Server Tools and Technologies

Office 2000 and E-mail Servers

Microsoft Outlook 2000 can be used with a wide variety of e-mail servers and services. The primary e-mail servers and services supported by Outlook 2000 fall into two categories:

• Internet e-mail
• Corporate or workgroup servers

The Internet e-mail servers and services supported by Outlook 2000 must provide either the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3), or the Internet Mail Access Protocol version 4 (IMAP4). Corporate or workgroup e-mail servers supported by Outlook 2000 must support the Messaging Application Program Interface (MAPI), which includes servers such as Microsoft Exchange Server, Lotus Domino/Notes Server, and Lotus cc:Mail server.

Outlook can also be used with a variety of other messaging and information sources, including Microsoft Mail, Microsoft Fax, Hewlett-Packard OpenMail, and CompuServe. Use of these additional service providers is made possible by the way that Outlook uses the MAPI extensibility interface. If users want to use the contacts, task, and schedule features in a stand-alone configuration, they can also use Outlook without an e-mail server.

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Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 and Outlook 2000

Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 is the ideal foundation for business-critical messaging and collaboration services. The following briefly describes some of the features that are available when you use Outlook with Microsoft Exchange Server:

Message Recall   Users can recall a message from recipients who have not read it yet and then replace the recalled message with a new message.

Voting   Outlook messages can contain voting buttons that are used to request and tally responses to a multiple-choice question. When used with Microsoft Exchange Server, voting notifications are consolidated in the original message.

Offline folders and offline Address Book   When users work offline (for example, when they use their laptops), Outlook folders and the Address Book at a remote location can be synchronized with folders on an Exchange Server computer to provide the latest information.

Delegate access and folder permissions   Users can give another user permission to work in their locally stored Outlook folders and to send messages on their behalf. Similarly, Outlook users can give permission to read, modify, or create items in public and private folders on Exchange Server.

Group scheduling   Users can schedule a meeting and reserve a location and equipment, and they can see the free/busy times for meeting participants and resources.

Public folders   Users can collect, organize, and share files and Microsoft Outlook items with others on their team or across their organization. Users can participate in online discussions, or they can share a contact or task list with a group.

Organize Web pages in a public folder   Outlook users can collect Web pages for a group to share, and they can keep track of how often pages are used, when pages are updated, who owns them, and more.

Out of Office Assistant   Outlook users can manage e-mail messages while they are out of the office, and they can set up an automatic response to incoming messages to let others know that they are away.

Support for Internet messaging standards

In addition to its native Messaging Application Programming Interface (MAPI), Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 provides the Internet Mail Service, which supports the following Internet messaging standards:

• Simple Message Transfer Protocol (SMTP)
• Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3)
• Internet Message Access Protocol version 4 (IMAP4)
• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) version 3
• Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)

These features let you choose the protocols you need to support message delivery across a variety of e-mail clients. For example, when using Microsoft Exchange Internet Mail Service, any e-mail client that supports SMTP and POP3 (such as Outlook Express, Netscape Navigator Mail, and Eudora) can be used to send and retrieve messages from an Exchange Server computer.

Support for NNTP in the Exchange News Service allows you to publish and replicate Exchange public folders as newsgroups by using Exchange or Outlook management tools. Similarly, users can use Outlook or any Web browser or newsreader to post and read messages in public folders that are published as newsgroups.

In addition to providing support for Internet messaging protocols, Microsoft Exchange also provides Exchange Active Server Components, which provide integration with Microsoft Internet Information Server using applications developed by using Active Server Pages (ASP) pages. Exchange Active Server Components allow users to access their private mailboxes, schedule data, public folder discussions, and directory information residing on an Exchange Server computer by using a Web browser.

Exchange Server provides the Outlook Web Access application, which is an ASP application that can be used to view e-mail messages, public folders, and the Global Address list from any browser that supports Java controls, JavaScript, and frames. Developers can also use Exchange Active Server Components features to provide Web access to Exchange e-mail, schedule, discussion, and directory information from custom applications developed by using ASP pages.

