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Mail & Outlook Compatibility with Exchange 2003

I have just discovered that my Macbook Air (acquired 2 days ago) cannot be used with my Exchange 2003 email account (whether through Mail or Outlook), rendering it useless for me. I have spoken to Apple who, after getting me to re-enter my email account details a few times, told me that I couldn't use the Air for email without downloading Thunderbird and even then they weren't sure whether it would work.

Having been thrilled by the iPad, I made the decision to begin to swap my various Windows PCs for Macs. As it is, I now have £1,800 of equipment which, unless there is a simple workaround or software upgrade, will sit in a drawer.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Most gratefully received!

Macbook Air, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Feb 4, 2011 4:15 PM

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16 replies

Feb 4, 2011 4:53 PM in response to stephen 972

I think the real issue is on how old the mail server is, 2003 that's ridiculous. I'd recommend that be upgraded and then you won't have any problems. It have been well publicized that Mail will support Exchange Server 2007 and later. You can read more about it:



http://www.apple.com/macosx/exchange/


Another possible option is installing Office for Mac on your machine, while I'm not positive Outlook will go back to Exchange Server 2003 you can inquire and find out.

Roger

Message was edited by: rkaufmann87

Feb 4, 2011 6:14 PM in response to stephen 972

I use a MacBook Air late 2010 model with Exchange server 2003, so it is possible. The software product you need is Microsoft's Entourage 2008. It is compatible with Exchange Server 2003 and does email and calendar. Entourage 2008 is part of the Microsoft Office 2008 suite. You may be able to buy Entourage separate from the entire suite. Please note there are two versions of Entourage 2008, the regular edition and the web services edition. You need the regular edition. The web services edition is not compatible with Exchange server 2003.

Microsoft Outlook for Mac 2010 and Apple's mail are compatible with Exchange server 2007 and Exchange server 2010, which is why they don't work in your case.

Feb 4, 2011 11:54 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Hi Roger

Thanks for this.

I realise that 2003 is old but that's what my provider uses. I'm just one of thousands of customers so have no influence on their decision.

The machine's incompatibility may have been well-publicised in certain circles, but it was news to me. The website just talks of Exchange compatibility which led me to assume......as did the assurances of someone in an Apple store.

I bought office with the machine and that has the same problem....

Stephen

Jul 27, 2011 5:22 AM in response to stephen 972

I have the smae problem (exchange server 2003). I hate Entourage and want to use Apple Mail (5.0) -

all the posts say it can't be done - you can't configure apple maiol to exchange 2003 - but I don't understand:


How come my iPhone & iPad connect to the exchange server beatifully - via the webmail/OWA settings. But the same settings won't work on the desktop version of Apple Mail.


Why can't apple give me the feautre they already developed for iPhone???

Aug 8, 2011 12:14 PM in response to andytreetops

andytreetops wrote:


Hi Robot55, this is the same issue for me. Is it possible to have the ipad/iphone mail app on a mac/macair?

Not keen on spending money on entourage etc.

cheers

Andy

Simple answer: no.


iPhones and iPads uses a completely different operating system (OS. iOS version OSX.) So iPhone apps can't run on Mac, just like Windows apps can't run on Mac because they are different operationg systems. You'd need some sort of emulator, which AFAIK doesn't exist in the way I believe you would want it.


To answer Robot55's question, the reason why OSX's Mail does not work with Exchange 2003 is because Exchange 2003 uses the older ActiveSync protocol, which was designed primarily for mobile devices. (i.e.: Windows Mobile phones.) Microsoft changed the connection protocol in Exchange 2007 to Exchange Web Services (EWS) to better handle "full" clients like Outlook (and OSX Mail.)

The primary way to connect Exchange 2003 is to get the Exchange Administrator use allow IMAP or POP3 access. This will allow for email, but not for calendar.


There is a add on called Davmail. There were initial reports of bugs and such so I do not know how reliable it will be for you. I am not associated with the developer and am not endorsing the product. I mention it because it appears to be the only product addressing Exchange 2003.


