Wintivity

Microsoft Exchange Server is available to Client systems via a variety of methods outside of the local network.

• OWA – Outlook Web Access
• OMA – Microsoft Mobile Access
• Outlook using RPC over HTTP

These (among others) are some of the more popular ways that knowledge workers access their mail, calendars, tasks etc… from Exchange Server while outside of the office.

Outlook using RPC (remote procedure call) over HTTP is very popular for those workers who need the full Outlook experience (more than just email). Using Outlook RPC/HTTP gives the Client access to Public and Shared Company Folders in real time that would only available “Offline” as Favorites otherwise.

So what about the Mac? Can the Mac access Microsoft Exchange Server using Outlook RPC over HTTP?

If you are using Entourage (Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac), Exchange Server based email boxes, Public Folders, and more.. can still be accessed via a similar method to RPC over HTTP. Entourage makes use of WebDav (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) to securely access your Exchange mailbox using the Entourage for Mac.

How to do it?

First, launch your web browser and navigate the URL where Exchange can be accessed

Microsoft Exchange Server generally will have a certificate of some kind installed. This encrypts traffic (and your credentials) so they cannot be easily read. If the Certificate is not trusted by your browser and/or application, it will cause an error to be thrown.

To make things a little smoother, Trust the Certificate. View the warning window carefully. Select to “Show the Certificate”

as you view the Certificate, look for an select the Trust drop down

Select Always Trust Certificate

Enter your password.

You can then view Keychain Access to confirm that you Certificate has been trusted.

Now you should be able to view the Exchange Outlook Web Access page without difficulty or error

Now Setup your Entourage Account access to Exchange. Go to Tools | Accounts

For the Account type, select Exchange

Setup the Exchange Account manually by clicking the “Manually” button

You may now edit the individual account settings to access Exchange:

Remember as you enter data here that Entourage communicates with Microsoft Exchange differently than Outlook does on the PC. Entourage uses WebDav. Entourage also uses a slightly different set of conventions in entering credentials.

• Account name:
• Personal Information
  • Name: your Full Name
  • E-mail address: your Email Address
• Authentication
  • Account ID: your Windows username for the Domain your Exchange Server is a member of
  • Domain: the name of the Domain
  • Password: your password
• Server information
  • Exchange server: enter the URL used to access your Exchange Server online
  • [ ] DAV service: be sure to CHECK THE BOX to secure the connection over WebDav. This uses the certificate you Trusted earlier to encrypt your credentials as you logon to Exchange.

Go back to Entourage and check your mail. At this point you may begin to see some activity:

That’s it. Grab a glass of water at the cooler. Talk about some fun stuff and then… get to work.