Chapter 17: Overview of Exchange Clients

Overview

Up to this point, we have focused primarily on the server aspect of the Exchange environment, because this book is primarily about administering Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. However, a server does not operate in a void; clients must connect to it to complete the picture.

This is the first of four chapters that examine the deployment of clients in an Exchange organization. This chapter introduces you to the main types of clients that you might find in your Exchange environment:

• Microsoft Outlook

• Microsoft Outlook Express

• Microsoft Outlook Web Access

• Exchange Client

• Microsoft Schedule+

• Standard Internet e-mail clients

• UNIX clients

• Macintosh clients

Each of these can be used as a client in an Exchange organization. Because the focus of this book is Exchange Server 2003, and because each of these clients has a wide range of functionality and features, we do not describe each client in depth. Instead, this chapter simply introduces the major types of Exchange client software. Chapter 18, “Deploying Outlook 2003,” covers the deployment of the standard desktop client, Outlook 2003, in more detail. Chapter 19, “Supporting Outlook Web Access,” focuses on Outlook Web Access; and Chapter 20, “Supporting Internet Protocols and SMTP,” looks at using other types of Internet Protocols to access Exchange Server 2003.