Support for connectivity and interoperability

Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 provides broad support for connectivity and interoperability with other Exchange e-mail systems as well as other e-mail systems. To do this, Microsoft Exchange Server uses one of its built-in connectors. The family of messaging connectors that comes with Exchange Server 5.5 Enterprise can be divided into two general groups: site connectors and gateway connectors. Site connectors allow you to connect Microsoft Exchange Server sites together. Gateway connectors are used to connect Microsoft Exchange Servers to foreign messaging systems.

The following briefly summarizes the features of the Microsoft Exchange Server site connectors:

Site Connector   Requires LAN-like connections because remote procedure call (RPC) connectivity must be established between sites, therefore requiring more available network bandwidth than other connectors. You can use the Site Connector to connect Exchange sites only; you cannot use it to connect to foreign messaging systems.

X.400 Connector   Used to connect Microsoft Exchange servers to foreign X.400 systems. The X.400 Connector supports the TCP/IP, TP4, or X.25 transport stacks.

Dynamic Remote Access Service (RAS) Connector   Uses dial-up connections to transfer messages to other sites. After a dial-up connection has been established, the Dynamic RAS Connector uses RPC over the TCP/IP, SPX/IPX, or NetBEUI network protocols to transfer the data. Dial-up links such as phone lines or ISDN links are usually not as fast as other network connections. For this reason, do not use the Dynamic RAS Connector as the primary site connector unless no other network connectivity is available.

Internet Mail Service   Allows you to connect sites together through the Internet or an intranet. You can also use Internet Mail Service to connect an organization to foreign systems that support using either the Simple Message Transfer Protocol (SMTP) or the Extended SMTP (ESMTP) protocol. The SMTP and ESMTP protocols are used on top of TCP/IP to transfer messages. Dial-up and permanent connections are supported.

The following briefly summarizes the features of the Microsoft Exchange Server gateway connectors:

Microsoft Mail Connector   Provides connectivity to Microsoft Mail networks. The Microsoft Mail connector uses LAN, X.25, and dial-up connections.

Microsoft Exchange Connector for Lotus cc:Mail   Provides connectivity to one Lotus cc:Mail post office per Exchange Server computer.

Lotus Notes Connector   Provides connectivity to a single Lotus Notes/Domino server through the corresponding Lotus Notes client software. The Lotus Notes/Domino server and the Exchange Server running the connector service act as bridgehead servers. This way, the connector can couple your entire organization with multiple Lotus Notes domains.

OfficeVision/VM Connector   Available only with Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Enterprise Edition. Provides connectivity to mainframe messaging systems. The OfficeVision/VM Connector provides connectivity to IBM PROFS Version 2 Release 2 Modification Level 2, IBM OfficeVision/VM Release 2 Modification Level 0, and others. The connector requires a Microsoft SNA server in your network and an SNA client (3270 terminal emulation) installed on the Exchange Server computer.

SNA Distribution Services (SNADS) Connector   Available only with Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Enterprise Edition. Connects your organization to a variety of messaging systems that rely on Systems Network Architecture (SNA) Distribution Services (SNADS). Like the OfficeVision/VM Connector, the SNADS Connector uses an SNA server to provide an SNA connection to host-based messaging systems such as IBM OfficeVision/400, Verimation Memo, NB Systems TOSS, and others.

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Other e-mail servers

Outlook 2000 supports sending and receiving e-mail messages through Internet e-mail servers and services that provide either the SMTP or POP3 protocols or the IMAP4 protocol. Outlook 2000 also supports servers and gateways that support the MAPI standard. See your e-mail server’s product documentation for information about support for these protocols and standards.

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See also

For information about evaluating and deploying Outlook 2000 see the Microsoft Outlook Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/outlook/.

For information about upgrading to Outlook 2000 and sharing information with other e-mail clients, see Upgrading to Outlook 2000.

For information about using Outlook 2000 and other Office applications with Internet e-mail servers and clients and Web servers, see Managing Communications on Your Intranet.

For additional product information about Microsoft Exchange Server, see the Microsoft Exchange Server Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/.

For information about implementing and troubleshooting Exchange Server, see the TechNet Reference Exchange Server Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/resource/technet/servers/exchange/.

To download Exchange Server sample collaboration applications and tools, see the TechNet Exchange Application Downloads Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/technet/resource/downloads/exchange/.