mailboxes. Life would be so much easier.  :Smile: 

Does anyone know of something like fetchmail that can get the contents of my mailboxes at the exchange server (like ximian-connector does)? Something that will let me use any mailclient.... google cant find anything....

I hate being chained to my M$-workstation whenever I want to read/send email.

On another note, its been a while since I tried evolution/ximian-connector.... maybe it works better now than when I tried it (8-9 months ago).... any input on that would be appreciated....

/J

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## ToeiRei

I have tried evolution too... - but each exchange server should come with some connectors (imap/imaps/pop3/pop3s) - I use IMAP for accessing the server (even public folders)

Rei

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## jax1

that's the thing though --- they wont activate IMAP (or POP). Suckers.  :Evil or Very Mad: 

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## ToeiRei

just something I discovered:

OWA hides some features on 'alternative' browsers. The rules for sorting out mail is not avaliable, i.e. (fake the browser identification and it works again)

Rei

Edit:

Just as an idea: Do you have a terminalserver you can use? rdesktop should be a good client. Using Crossover-Office or Wine aren't alternatives neither...

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## jonnevers

I am under the impression that the ximian-connector is the only way to connect directly to an exchange server. Like in your case where the admin won't open up any other means of access. IMAP I guess I can understand but POP3 should really be open. I'm sorry I don't have any better advice. Try the newest ximian-connector (at least it is free now, used to be $30 or something). It is a little funny that the admins worry about security and yet they use exchange  :Smile: 

- jon

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## ToeiRei

the ximian connector uses the owa interface afaik.

Rei

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## darkphader

 *jax1 wrote:*   

> I've been trying to get to Microsoft-people here at work to enable IMAP, but they won't, because it's a "security risk"

 

What's the security risk with IMAP?

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## nobspangle

Have you got access to a handy citrix server you can use?

Failing that, as far as I know the outlook web access uses the same http connector as hotmail, if you can find a program that works with hotmail, it should also work with exchange.

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## Cadorna

 *nobspangle wrote:*   

> Have you got access to a handy citrix server you can use?
> 
> Failing that, as far as I know the outlook web access uses the same http connector as hotmail, if you can find a program that works with hotmail, it should also work with exchange.

 

i don't know anything bout exchange, but a program that downloads hotmail it's "gotmail". It's a perl script that's download mails as fetchmail does

you can find it in portage

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## christsong84

fetchmail(via pop3)->local mail repository (.maildir or something or using postfix/sendmail?)->pine work? then you can send out via smtp like normal?

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## jax1

 *Quote:*   

> What's the security risk with IMAP?

 

....yeah, I wonder that too. This is what the windowz-poeple here tell me when I ask if they can open up the IMAP service.

And yeah, ximian-connector uses the exchange "owa" (web interface).

Ideally, what one needs is something that emulates an outlook-client and writes to a local  maildir/mailbox ...

The "gotmail" sounds like worth checking out, but I cant help having the feeling that I shouldnt need to fiddle with this since we should all be using STANDARDS  like IMAP or POP.

I'm a real popular guy amongst the Windowspeople here, btw. (yes, thats a sarcasm). Maybe I could bribe them into enabling IMAP.. hmmm

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## jax1

 :Rolling Eyes: 

gotmail is something you can use to retrieve your hotmail. It has nothing to do witch exchange if I understand things correct.

or am I missing the point?  :Embarassed: 

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## nevynxxx

Have you asked them to 

1) "Open up IMAP"

2) "Open up IMAP over SSL(IMAPS)"

3) "Open up IMAP/IMAPS just on the local network"

I personally would say, "no", "why do you need it?", and "Ok, if it will help you" to those questions.

If they assume you want it for outside access its potentially a security risk. If you make it clear your only using it as a replacemnet for outlook, just on the local network itis less so.

I'm sure you can do more damage with outlook than with IMAP.

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## jax1

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> Have you asked them to
> 
> 1) "Open up IMAP"
> ...

 

...oh yes. I havent only asked. I have begged. I get bureaucratic answers: "its violates our policy", "we cant make an exception" and "yadda, yadda, yadda". (oh well).

and of course "its a security risk." -- when they've asked me why I want it, all I can tell them is "Because I hate my Windows workstation"  :Cool:    -- put in nicer words, but that is the real why. And that why is not good enough.

And yes -- its IMAP on the _local_ network I want. Nothing else. I have no idea if IMAP over SSL can be enabled on an exchange server without any addons. Maybe thats why they consider it a "security risk", I dont know. I think people using Windows is a security risk.

If I could tell them I need IMAP because of something else... hmmmm. Any thoughts on that?

