GMail and Google Calendar Sync with MS Exchange and Outlook Web Access - Reshared Knol

Source Knol: GMail and Google Calendar Sync with MS Exchange and Outlook Web Access
by William L. Weaver

Abstract
Link your MS Exchange Email with GMail via POP3, connect your MS Exchange to Outlook on your desktop and then synchronize the desktop Outlook calender with your GMail calendar.

Prologue

Back in the prehistoric days of B.Y2K., our university used Lotus Notes as its email client. The application was installed on the desktop and you needed to be seated in front of your office computer to read and send mail. It functioned well, but more and more faculty, administrators and students wished to check and send mail from off campus and on weekends. Along came Lotus iNotes -- a web client that permitted folks to access their email from the cloud. There was much rejoicing.

Around the same time the university launched an information portal that could be used to aggregate and deliver important university information in an attempt to reduce the amount of email and paper memos. The POP3 access to the iNotes email servers was disabled to insure all members of the university community would enter the portal, view important announcements and launch the iNotes application once inside the portal. Then along came PDAs. The Windows CE, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile and Palm wifi devices did not run the iNotes application and without POP3 access, there was no way to use the PDAs for email (one of their main functions). There was much frustration.

Then came Google Gmail. A free service in the cloud that solved a host of email access problems. It was in the cloud, could be accessed from both on and off campus, from Windows and Mac computers, Pocket PC and Palm PDAs and smart phones. There was much rejoicing.

An email rule could be created in iNotes to forward all incoming mail to the Gmail account. Gmail could be configured to send mail as if it were sent from the university address. There was even more rejoicing.

Google launched things like Google Docs, Collaborative Google Calendars, Google Sites, Google Apps -- the rejoicing glands were working overtime.

For a host of very practical reasons, the university made the decision to leave Lotus iNotes and upgrade to a more modern email solution. Their choices were narrowed down to Google Apps Education Edition and Microsoft Live@edu. Again for a host of practical reasons, the university chose Live@edu. There was much rejoicing. iNotes was just not serving our needs. But for the Gmail camp, there was some trepidation. Would Gmail continue to be a valid alternative? Would we have to give up our threaded email conversations? Our labels? Our calendars? ...stress...

Thankfully, the switch has happened and Gmail and Google Calendars can synchronize with the Microsoft Exchange-based Live@edu system... albeit with a bit of wrangling.

Ingredients

* A Google Gmail Account
* A Live@edu Account (the example below is for La Salle University)
* Microsoft Outlook 2007
* Google Calendar Sync
* A Sample Faculty/Staff User "John Smith" - email smithj1@lasalle.edu (substitute your user name and password)
* A Sample Student User "Jane Doe" - email doej1@student.lasalle.edu (substitute your user name and password)
* Some free time and a bit of patience


POP3 MS Live@edu email into your GMail Account

The university has changed its policy and now POP3 is enabled. Student accounts are hosted remotely by Microsoft while Faculty and Staff accounts are hosted locally at the university. This results in two different names for the POP3 server. The names of the specific servers are indicated below.

Before you start:

You will need your Microsoft Exchange account password.

* Students


If you have forgotten your password, you can use the Microsoft Outlook Live Beta application to create a new password. Click on the MS User icon in the upper right corner of the application and click "View Your Account." Click on the "change" link across from the "Password" entry to reset your password.

* Faculty


If you have forgotten your password, you can use the Microsoft Outlook Web Access application to reset your password to a new one. Click on the "Options" link in the upper right corner of the application and select "Change Password" from the menu selections on the left of the screen.

Old Email

Any existing message in your Live@edu account that you would like to send to Gmail should be marked as "unread". This way you can archive previous conversations that are important.


Click Settings from the top right hand corner of the Gmail page

Click the Accounts tab

In the "Get mail from other accounts: (Download mail using POP3)" section, click Add another mail account

Enter the full email address of the account you'd like to access (example: smithj1@lasalle.edu or doej1@student.lasalle.edu) and then click Next Step

Gmail will populate sample settings, make sure they match the following:

* Faculty & Staff


username: full email address (example: smithj1@lasalle.edu)
server name: mail.lasalle.edu (for La Salle Faculty & Staff)
port #: 995
password: same as the password for your new email


* Students


username: full email address (example: doej1@student.lasalle.edu)
server name: pop.exchangelabs.com (for La Salle Students)
port #: 995
password: same as the password for your new email


There are four (4) option check boxes:

Leave a copy of retrieved message on the server
(check if you want to leave a copy, uncheck to delete messages after retrieved by Gmail)

Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail
(check this one)

Label incoming messages:
(personal preference)

Archive incoming messages (Skip the Inbox)
(personal preference)


Click Add Account.

Send @lasalle.edu Mail using your GMail account

Once your account has been added successfully, you'll have the option of sending email from this @lasalle.edu address. This allows you to compose messages in GMail but have them appear to be sent from your La Salle email account. Click Yes to set up a custom From address.

You will be presented with two options for sending @lasalle.edu email from your GMail account:

Send through GMail (easier to set up)

Using this option, GMail will give you simple directions for verifying your ownership of the @lasalle.edu address. It involves GMail sending a secret code to your @lasalle.edu address. If you are able to read that code, then you must have the password and own that account. You simply copy and paste the code back into your GMail account and it is set up. However, messages you send will contain a "mailed by gmail.com" tag that will announce that the mail was sent via GMail SMTP servers. In most cases, that is not a problem, but some SPAM filters may consider this an attempt to spoof the owner of the account and will bounce it. If you find this happening or if you generally prefer that your GMail account not be mentioned, you can use the next method below:

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Source Knol: GMail and Google Calendar Sync with MS Exchange and Outlook Web Access

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