How to get mail when travelling?

[Capt. Jack]

Please help, I'm trying to set up employees laptops Outlook2000 profiles. The scenario is I have an Exchange 5.5 SP3 server and I have setup one (on network) profile on the laptops of the employees that travel. Within the "on network" profile I've added the Exchange service and they can send & retrieve mail with no problem. This is where I need help: Now I need to set up the laptops to receive mail when they're travelling. Now when the user is travelling they are making a direct dial-up to AT&T to just get them connected to the internet. I don't have IIS installed so I can't use Outlook Web access. The only way I can receive mail is to pull it straight from my router using SMTP. I can send and receive mail to/from my exchange server over the internet using SMTP. My question for you is how do you setup users travelling profile's without them dialing in through RAS. How do you keep the two profiles in sync.

Much thanks in advance!

[Dan R.]

Here's the way I do it. Travelling users have a CompuServe dial up account with a POP3 e-mail box. All new mail is forwarded to that e-mail box when they're travelling by means of an Out Of Office Assistant rule. Outlook must have offline access enabled: Tools | Otions | Mail Services. You'll also need to set the synchronization to whatever choice works best for you - but Outlook will need to synch before users travel. To make the dial up (Internet) mail work, you'll have to add the Internet Mail service to Outlook: Tools | Services | Add, and configure it to your dial up e-mail. Make sure that the Internet E-mail service is below Microsoft Exchange Remote Transport on the Delivery tab of the services window. I've had problems using the Outlook offline address book with this config, so I use a contact folder configured as an address book with all the necessary e-mail addresses. Caveats: When users return to the office and synch up, they'll have many duplicate messages - originals and forwarded versions; all forwarded messages appear as coming from that user. I can't wait until we get enough bandwidth to support VPN for our travelling users! Maintaining this setup and keeping offline addresses current is a pain!

Hope this helps some - remember to test, test, test before sending users out with a configuration like this - it's even more difficult to do phone support.

Dan R.


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Capt. Jack at 9/14/00 4:39:02 PM

Please help, I'm trying to set up employees laptops Outlook2000 profiles. The scenario is I have an Exchange 5.5 SP3 server and I have setup one (on network) profile on the laptops of the employees that travel. Within the "on network" profile I've added the Exchange service and they can send & retrieve mail with no problem. This is where I need help: Now I need to set up the laptops to receive mail when they're travelling. Now when the user is travelling they are making a direct dial-up to AT&T to just get them connected to the internet. I don't have IIS installed so I can't use Outlook Web access. The only way I can receive mail is to pull it straight from my router using SMTP. I can send and receive mail to/from my exchange server over the internet using SMTP. My question for you is how do you setup users travelling profile's without them dialing in through RAS. How do you keep the two profiles in sync.

Much thanks in advance!

[Brian D.]

A VPN is not required to synchronize or connect with Exchange remotely....there are just a couple of registry changes that you need to make if you are using a firewall. I would recomment setting the DS to use 1225 and the IS to use 1226..and make sure to open these ports on your firewall. There is a document of Microsoft site that tells the registry entries to set these ports statically. Also, I heard you mention AT&T. If it is AT&T Worldnet, this will also cause problems. They block SMTP port 25 to other mail servers outside their network. After you have had an account for x (I think it is 6 months) you can call and ask them to remove that restriction and it will work fine. After you have done these and the server name that the clients are set to use for Outlook is resolvable from anywhere on the internet...you should be ready to go.

Hope this help! Enjoy!

Brian

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Dan R. at 10/4/00 4:27:14 AM

Here's the way I do it. Travelling users have a CompuServe dial up account with a POP3 e-mail box. All new mail is forwarded to that e-mail box when they're travelling by means of an Out Of Office Assistant rule. Outlook must have offline access enabled: Tools | Otions | Mail Services. You'll also need to set the synchronization to whatever choice works best for you - but Outlook will need to synch before users travel. To make the dial up (Internet) mail work, you'll have to add the Internet Mail service to Outlook: Tools | Services | Add, and configure it to your dial up e-mail. Make sure that the Internet E-mail service is below Microsoft Exchange Remote Transport on the Delivery tab of the services window. I've had problems using the Outlook offline address book with this config, so I use a contact folder configured as an address book with all the necessary e-mail addresses. Caveats: When users return to the office and synch up, they'll have many duplicate messages - originals and forwarded versions; all forwarded messages appear as coming from that user. I can't wait until we get enough bandwidth to support VPN for our travelling users! Maintaining this setup and keeping offline addresses current is a pain!

Hope this helps some - remember to test, test, test before sending users out with a configuration like this - it's even more difficult to do phone support.

Dan R.


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Capt. Jack at 9/14/00 4:39:02 PM

Please help, I'm trying to set up employees laptops Outlook2000 profiles. The scenario is I have an Exchange 5.5 SP3 server and I have setup one (on network) profile on the laptops of the employees that travel. Within the "on network" profile I've added the Exchange service and they can send & retrieve mail with no problem. This is where I need help: Now I need to set up the laptops to receive mail when they're travelling. Now when the user is travelling they are making a direct dial-up to AT&T to just get them connected to the internet. I don't have IIS installed so I can't use Outlook Web access. The only way I can receive mail is to pull it straight from my router using SMTP. I can send and receive mail to/from my exchange server over the internet using SMTP. My question for you is how do you setup users travelling profile's without them dialing in through RAS. How do you keep the two profiles in sync.

Much thanks in advance!