Chapter 3: Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Clients

Overview

As a Microsoft Exchange administrator, you need to know how to configure and maintain Exchange clients. With Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, you can use any mail client that supports standard mail protocols. For ease of administration, however, you'll want to choose a specific client for on-site users as a standard and supplement it with a specific client for off-site or mobile users. The on-site and off-site clients can be the same. I recommend focusing on Microsoft Windows Mail, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, and Outlook Web Access. Each client supports a slightly different set of features and messaging protocols, and each client has its advantages and disadvantages, including the following:

• With Outlook 2007, you get a full-featured client that on-site, off-site, and mobile users can use. Outlook 2007 is part of the Microsoft Office system of applications and is the only mail client spotlighted here that features full support for the latest messaging features in Exchange Server. Corporate and workgroup users often need its rich support for calendars, scheduling, voice mail, and e-mail management.

• With Windows Mail, you get a lightweight client that's best suited for off-site or mobile users. Windows Mail is the replacement for Outlook Express and is installed by default with Microsoft Windows Vista. Although Windows Mail supports standard messaging protocols for POP3 and IMAP4, the client doesn't support HTTP mail, calendars, scheduling, voice mail, or key messaging features of Exchange Server. Windows Mail is, however, fairly easy to configure.

• With Outlook Web Access, you get a mail client that you can access securely through a standard Web browser. With Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0 or later, Outlook Web Access supports most of the features found in Outlook 2007, including calendars, scheduling, and voice mail. With other browsers, the client functionality remains the same, but some features, such as voice mail, might not be supported. You don't need to configure Outlook Web Access on the client, and it's ideal for users who want to access e-mail while away from the office.

Outlook 2007 is the most common Exchange client for corporate and workgroup environments. With the Outlook Anywhere feature of Exchange, which eliminates the need for a virtual private network (VPN) to securely access Exchange Server over the Internet by using a remote procedure call (RPC) over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) connection, Outlook 2007 might also be your client of choice for off-site and mobile users. The catch with Outlook Anywhere is that the feature is not enabled by default, requires additional components, and is supported only when Exchange Server 2007 is running on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or later releases of Windows Server.

Windows Mail and Outlook Web Access, on the other hand, aren't designed for corporate users and are really meant for off-site or mobile users. Both clients are easy to configure and require relatively little back-end configuration. In fact, you can quickly and easily configure Exchange Server to work with these clients.

This chapter shows you how to manage Outlook 2007 and Windows Mail. Chapter 4, "Managing Mobile Messaging Users," describes using Outlook 2007, Outlook Web Access, and Outlook Anywhere.