Standard Internet Mail Clients

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One of the goals of Exchange 2000 Server is to continue to comply with the standards being used by the Internet community. Because Exchange 2000 Server is compliant with several popular Internet protocols, it can be used as the messaging server for third-party e-mail clients, provided that the clients are also compliant with those protocols.

If you are running third-party Internet mail client software as either a POP3 client or an IMAP 4 client, you can use Exchange 2000 Server as your messaging server. Although Outlook Express is a Microsoft product, it is a good example of the type of software we're talking about here. Outlook Express really has nothing specifically to do with Exchange Server; you could use it to get your email from your local ISP and to read newsgroup messages from a UNIX-based news server somewhere on the Internet. In the case of Outlook Express, Exchange Server might never even enter the picture.

Non-Windows Platforms

In our discussions of clients using Exchange 2000 Server, we've usually assumed that they've been running on a Windows platform. How do non-Windows operating systems connect with Exchange 2000 Server? Let's look at two other popular operating systems: UNIX and Macintosh.

UNIX Clients

No Outlook client exists for the UNIX operating system, so UNIX users have one of two choices for connecting to Exchange 2000 Server:

• Internet mail client A UNIX-based, third-party Internet mail client can be used to access messages from Exchange 2000 Server over either the POP3 or IMAP4 protocols.
• Outlook Web Access Because OWA runs in a standard browser, UNIX users can access their e-mail using their own Web browser.

Macintosh Clients

Macintosh clients have three choices for accessing Exchange 2000 Server:

• Outlook 8.2.2 Microsoft's Outlook client for Macintosh provides functionality similar to that of its 32-bit Windows counterpart. A new release of Outlook is in the works to enable Macintosh users to take advantage of more of the functionality of Exchange 2000 Server.
• Internet mail client Like UNIX users, Macintosh users can access Exchange 2000 Server with their own POP3 or IMAP4 e-mail clients.
• Outlook Web Access OWA is also accessible from a Macintosh-based Web browser.

As you can see, the client choices for the UNIX and Macintosh operating systems are extensive. Exchange 2000 Server gives the user a variety of ways to access messages, regardless of the operating system.