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## darkphader

From:

http://forums.macnn.com/archive/index.php/t-187267.html

 *Quote:*   

> The Exchange admin must enable either IMAP or POP. If they insist they can't due to security reasons, go bitch slap them and their boss, as they're incompetent morons.

 

 *Quote:*   

> Exchange supports SSL-encrypted IMAP. If they don't know this, they need to go back to Exchange school.

 

A reading of the Exchages Hardening Guide shows no particular problem with IMAP4 access, except that it is disabled by default. Over SSL and confined to the local network it truly cannot be anymore of a problem than already exists.

This is clearly either laziness or a power-play on the part of the admins. Nothing more.

Try telling them you need access from your "PocketPC", I think IMAP needs to enabled for this.

http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~mgilbert/S_Imap.txt

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## Cadorna

 *jax1 wrote:*   

> 
> 
> gotmail is something you can use to retrieve your hotmail. It has nothing to do witch exchange if I understand things correct.
> 
> or am I missing the point? 

 

i talked about gotmail, because someone says that exchange use the same method as hotmail, so I said that i don't know anything about exchange, but if they work the same you can try gotmail, maybe with a little hacking

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## jax1

 *Cadorna wrote:*   

> 
> 
> i talked about gotmail, because someone says that exchange use the same method as hotmail, so I said that i don't know anything about exchange, but if they work the same you can try gotmail, maybe with a little hacking

 

ok, I think I misunderstood. sorry.

This whole thing really bugs me. Even if I could manage getting something like "gotmail" to work, its going to be a hack, and if I ran into trouble reading my mail, the windows people would just say "use outlook"....

Isnt this exactly why we have standards? If whatever protocol is used between outlook and exchange was an open standard, I am sure I could find a gazillion open-source clients, and surely one that would fit with my needs.

This is the main problem with closed standards and proprietary software. Its evil. It needs to be faught. Liberty or death.  :Twisted Evil: 

Am I overreacting?

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## darkphader

 *jax1 wrote:*   

> Isnt this exactly why we have standards?

 

That's the nice thing about standards - there are so many of them :)

 *jax1 wrote:*   

> Am I overreacting?

 

No.

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## jax1

 *Cadorna wrote:*   

> 
> 
> someone says that exchange use the same method as hotmail

 

....can anyone verify this? If this is true, gotmail might do the trick.

gotmail has a switch (-d), with which you specify it to use hotmail.com or msn.com ... the default value is hotmail.com. So it doesnt seem like the author has taken into account that one might want to use gotmail to check mail off of your exchange web-interface.

anyone know anything about this?  :Rolling Eyes: 

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## jax1

there's also:

http://hotwayd.sourceforge.net/news.php

...which seems promising, but they dont mention anything about reading/sending mail through an exchange web-gui (OWA)....

I've been googling quite a bit, but I can't seem to find any info.

Does anyone know anything about this?

any input would be greatly appreciated.

 :Cool: 

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## dontremember

 *jax1 wrote:*   

> Hey,
> 
> I am (just like many of you, I bet) stuck with using a M$-exchange server for sending/receiving mail at work.

 

Me too...  A month or so ago I was "upgraded" from a legacy POP/IMAP server to the Corporate Standard Exchange server.  However, unlike you I was able to use IMAP to hit it, so I could continue to use Thunderbird on my Gentoo laptop.

Until last night...  It may be complete coincidence, but they've just enabled OWA on the Exchange servers and now I can't connect with IMAP.  Apparently some genius has come up with a policy that OWA only be available from the Internet, not from any internal intranet.  And even if I boot WinXP I *still* can't get to the Exchange server unless I fire up the VPN connection, because I'm on a legacy network and not the "trusted" network.  All the systems I work on are are the legacy side, so I can either do work, or read email.

I could really use something like fetchmail or gotmail too.  I have a server at home that could access OWA at work to suck down my email and drop it into Squirrelmail, or something.

One thing I just tried was ssh'ing out through the company socks server to my home server with XForwarding enabled, then cranking up Firefox.  It took a couple of minutes just to render the first page.  That may be because my home server is only a 333Mhz laptop (at present), or it may be because the socks server really sucks.  Anyway, I mention it because it might be a possible solution for someone else...

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## terwey

hey,

I'm having the same problem at work, has there been any changes thus far? since the last post was made in June and it's almost October.

Thanks,

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## dontremember

The only change for me is that the company decided to make OWA accessible from the internal network as well...  It still sucks, but at least I can read my email without having to boot Windows.

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## terwey

yeah they gave me access to this webmail thing too... saves me workin on windows too  :Wink:  but still ain't no evolution yet!!

