Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

I've been given the honour of bringing our companies computer & email system up to date.

As it seems 3/4 of the people on here do IT "stuff" I'm hoping Scoobynet will come through for me again

I've already got a new dedicated PC to act as a server.
Installed Win2K server
- set up the individual user accounts in an Active Directory
Installed Exchange 5.5
- Attempted to set up one user account and got stuck!

Now I always thought it was going to take a bit of configuring but bl**dy hell!

We have 5 PC's networked via 10/100 Ethernet to a hub which is cross linked to an IP router which acts as a DHCP server as well as a fire wall.
The IP router connects via dialup to an ISP and we use NAT to allow all the PC's
to access the internet.

What we wanted was to have a centralised email system like what Exchange seems to offer. Unfortunately, although it says it caters for smaller networks as well as large networks, I have a feeling this is a little overkill for our needs.
mind you, this view maybe because I'm having great difficulty in configuring it.
I've been through the entire "getting started" documentation on the Exchange CD
and followed the steps that are relevant to my small company. No where have I seen where in Exchange i tell it to look at pop3.btinternet.com and the username and password are.... etc

Can someone please point me in the direction of an easy to follow guide to setting up Exchange 5.5 for a small company/amount of users?
Either that or put me out of my misery!

Matt

Puff The Magic Wagon!

iTrader: (2)

Where are you stuck?

What is your problem & what is not functioning?

ChrisB

Hi Matt,

It sounds like you are trying to get Exchange to collect the mail from the POP3 mailboxes provided by BT Internet.

Unless you are using the slightly modified version of Exchange that came with SBS 4.5, you will need a 3rd party plug in for Exchange to talk to the POP3 server.

Have a look at http://www.slipstick.com/exs/popconnect.htm for some solutions.

Once you know your way around it, Exchange isn't bad on a simple level but is overkill for some companies.

Have a look at VPOP3 (http://www.pscs.co.uk/products/vpop3/index.html which is a lot smaller and cheaper.

ChrisB.

ChrisB

Oh, and in theory you can use a special connector to link the Active Directory accounts / users in the Exchange recipients container.

Never tried it meself though...

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

Thanks guys.

I've finished it for today. My head hurts from all that reading

you've given me new hope for tomorrows titanic battle

Matt

Sue

Matt...and you never asked me?....lol

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

No, I'm too busy speaking to you about other things!

Can you help with this then?

Matt

POC

Exchange is simple (then again, I am MCSE, MCP etc)

You will need a third party peice of SW in order to pull email from POP3 mailboxes. Set you 3rd party SW to forward the mail onto you SMTP server (exchange).

You will need to create an 'Internet mail connector' within exchange, this is simple too, once conected, set the routing to accept mail for your domain. You will also be able to set the IMC to use the DNS on your router to forward out the mail, or you can specify which SMTP server you would like to bounce your email off.

Hope this helps, I only say it is simple cos I install/admin/rollout this SW daily, I spose it could seem a little daunting to a newbie...

Cheers

P

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

Cheers POC,

I'm going to be studying for an MCSE next year. Really want a change of profession. Thought I'd wait for the new XP exams to filter through.

Matt
P.S. thanks for the help! might be asking you more tomorrow!

ChrisB

I dunno POC - it's IMS in 5.5, not IMC

POC

Within Exchange it is called the 'Internet Mail Connector' (IMC)

Within services it is refered to as 'Internet Mail Service' (IMS)

Cheers

P

marky_babe

exchange is evil

format the hard disk and install linux, exim, imap and php-groupware. then you are laughing.

show us the problems though, and we can see if can sort it out.

Neanderthal

iTrader: (6)

Thanks everyone, still not working though

This is where I've got to at the moment.

Installed w2K server.
Installed the active directory (converted the drive to NTFS)
Set up User aaounts for everyone in a domain.

Installed Exchange 5.5
Installed VPOP3 and followed the instructions to the letter.
it finished saying "you have now configured Exchange to
work with VPOP3"
The internet connection module thingy is set to look at the
IP address of the router
Set up 1 user account in exchange (as far as I know - correctly)

What do I do now? I can't see anywhere that tells exchange to go and check for emails every nth minutes? I see that there are loads of exchange services running "behind the scenes" but do I have to load the "exchange Server load"? all this seems to show is a performance graph??

I think I've reached the point where I just can't go any further. Does anyone know somewhere that has call out technicians that could come and sort this (probably only take the gits an hour!)?.

Unfortunately I'm thinking it'll be expensive and I'm already in the dog house at work(think they are trying to get rid of me) so going up to the partners and saying "sorry, I can't do it, but if you want to pay someone £200they'll come and do it for you"

Matt

POC

Hi mate, sorry to see that the pressure is on!

Exchange itself would not be picking up the mail from a POP3 account, it sounds like you have a thirdparty peice of software to check the mail in the POP account...... you will need to set the VPOP thingy to forward mail onto the SMTP (exchange) server, once this is done, exchange will the forward the mail onto the individual mailboxes......

In short, exhange will not pick the mail from the POP3 mailbox, you will need to use VPOP (or a.n.other) to grab the mail and pour it into exchange....

Mail me offline if you need more pointers mate, dont let them wear you down!

Paul