Re: [cobalt-users] Raq4 e-mail and Microsoft exchange

["Eddie Bishop" <cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> On 12/2/02 8:36 AM, "Paul Shuttleworth" wrote:
> 
>> Hi All
>> 
>> I have a client who wants to give us his web and mail hosting.
>> They run Microsoft Exchange in the office as a mail server and are using it
>> through a dial up to collect emails from their ISP. They are talking about
>> needing SMTP relay for this

I've had some grief with this as well.

Exchange Server, by itself, cannot POP a mailbox on your Cobalt and then
distribute messages to its users. It needs the messages to be queued onto it
and then it delivers them as if it were a mail server, not a mail client. I
have heard this facility, provided by the (external, Internet) mail server,
referred to as "SMTP queueing" but also as "Extended Turn (ETRN)". Some ISPs
charge a premium for it - the last time I checked Demon were asking over 100
pounds per month.

I don't know how to set it up on a server but I'm told it requires either a
static IP for the Exchange Server, or that the dialup server recognises the
Exchange Server when it connects, then tells the mail server to push the
messages onto its dynamic IP as if it were another mailserver. Seems weird,
I know. I've tried to make sense of it from MS documentation but gave up.

Anyway, the best solution seems to be applied at the client end. You can get
a program called a "POP connector" which does POP the Cobalt, then parses
the headers and requeues the messages to Exchange. The one I used
successfully is POPWeasel (www.mailgate.com/products/wfeatures.asp).

Later/different versions of Exchange - eg Small Business Server (SBS) - have
this feature built in; I have several clients using them successfully.

Further to previous replies, two more things to watch out for:

1 Make sure the MS server is set to POP frequently enough to keep the
POPB4SMTP window open, maybe every 30 minutes. When a user sends mail from
their mail client it will go straight to the SMTP server on the Cobalt. But
also, make sure they don't set it to POP every minute or something (I've had
this done to me on two occasions by "MCSEs".

2 If you get a chance, try to explain to the client that they could do
exactly the same thing by getting a router and having you set up individual
user mailboxes for their domain on your Cobalt. Their users would then get
their mail instantly on demand instead of having to wait for the next server
POP; and you and they wouldn't have this MS rubbish to worry about!

Good luck

--
Eddie