Hi everybody... anybody!

This is my first post on the forum and it goes over a lot of ground that has already been covered, but in my case, I don't have a solution.

Just restating the problem. Evolution won't connect to our Exchange Server 2003. I have the Evolution-Exchange plugin installed and the Evolution vsn is 2.28.3. The Ubuntu vsn is 10.04 lucid.

In the setup of the mail account I enter the user name in the form domain\username; in the OWA URL I enter the URL in the form - https://mail.our.domain.name/exchange and then I click the authenticate button (can't progress without authenticating). When requested I enter the password. Then comes the error message - could not connect to the server. Make sure the url is correct and try again.

I can connect to OWA using a browser. However I have to negotiate past the browser warning me that the server has a self generated certificate and not from a trusted authority. Maybe this is the problem, I don't know. The fact that I can get to OWA by means of a browser means that the firewall in our router is configured correctly, as is port forwarding to the server.

The domain/exchange server is in our office and I have administrator rights. I don't know what further I can do on the exchange side, I recently activated webDAV in the IIS server as I saw that suggestion on a Novell forum, in fact the forum seemed very helpful, but not in my case. (http://www.novell.com/documentation/...#config-server).

So if anybody has an insight to this I would appreciate the input.

I had mixed success with Evolution -v- Exchange. In the end I dumped using the OWA method of connecting and went with IMAP instead, but that does not 'fit' for everyone.

Your settings look OK in Receiving Email:
OWA URL:
https://mail.our.domain.name/exchange

username and mailbox are the same name? If not specify the mailbox name.

It could be an issue with the SSL/TLS layer and the unknown certificate and probably the fastest way to check is allow IIS/OWA normal unencrypted port 80 access for a few seconds to prove it. If it turns out to be the case you may be able to import your cert/ca into Evolution under the preference/certs category.

When you authenticate, are you doing:
username
password

or

domain\username
password

I believe the latter is standard in MS.

Hey guys,
Thanks for your help, unfortunately, i'm still there and have decided to give up with Evolution. I have been reading other threads on other forums (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...nge/+bug/34199) and have come to the conclusion that it is a definite problem with Evolution. Like so many others, it was working for me (nothing has changed on the Exchange server side) and then upgraded to 9.10 and then it stopped. Upgraded again to 10.4 and it is still broke. I thought that the upgrade might have fixed something. I can tell you too, (sign of real desperation) that I even tried installing Outlook with WINE, that was a joke, and yes, I am the eternal optimist.

I would give you a thumbs up (thanks) but can't see where to do that .

Just one final thing. I live in Marangaroo, a suburb of Perth, Western Australia, and got enthusiastic over Ubuntu 8.10 that i fired up off an APC (Australian Personal Computer) DVD inclusion in the mag. Being a purveyor/builder of fine computers, I thought, "here is an opportunity for people to be introduced to everything they need in an internet/email/home computer at a reasonable cost. So I pulled down my existing Windows based web-site including products etc and put up a site advertising Ubuntu and a low cost system for AU$683. Now here's the rub - On the site (http://www.driven.com.au) I sing the praises of Ubuntu and Linux in general, emphasizing that Linux does not have the same problems as Windows and is stable and... etc. etc..

So it is my wish that Ubuntu would take out the Exchange option out of Evolution, because it is broke and doesn't look like getting fixed any time soon. It would be so much easier if it didn't pretend to connect to Exchange. It would be better not to have the option rather than have the option and then have it all turn to rubbish as it degenerates into hours on the forums and dead frustration of not being able to get it working. All that does is leaves questions and doubts in the mind of people switching from MS to Linux.

I mean the problems in the posts have been registered back as far as 2006. So when someone who buys one of of the Linux PC's wants to connect to their Exchange server at work and says "I can't get Evolution working with our Exchange server. What's wrong is it something I'm doing, can you help me?", all of a sudden, I look stupid and Linux looks cheap (as in shabby) because I have sung the Linux song and been extravagant with my praises, but in the end, can't help them.

So anyway, what more can I say, except that I hope that someone from the Ubuntu development team reads this.

Even though I have stated above that I have given up on this, if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears.