HowTo: Thunderbird & MS Exchange Server

Filed under: Business, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, E-mail, Office, Mozilla, How-Tos

HowTo: Thunderbird & MS Exchange Server

by Ryan Sullivan Mar 30th 2007

As you might be able to tell, we are avid Firefox fanatics at Download Squad. However, there are still a lot of people who don't use the entire Mozilla suite and are using Outlook for all their stand-alone email needs at home and at the office. This is due to the fact that most companies use Outlook and, as such, people are familiar with it. At Download Squad we like to say, familiarity breeds contempt.

So, here's an alternative. What's the word? Thunderbird.

You might have a puzzled look on your face right now. Maybe you even use Thunderbird at home but, at work? That's nonsense you say. Your IT department configures your Outlook client to work with the Exchange server. Fear not! It is now possible to use Thunderbird at home and work and still get all of your exchange server email as well as your company's Global Address Book.

First up, download Thunderbird if you haven't already, version 2.0 beta 2 worked best for me and has an up-to-date user interface that resembles Firefox's UI.

Full instructions after the jump.

To set up an email account that will receive the exchange server email with Thunderbird follow these instructions:

Go to Tools > Account Settings
Account Settings
Your Name can be anything
Email Address should be your work email address (including the "@work.com")
In Server Settings, Server Type should be IMAP Mail Server
Server Name: In Outlook, go to Tools > Address Book and right-click on the pull-down on the top right (it should say "Global Address Book") and select properties. The new window will have a text box that has your current server name in it, this is what you put into Thunderbird's server name box.
User name should be your login name for your PC
"Never" should be selected for secure connection
Edit the default outgoing server (SMTP)
Description can be anything
Server Name: In Outlook, go to Tools > Email Accounts > View/Change Existing > Next and double click on your default MS Exchange Server. In the new pop-up window, the top text box is the one with your outgoing server name. It might be something like server.work.com. Just put in "server" into Thunderbird's server name box, you don't need the ".work.com" part.
Check "Use name and password "
"User Name" should be your login name for your PC
"No" should be selected for "Use secure connection"
All other choices can be left as default, and you should now be able to get your email

To get your personal folder from Outlook to Thunderbird (This is what will take the longest amount of time):

Thunderbird does not recognize outlook's .pst files, these are your separate folders that are not part of your general Inbox in Outlook, they are proprietary to Microsoft. For example, you might have an "Archived" folder that has more general folders in it that contain old emails that you wish to keep around. Just move the folders within "Archived" to your general Inbox. This step is necessary for Outlook Express to see them, it won't see your "Archived" folder
You then need to open Outlook Express and import those folders that you moved to your general Inbox that you want in Thunderbird (file > import > messages, MS Outlook, select folders)
In Thunderbird, Tools > Import > Mail > Outlook Express and select all the folders you want to import

Setting up Thunderbird to access your work's Global Address Book:

First off, get your Global Address Book server name. In Outlook, Tools > Address Book. Then right-click on "Global Address List" that appears in a drop-down menu and select "Properties". Copy the server name under "The current server is:".
In Thunderbird, Tools > Address Book
File > new > LDAP Directory
In the General tab, name it whatever you want to, and paste the server name into the "Hostname" area.
Base DN is going to be the stuff after junk separated by commas and set equal to dc. For example, using junk.work.com as your server name it would be dc=work,dc=com
Port number = 389 (default) then ok.

When I first did this, my email worked correctly, but my Global Address Book was a bit sluggish. I found out that it is easier to do a search for a contact instead of waiting for the entire Global Address Book to load then scrolling around to find the contact I need.

Some of these settings might be different for you, such as your PC login name being your MS Exchange Server login name. Don't be afraid to test out different settings if these don't work out for you on your first try. If your persistence does not pay off, give your IT department a call and see if they can troubleshoot it with you. They will not be able to do it themselves because Thunderbird is most likely not supported by them, but neither is Firefox and look at what a pro you are at that!

Tags: email, Mozilla, MS Exchange Server, MsExchangeServer, Thunderbird

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Eagle117 said 3:16PM on 3-30-2007

Good luck finding a company that will let you use an IMAP connection. I know I wouldn't let anyone, much less help anyone, connect to my Exchange server this way.

MM said 3:24PM on 3-30-2007

I guess I'm the lucky one. My company let us us use the exchange server as IMAP server

Zerbe said 4:49PM on 3-30-2007

I was able to get the mail to work, but the Global Address List wouldnt, I even got an LDAP browser to try and help, but I guess I dont know enough about it to. I could see everything in it, but not thru TB.