As stated earlier, Exchange 2003 is old and the last service pack for it was released in 2005, I believe. I advise my clients that they should evalutate the long term stability of any provider still using Exchange 2003 and not announcing plans to update Exchange. (i.e.: why have they NOT updated Exchange? Are they going to wait until the last minute when they find out the hard way that even iPhones won't connect anymore?)


You may not want to spend money on Entourage (a discontinued product anyway.) But your Exchange administrator appears to have the same sentiment: don't spend money to upgrade Exchange. So now you're both stuck. 😟

Aug 8, 2011 12:19 PM in response to stephen 972

stephen 972 wrote:


I have just discovered that my Macbook Air (acquired 2 days ago) cannot be used with my Exchange 2003 email account (whether through Mail or Outlook), rendering it useless for me. I have spoken to Apple who, after getting me to re-enter my email account details a few times, told me that I couldn't use the Air for email without downloading Thunderbird and even then they weren't sure whether it would work.

Having been thrilled by the iPad, I made the decision to begin to swap my various Windows PCs for Macs. As it is, I now have £1,800 of equipment which, unless there is a simple workaround or software upgrade, will sit in a drawer.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Most gratefully received!

Download DavMail,


Exchange 2003 is really old, time to upgrade but DavMail will fill in the hole for now.

Aug 8, 2011 12:17 PM in response to rkaufmann87

rkaufmann87 wrote:


I think the real issue is on how old the mail server is, 2003 that's ridiculous. I'd recommend that be upgraded and then you won't have any problems. It have been well publicized that Mail will support Exchange Server 2007 and later. You can read more about it:


http://www.apple.com/macosx/exchange/


Another possible option is installing Office for Mac on your machine, while I'm not positive Outlook will go back to Exchange Server 2003 you can inquire and find out.

Roger

Message was edited by: rkaufmann87


Outlook 2011 does not support Exchange 2003, but Entourage (from Office 2008) does.

Aug 8, 2011 12:40 PM in response to Asatoran

Just to clarify a couple of the details provided above by Asatoran - Exchange 2007 and 2010 do still directly support ActiveSync, although the system administrator may have choosen to turn it off for security reasons. ActiveSync is actually the conveyance protocol which is used to connect the bulk of mobile devices (iOS or Android); it is also [more or less] the protocol which is used for 'push' mail when connecting an iOS device to some of the online groupware providers like GMail.


EWS is used by Outlook or Entourage clients to provide exchange connections securely over HTTP[s] and largely does not apply to mobile devices.


IMAP and POP are truly ancient protocols and are very insecure by comparison to ActiveSync or EWS since they allow credentials to be conveyed unencrypted. Not too many exchange sysadmins are going to be willing to allow IMAP / POP to be run on their servers. It is possible to set those up in such a way that they are relatively secure, but it's a pain in the butt to do it; I think you'd be likely to meet some resistance if requesting they be enabled.


Steven 972 - If the copy of Office you use was provided to your by the company hosting the mail then they are likely on one of the licensing schemes which allows employees to install on remote devices; that flavour of license if fairly common. If this is the case, the same licensing scheme will allow the company I.T. department access to download Entourage (2008) and provide it to you at no additional cost also, provided they are willing.


Cheers.

Aug 8, 2011 12:50 PM in response to robot55

robot55 wrote:


I have the smae problem (exchange server 2003). I hate Entourage and want to use Apple Mail (5.0) -

all the posts say it can't be done - you can't configure apple maiol to exchange 2003 - but I don't understand:


How come my iPhone & iPad connect to the exchange server beatifully - via the webmail/OWA settings. But the same settings won't work on the desktop version of Apple Mail.


Why can't apple give me the feautre they already developed for iPhone???



They chose not to, and the IOS version of mail will not run on OSX.

Mail & Outlook Compatibility with Exchange 2003

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