Annoyance: Outlook 2003 with separate IMAP and Exchange

[CG]

We added SBS 2003 (which includes Exchange) to our office lan for
network authentication, roaming profiles, intellimirror, shared
calendars/contacts, and sharepoint portal. We aren't using exchange as
our MTA.

We use Outlook 2003 to read email and share calendars. When we send
interoffice email, frequently it will go through exchange instead of
through our pre-existing MTA. POP3 users notice nothing different.
IMAP users have two inboxes to check, which is annoying and leads to
email not being read.

Everyone in the office set their default account to our external MTA,
but after using "Send To Mail Recipient" or sending documents through
Office, Exchange will butt-in and make itself the default account. The
entire office tries to remember to select the proper "Account" from
the account drop-down, but it is often overlooked.

Training isn't the best solution, though. The best solution is to be
able to select an account as default and have it stick. Please advise!

TIA

CG

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

We added SBS 2003 (which includes Exchange) to our office lan for
network authentication, roaming profiles, intellimirror, shared
calendars/contacts, and sharepoint portal. We aren't using exchange as
our MTA.

Mind if I ask why not?

We use Outlook 2003 to read email and share calendars. When we send
interoffice email, frequently it will go through exchange instead of
through our pre-existing MTA.

See reply two 'sections' down....

POP3 users notice nothing different.

IMAP users have two inboxes to check, which is annoying and leads to
email not being read.

That's just how IMAP works.

Everyone in the office set their default account to our external MTA,
but after using "Send To Mail Recipient" or sending documents through
Office, Exchange will butt-in and make itself the default account. The
entire office tries to remember to select the proper "Account" from
the account drop-down, but it is often overlooked.

Why not send all outbound mail out via Exchange anyway, even if you stick
with these extra accounts? Does this cause problems? What domain is
specified in your recipient policy? If it's a .local, you can add
yourdomain.com so that all users get that inherited and use it as the
default.

Training isn't the best solution, though. The best solution is to be
able to select an account as default and have it stick. Please advise!

I've seen this reported, but am not sure how to make the default account
'stick' - and honestly, rather than bandaiding, I think you're much better
off centralizing all your mail on Exchange - it's very easy to do, lets you
use OWA, centralize all mail scanning/content filtering, etc. Although
OL2002 and up support multiple account types (which prior versions didn't),
it's still not recommended practice from an Exchange perspective. Have you
looked into hosting your own mail? It's easy to set up and can be done even
if you have a dynamic IP....I can give you links if you're interested.