sendmail / exchange - pine / outlook

[Fred Martin_1]

I'm currently using sendmail as my mail server. I have users with unix-only access that use Pine email, and I also have those on PCs, using Outlook and Eudora via POP3. Those users relay through sendmail. Everyone's inbox is located on the sendmail server.

Company is asking me to implement Exchange so that the Outlook users can use the tool fully, at which time the Eudora users may or may not switch to Outlook.

But - my unix users will continue to use Pine.

Question - can I continue to use sendmail as my main inbound/outbound server?

Would the Outlook users -not- have an inbox on the sendmail server?

And I'd still like all the users to still have an inbox for email on the unix box - all email users have a unix account. Or does that screw up what Exchange is trying to do for users? (I'm not familiar with the details of how Exchange works)

Any discussion would be helpful.

Fred

[Rick Garland]

Sounds like you are trying to mix apples and oranges. The outlook clients are looking for an Exchange server. In the infinite wisdom of MicroSlop's Billionaire Bill MS products talk to MS products.

[Fred Martin_1]

Well, I'm mixing because I need to; I will continue to have unix users on dumb terminals that can only use a text-based mail client such as pine or elm. But they'll be in the same domain as PC-based users with Outlook and/or some other mail client such as Eudora. I understand that only the Outlook users will be able to take advantage of what Exchange may offer. But all these folks still need email. So I'll have to get sendmail and Exchange to work together in some way.

What complicates it in my mind, is that -all- these users will need a unix account for other reasons. So doesn't that give them all an inbox on the unix machine? How will sendmail know if they have a preference for Outlook (Exchange) as opposed to the users that can only use Pine?

i.e. who is a local mail user and who gets relayed to the Exchange server?

[Rick Garland]

The questions you are asking are configuration items that can be setup in the sendmail.cf file (and others).

You are right, all accts have an inbox, by default.

You can provide a list of users to sendmail that are to be relayed to a local mail server. If a user does not exist in this list then deliver to the local mailbox on this UNIX server.

[Gerhard Roets]

Hi Fred

Well if you are going to buy exchange ... it has a built in smtp daemon so you do not need to use the unix one. But you can set up the unix one to relay to the exchange box.

The unix users can stick to pine. Exchange has IMAP and POP3 support.

The big reason people want to go to exchange is for the one thing collaboration. Syncronised address books / calenders / tasks. This is where the true selling power in exchange is and I am yet to find a free replacement that encircles all those ina single application.

Exchange is about integration and collaboration. The other option is (not to sure if you can do this) to set up a rule in exchange if it can not find the user in its directory it must send the mail on to the unix box for further processing.

Or you can teach sendmail to do that.

THe big thing is you must look at the reason they want to go to exchange. If they want to use exchange purely for email ... well then you can rather setup your outlook clients to access the unix server with pop3 / imap depending on your choice. If it is for the "funky" stuff well then you will just have to find a way to get your message delivery path setup.

I will stop rambling now and hope this gave you some thing to look / think about.

Regards
Gerhard

[Fred Martin_1]

Thanks Gerhard.

Yes, the collaboration is what the users are looking for. It sounds like Pine on the unix box can be pointed at the Exchange box, and if that's the case then I may very well shut down sendmail.

I'm still researching this and it'll be a few months before I have to make any decisions.