Email questions on exchange server

[Curt Shumaker]

Question: My corporate email is run through Outlook 2003. I am NOT given access to the enterprise server. I have asked and they will not give me the access as they don't want to buy more licenses.

As a result, I have always put a "rule" in outlook to push my email to a gmail account, which I would check via the verizon mobile web on my Krazr phone. Worked ok, at best.

The issue I have run into is replying to an email while using this method. Gmail allows me to show any "return" address I would like. So, I could show my corporate email address in the "reply from" line. The issue, though, is that gmail then lists text that says something to the effect of "sent on behalf of..." in the header. So, anyone can then tell it's not coming from my corporate email account.

We do have access to Outlook Web Access; however, my Company requires us to use a token to access it - it's a VPN tunnel protected through a random password assignment code via a portable "token." So, I would have to log in every time I wanted to check my mail. It's not convenient, to say the least.

The only option I have come up with is to run a redirector on my desktop to send the mail to my device.

I can use active sync 4.5 on my smartphone to "pull" the email from the exchange server, but I don't know if my Company will allow me b/c I don't know if they need another license to do that. If not, how do I go about setting it up?

Is there another option I can use to get my Coporate email and be able to respond to it without others' knowing which account I am using?

Thank you for your help,
Shumax

 

[N. Miller]

Question: My corporate email is run through Outlook 2003. I am NOT given
access to the enterprise server. I have asked and they will not give me
the access as they don't want to buy more licenses.

They don't need extra licenses to give you access. OTOH, they probably don't
want to let any ordinary employee have administrative access to the server.

As a result, I have always put a "rule" in outlook to push my email to a
gmail account, which I would check via the verizon mobile web on my Krazr
phone. Worked ok, at best.

The issue I have run into is replying to an email while using this method.
Gmail allows me to show any "return" address I would like. So, I could show
my corporate email address in the "reply from" line. The issue, though, is
that gmail then lists text that says something to the effect of "sent on
behalf of..." in the header. So, anyone can then tell it's not coming from
my corporate email account.

I don't think anybody would be fooled, even if Gmail didn't include the
original sender information in the headers. The email has "Gmail" stamped
all over it; regardless of the "Return-Path:" and "Sender:" header lines.

We do have access to Outlook Web Access; however, my Company requires us to
use a token to access it - it's a VPN tunnel protected through a random
password assignment code via a portable "token." So, I would have to log in
every time I wanted to check my mail. It's not convenient, to say the least.

Logging in is never convenient; but always a necessary evil when accessing
an e-mail service from outside of the IP network for that e-mail service.
Some providers just don't allow access from outside of their IP network at
all; you should be happy that you are given access from outside of the IP
network, and just log in to gain access.

The only option I have come up with is to run a redirector on my desktop to
send the mail to my device.

I can use active sync 4.5 on my smartphone to "pull" the email from the
exchange server, but I don't know if my Company will allow me b/c I don't
know if they need another license to do that. If not, how do I go about
setting it up?

"Pulling" email from a server is what clients do. Your employer doesn't need
a "per server access" license. They only need a license for each instance of
an MSFT application that is running. One installation of Exhange needs only
one license. Each installation of Outlook needs a license; but, if you use
Mozilla Thunderbird, or any other non-MSFT client, to pull email from the
Exchange server, you only need a license from the publisher of that
application.

Is there another option I can use to get my Coporate email and be able to
respond to it without others' knowing which account I am using?

I don't see a problem with using your smartphone "active sync" application
to pull the email from the Corporate mail server. And I certainly don't see
why you need to access that server from outside of the Corporate IP network
without logging in. The Corporate administrators want to limit access only
to Corporate employees who are authorized to use that server; log in
requirements enforce that limitation.