Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
OS X and iOS—can also connect directly to an Exchange server (for email only, naturally,
though Apple's Contacts and Calendar apps can connect to Exchange servers to handle those
types of data).
Exchange servers can communicate with email clients with a number of different protocols
(depending on the version of the server software and which features the server's administrat-
or has enabled). If the Exchange server to which you're connecting is running a version of
Exchange Server older than 2007, IMAP and SMTP must be enabled by the administrator in
order for Mail to communicate with it. But if the server is running Exchange Server 2007 or
later, Mail in Mavericks can use a more sophisticated protocol called Exchange Web Services
(EWS), which is based on
SOAP
.
Among other benefits, Exchange Web Services supports a feature called Autodiscover
,
which
simplifies account setup—when adding an Exchange account to Mail, you just enter your
email address and password, and in most cases Mail can figure out all the other details by
itself. (You can enable or disable Autodiscover by going to Mail > Preferences > Accounts >
Your Exchange Account
> Account Information and selected or deselecting Use Autodiscov-
er Service.)
EWS also enables Mail to use the contact information stored in the Global Address List on
your Exchange server to automatically complete addresses as you type them. And, because
the Contacts and Calendar apps on your Mac can also use Exchange Web Services, you can
access contact and calendar information on Exchange servers with those applications (which,
however, I don't cover in this topic).
On an iOS device, the experience of using Exchange is essentially the same as on a Mac, ex-
cept that behind the scenes, yet another protocol is used—Exchange ActiveSync (EAS). EAS is
a collection of capabilities built into Microsoft Exchange servers as well as a number of third-
party servers that have licensed the technology. (For example, you can connect to a Kerio or
Zimbra server using EAS.)
EAS
can
be set up to check the server for new messages manually or on a schedule, but one
of the protocol's major attractions is its support for push email (see
Fetch, Push, and IMAP
IDLE
), along with push contacts and calendars. Like Exchange Web Services, EAS supports
Autodiscover for easy account setup.
For all practical purposes, the experience of using Mail with an Exchange server (whether
via Exchange Web Services or EAS) is almost identical to using Mail with an IMAP server,
with the possible exception of push message delivery. Messages are stored on the server and
mirrored locally, and you can create as many server-based mailboxes as you need.