Ryan Sullivan said 4:53PM on 3-30-2007

Zerbe, what is your full global address book server name?

Jay Hash said 6:28PM on 3-30-2007

It might help if the writers actually had their how to make sense. After downloading and installing the program, the directions pretty much stop making sense after you put in the e-mail address you want to link to it. And what about the fact that when I right click my address book's drop down bar I get a "c:\documents and Settings...etc" command line? Doesn't make any sense. If someone could revamp these and actually follow along with the setup instructions actually included in the program, that'd be great. I mean the step by step LOOKS great, but doesn't follow along at all. Is it just me? Any Help would be great.

Thunderbirder said 8:34PM on 3-30-2007

What about meeting notices that come through Outlook and land on a calendar in Outlook. Thunderbird does not support that currently, correct?

Ryan Sullivan said 9:38PM on 3-30-2007

Jay, i'm sorry that you are having difficulties with my instructions, but i assure you that i, myself, did this at my work step by step. Any troubles i ran across i passed them by the IT dept. Are you sure that you are using an ms exchange account? if you go into tools > email accounts > view existing email account (all in outlook of course). is there just one email account and is it a ms exchange server? I'm just asking because it seems strange to me that a global address book would be stored on your local hard drive. you might want to double check with your IT department.

@Thunderbirder,
Thunderbird does work with meeting notices, but not to the extent that outlook does. if you get an invite to a meeting you will see the normal accept/decline buttons. But you need to have the Thunderbird extension version of Lightening, mozilla's calendar program. They have a standalone version of it, but the extension version operates more like the total outlook package. However, if you do accept or decline a meeting invite Thunderbird will not send the requester a notification of your reply. Something that needs a bit of work, but the total package of TB 2.0 beta 2 has completely surpassed its former versions in a lot of ways. here is the link to the extension version of the calendar: http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/lightning/download.html

ninjamonkey said 6:30PM on 4-01-2007

THe company I work for act as a helpdesk for several smb's. generally we have pop3 and imap turned off, so the only way to interface is with smtp. The only times we have imap turned on is if the company use some macs, but this is few and far between. However the latest mac we have built was configured with office 2004 & tthe exchange server, so I don't even think imap is needed anymore.
If I'm doing some work from home, I either use OWA for email, or a vpn & rdc to the office machines, or a ts server.

paulo_sousa said 6:46AM on 4-06-2007

My company is tried of helping Microsoft Survive, so we are trying Thunderbird out. i am having a problem with the Global Address Book though.... I have the feeling I am getting my Port number wrong in the Directory Server Properties. Can anybody give me a hand on how to check which port number I am using?

cheers!

Ryan Sullivan said 8:36AM on 4-06-2007

@paulo
That port should be default. What do you have set up for 4 and 5 of the GAB section?

Aron Trimble said 3:07PM on 4-06-2007

Really interested in this working, but I'm having the same problem as #5 Jay Harsh. My server is listed as a local folder location... Just mentioning it because I'd love to see an update to this addressing (see what I did there) the problem.

paulo_sousa said 5:46AM on 4-09-2007

@Ryan,
Thanks for your reply. Actually, I'm not that much of an expert with mail servers, so I don`t really know what my values for GAB are. Again, if you could give me a hand on how to figure those out, it would be really great. Ive tried to change the server setting in the the mail account to POP server, but no results. Supposing the port number is correct, what other reasons could there be for the 'download failure' (I am using a Japanese system, so I am not sure of the correct English) message I am getting.

Tks!

Jason B said 9:13PM on 4-23-2007

Two Quick questions; I've set up Thunderbird to download emails from my corporate Exchange server...

1. is there a way to set up TB such that mail is updated in folders other than what is found in my Exchange "Inbox"? Ie, when I "Get Mail" in TB, it only notices changes in my Exchange Inbox, but not messages I had moved to my Exchange "Stuff" folder since my last TB login.

2. TB only downloads messages whilst I'm logged into the corporate network. However, when I try to "Get Mail" whilst at home, TB reports that the connect is not possible. Is there a way around this?

Thanks!

Spoonman said 6:56PM on 6-01-2007

First, you should be using port 3268 instead of 389, it's much faster. Plenty of info on the 'net as to why this is so, so I'll spare repeating it. Secondly, when you purchase a client license for Exchange, that includes the Outlook client. So, you're not saving any money by using Thunderbird, just losing functionality.

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