Tried to use ximian-connector, but it won't emerge cause I need Evolution Development stuff... which I can't find   :Shocked: 

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## jax1

 *terwey wrote:*   

> hey,
> 
> I'm having the same problem at work, has there been any changes thus far? since the last post was made in June and it's almost October.
> 
> Thanks,

 

No, no changes   :Rolling Eyes:    -- I've actually gotten pretty used to using the OWA.  The windows people where I work just will not open up IMAP.

But I'll keep watching this thread......

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## Will Scarlet

Ximian-connector is now evolution-exchange, which the latest version is 2.4.2.

Hope this helps...   :Wink: 

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## dontremember

 *Will Scarlet wrote:*   

> Ximian-connector is now evolution-exchange, which the latest version is 2.4.2.
> 
> Hope this helps...  

 

Do you know if it can be coerced into connecting via a web proxy??  I tried with ximian-connector but it never seemed to make contact.

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## nic01

Hi,

I had (have) the same problem at work. Exchange server with no IMAP/POP support. I think they disabled IMAP to get rid of all the Outlook express clients. 

Never really liked Evolution much, mutt/pine does everything so much nicer. 

What I did:

1) Setup a simple Courier-IMAP server on a linux server.

2) Forward all mail to a external POP3 server (An option in the exchange server-thing). It could be forwarded to free webmail like gmail or something? 

3) Use fetchmail to grap new mail from the the POP3 server "back" to my linux server (maildir). 

4) Copy all my old folders and mail to the linux box server. (I used Evolution to connect to the Exchange server).

5) Connect to the linux box directly (IMAP) or use offlineimap to get the mail to my desktop or workstation. 

6) I still use the exchange SMTP server to send mail from mutt.

Of cause the solution isn't optimal, but it gets the work done. Hope you solve your problem somehow.

Cheers.

PS. Can anybody tell me what the is with Exchange over IMAP? Is if faster, safer, more features or is it just to ruin the life of people who don't have MS Outlook?

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## jax1

 *nic01 wrote:*   

> 
> 
> What I did:
> 
> 1) Setup a simple Courier-IMAP server on a linux server.
> ...

 

This seems to be the best idea so far. A bit of work, and maybe a bit over-the-top, but it would get the work done. I agree - I dont like Evolution either - ideally I want to use a terminal-based mailclient (pine or mutt, preferably)..

When I get the time, I'll try this.

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## Will Scarlet

 *dontremember wrote:*   

>  *Will Scarlet wrote:*   Ximian-connector is now evolution-exchange, which the latest version is 2.4.2.
> 
> Hope this helps...   
> 
> Do you know if it can be coerced into connecting via a web proxy??  I tried with ximian-connector but it never seemed to make contact.

 

Sorry, I don't know as I don't have an Exchange server to play with anymore.

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## dontremember

 *Will Scarlet wrote:*   

>  *dontremember wrote:*    *Will Scarlet wrote:*   Ximian-connector is now evolution-exchange, which the latest version is 2.4.2.
> 
> Hope this helps...   
> 
> Do you know if it can be coerced into connecting via a web proxy??  I tried with ximian-connector but it never seemed to make contact. 
> ...

 

Thanks anyway.  I've just tried conencting Evolution to our Outlook Web Access url from home, over the Internet, and don't get a connection, so it's not just my proxy stuff that's screwed up.  I guess they've got it locked down tight to force us to use Outlook or a real web browser...

The really stupid thing is that I was able to use both Thunderbird and Evolution to hit the Exchange server via IMAP, up to June last year.  IMAP failed on the day they made OWA available, and someone who *ought* to know subsequently told me that they didn't change anything and that IMAP should never have worked for me.  If I VPN to the trusted network I can still use IMAP with Thunderbird (and presumably Evolution), but I haven't yet managed to get Cisco VPN working in Linux.

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## Spoony

 *dontremember wrote:*   

>  but I haven't yet managed to get Cisco VPN working in Linux.

 

I know this is wwaaayyy off the original topic, but I've gotten the cisco vpn 4.8.00.480 or something like that to work very nicely via the command line, or with gvpndialer.

If your running newer than a 2.6.14, you need to run the 4.8.x or the latest 4.7 series of the cisco vpnclient.  Also, if you get kernel version errors (which is what I was getting for a while), be sure to empty out /var/tmp/portage

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## deefster

This project looks like something that could work.

http://freshmeat.net/projects/brutus/

The only problem is I have not been able to track down anybody who has compiled the server in linux.

CORBA is theoretically platform independant, but I know nothing about the language specifics.

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