Wednesday, October 27, 2004

IMAP(ing) your way to multiple inboxes

I have SBS 2003 running at my house, the curious thing is I have Exchange running at my house too. As you probably know, you cannot have two Exchange servers configured in a single Outlook profile. Sure you can have multiple profiles, but who wants to shut Outlook down to check if you have email at home? I didn't.

I just turned on the IMAP folders on SBS and added an IMAP server to my Exchange profile, now I can check both email accounts without having to close and re-open Outlook.

Here's how I configured the IMAP server:

  1. in the services.msc snap-in, I just started the Microsoft Exchange IMAP4 service by setting it to automatic and then started

  2. Open port 143 (TCP only) and ensure it's pointed at the server (if you're using a router box)

That's all there is to it.

Now from your Outlook client or Mobile device client, you can set-up a new email server and check the email from both the Exchange server, and the IMAP server (other Exchange server).

One more point, in Outlook if you're trying to delete messages and they are only getting stroked out, be sure to check out Edit, Perge Deleted Messages to actually remove these from the server. They will be permanently deleted though.

Also, all sent email via the IMAP server (change this by chosing the Accounts button on the new mail message window) will end up in the Exchange Server's sent items, instead of the remote IMAP servers sent items.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

so how do i actually turn this feature off, if you dont mind me asking?

Sean Daniel said...

Well, it's off by default, otherwise you can just stop the IMAP service and close port 143 on your network firewall.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tips (I've got a similar setup at home), I've been up all night trying to figure it out using SSL.. Once I stopped trying to use my self-signed cert (in use for exchange-activesync-push capability) and went with port 143, it just worked. What am I missing trying to set up the SSL IMAP4 connection?

Sean Daniel said...

Hrm, I'm not sure, I have never used IMAP4 SSL, is the IMAP virtual directory configured to use the proper certificate?

Anonymous said...

I've implemented IMAPS (SSL encrypted) as I didn't like the idea of credentials passing in clear text. It works. My issue has been trying to replicate the steps needed and blogging this. All I can say is doh! In any case I've also had to adjust ISA for this traffic too. Check out my blog for whatever I wrote many months ago. If you need some help, duit-at-fuse-dot-net.

Cengiz Ulusahin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cengiz Ulusahin said...

Hi,

I have a problem with sending emails. I setup IMAP on one of my remote computers and I can receive emails fine into its outlook. But I cannot send. The emails never reach the recepients. Outlook does not register any errors nor there are undelivered messeages on my SBS 03 server. Messeages always end up in the sent folder hence a sign of delivery. I think the server is configured correctly. I've opened the IMAP port on my server router. I cannot figure out what the problems is. Help!

Sean Daniel said...

Hi Cengiz,

It's possible that the mail messages are getting filtered out by spam filters at the other end. if you cannot find the email message in a Queue on the server, it has left the server, but it's potential that the remote server considers your mail as spam, either because of your IP address, or how your domain name is configured.

Cengiz Ulusahin said...

Well definetly nothing do with my IP address or domain name. Until now, I was using SMTP with my remote computer. I was dialing in via VPN connection and using exchange with outlook. I had no troubles sending mail inside or outside my domain. Hotmail, gmail, yahoo... Ohh by the way I forgot to say in my last post, currenlty I can send emails within my domain using IMAP. Only emails directed to addresses outside my domain don't reach to their destinations. One more thing, I have no security certificate installed on my server. And somebody told me IMAP causes problems when no security certificate is installed. Is this true?

Sean Daniel said...

Cengiz,

This is definately just something with your configuration. I'm not exactly sure how to help troubleshoot without getting access to your machine.

Cengiz Ulusahin said...

Hey,

I found what the problem was, it was my anti spam. Called the support line, changed some settings and it's sorted. Tks for your help though.

Sean Daniel said...

Excellent! I appreciate the follow up.

web hosting UK said...

"Open port 143 (TCP only) and ensure it's pointed at the server (if you're using a router box)" - I have applied this step and voila my problem was fixed. Thanks for the tips.

web design perth said...

Thanks for this process. I've tried several workarounds and got frustrated, luckily, I found this.

web design melbourne said...

It's easy to follow. Thanks for these steps!

long island seo said...

It worked for me! Thanks for that. This step-by-step procedure is definitely easy to follow.

reseller hosting services said...

You can use Thunderbird for a more functional features. Email hosting sites must have a system that will deliver all the clients needs.

white label seo said...

Thunderbird is one of the best email hosts. I also recommend this one. It has a lot of features that will surely be beneficial on your part.