Snow Leopard with Exchange support not working

I can understand that it is disappointing if you expected Mail to connect to your Exchange server and it doesn't. What I think many of you don't understand is that most of the problems mentioned here are not Apple's fault. They have provided the ability to connect to the latest version of Exchange (2007). If your company is using an older version or if they choose to prevent access from outside their LAN, then you should talk to your Windows admins about it.

iPhone OS use the Active Sync protocol, which is not used by Mail (or Outlook on Windows, by the way). It is designed for syncing mobile devices, not for desktop mail applications. Again, whether or not Active Sync is available from outside your LAN is a decision that your company has made.

The one thing that you may fault Apple for is only supporting Exchange 2007. But I think that was probably a reasonable decision on their part.

Apple Mail can work with EXCH 2003, just have to have IMAP enabled on the server.
EWS - which both Apple and MS are now touting, is only on 2007.
So, it's not even bad in that respect.
It's just the progression of the protocols on both ends.
As you (and I) stated, it's time for these folks to talk to their EXCH admins to see what they offer on the server-side.
Many companies limit access for security purposes.

Lindzzz,

Guess what - I have to do the same things I've asked of everyone here.
I have to go to my admins and ask the same questions.
An Apple Genius can't help either.
It's something that for better or worse, requires more knowledge than just on the laptop/desktop.
I wish there was a magic pill to help you folks, but there's not.
Some email is.
Google, MobileMe, Yahoo!, etc. have a simple and central setup that everyone can use with the same set of instructions.
Company email is not anything like that.

Hear hear Lindzzz. I feel the same way. I'm not stupid at all, but some of those posting here sure made me feel so.

I know enough to know that Active Sync is made for mobile devices and that computers "get" email in a different way. My question is simple, if Apple can get the iphone to work just fine, using Active Sync or whatever, why can't they incorporate this into Mac Mail somehow? I'm a bit upset, and rightly so, because I was led to believe that SL would include this very functionality. That's right, SL was supposed to make it as simple to set up OWA on my Mac as it is on my iphone. So I bought SL and, well that's not the case. Now my Mac expert friends are telling me to use an iphone emulator. Again, if an iphone emulator will allow my mac to work, and it does, I tried it, then why can't Apple include the same functionality into Mac Mail? And please don't respond with "Just use the emulator then." That's obviously not the solution I'm looking for. I want all my e-mail to be in one place. Honest question deserving a respectful answer.

FYI, one of my buddies who has been in the business since the dawn of Mac just e-mailed me to say that there is no reason why Apple couldn't do the very thing I'm suggesting, and has no real answer for why they wouldn't.

I'm a bit astonished.

I guess we can post 100 times here and it will never sink-in.
So, with that, best of luck all.

There's too much hostility flying around here. We're all on the same side and all trying to find an answer!

I'm not convinced that ANY of the problem here is Apple's fault, nor am I convinced it isn't. Apple Mail isn't connecting, but neither is Entourage 2008 Web Services Edition. BOTH will connect through IMAP, of course, but that's not the goal.

While my office definitely has Exchange Server 2007 with Roll-Up 9, there's a chance (who knows, except for the IT staff?) that they didn't install the (apparently) optional "Exchange Web Services" module, which is a separate download from Microsoft for Exchange Server 2007. Does anyone know if there is a way that a regular domain user can see if it's been installed?

Also, I found the following:

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1
(KB952580) should also be applied to both the Mailbox
server and the Client Access server roles.

So, if they applied the Service Pack and Roll-Ups to the Mailbox server, maybe they didn't apply them to the Client Access server. I can't say.

It seems like either one of these issues could stop Mail (or Entourage EWS) from working, and they're completely beyond control of the average user to fix in a corporate email system.

Thanks to this forum, however, I learned that Exchange support on the iPhone is handled a totally different way. I appreciate that understanding.

I've sent a lot of this information to my IT guys to see if they will (hopefully) say, "Oh, yeah, we never installed Exchange Web Services." We'll see.

Good luck, all. Hopefully we're edging closer to an answer for us!

Post whatever you like a 100 times, I guess some of us are just really simple. Simple as in: iphone mail has functionality that Mac Mail could but doesn't have. It's not a matter of server or application configuration in this case. russinnes and Seth F. had it right.

Can I just verify, is everybody having the same problem - Mail crashes when it tries to autodiscover after entering exchange email and password? Or is that just me? Entourage autodiscovers just fine with no problem, however would rather be using mail!

Active Sync is for MOBILE DEVICES.
Nobody - not even MS puts Active Sync support in their desktop email clients.
You're not getting it.
It IS simple, but you're simply not getting it.

I've been using Entourage with Exchange without any problems. I enter the same account information into Mail, and it doesn't work. No clue why.

My suggestion is to find out from and find out what version of Exchange it is (including service packs and patches), whether or not they've enabled IMAP, and which of those services are available through their firewall. The answers to those questions will determine how you set up Mail. You could come back to these Discussions with that information and I bet someone could help. Though it is certainly possible that some configurations won't work with Mail.

I am very upset about the fact that Snow doesn't support Exchange 2003.
I though that giving the fact that the iPhone works perfectly with Exchange 2003, Apple would have delivered the Snow with the same features.
So now I have just bought my family pack for 2 Mac's and I could have avoided to spend 49 USD.
Not fair Apple.
You disappointed me for the first time.

Snow Leopard can support it if your admins enable IMAP.
Don't be mad for something that is well-documented.
Nothing unfair about it.
EXCH 2003 does not have EWS.
Complain to MS about that one.

Thank you deh2k.

I really do appreciate your helpful suggestion. Unfortunately, my company has no intention of helping me to connect to our exchange server via a mac. In fact, they have figured out what I'm trying to do and now won't even respond to simple questions like "What version of Exchange are we using?" The only way to access my work e-mail, calendar, etc. remotely is either via a VPN using my PC, or a little known "back door" OWA site that does not require a VPN. I keep hearing that our IT department will eventually catch on and close said OWA site, but in the short term I can easily access my work e-mail, calendar, etc. with my iphone by simply plugging in the OWA web address. I can't do the same with my Mac. All previous arguments aside, I have now learned that Apple could have included such functionality in Mac Mail if they had wanted to, and I'm simply surprised that they didn't. I will stop complaining at this point and just enjoy all the other benefits of SL.

Thanks again.