[ale] MS Echange and Linux

[Randy Janinda]

After last nights meeting & the Exchange discussion I have found the following info:

MS Exchange 5.5 has IMAP4 and POP3 enabled by default.
You (or your admin) can verify this by using the Exchange Administrator and selecting
the mail server, then select config, then select protocols. You will see a list of the protocols supported.
I understand that POP3 support does require additional setup, so I selected IMAP4. There is a box
that says "Enable Protocol" as well as options to allow anonymous access, and standard MS admin stuff.
I also noted that the default idle-timeout is set to 30 minutes.

To test this try telneting to "yourmail.server.addr 143". You should be greeted by:
Connected to your.mailserver.com.
Escape character is '^]'.
* OK Microsoft Exchange IMAP4rev1 server version 5.5.2448.8 (your.mailserver.com) ready

The thing to do here is start entering commands. The format is as follows:

SequenceNumber Command Options (i.e 1 login yourlogin yoursecret)

The sequence number isn't important and you can use the same sequence number for every command. It appers
to be the way IMAP handles errors (maybe). You will get a return statement for everything you do example:

1 OK LOGIN completed

Which means: SequenceNumber Status Command completed

With IMAP4 you can add and delete folders, move messages and even use the "Shared/Public Folders".
If you want to play with this I recommend reading the RFC on IMAP4. There is a list of acceptable commands.

Finally, I use Fetchmail to retrieve my messages from the Exchange server then allow Sendmail to handle it when 
it gets to my machine. I can now officially say I am free from the tyranical rule of MS.

I would appreciate info from those who disagree with what I have said. I am not an email admin and know very little
if anything about Exchange. I found this information by scanning, dumping and trying.

This is an area that I feel needs attention since many Linux users work in an MS environment.

Regards,

Randy Janinda


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