How to sync PC desktop mail client to an Exchange Activesync server?

Question

I've got a situation where I want to connect to an email server whose only exposed service for mail/calendar is Activesync (it's an Exchange server). The only web interface exposed is "OWA light" which is horrific.

I'd like to figure out a way to synchronize the mail from this Exchange so that it appears in a desktop mail client (or a webmail client if there any that work this way - gmail doesn't support activesync for subscriptions -- it publishes its mail as activesync which is not what I want).

Basically the ascii art of what I want is:

Exchange => Activesync <=> Client application

There are lots of mobile client applications that do this, but I am looking for a desktop or webmail client that can handle activesync as a subscriber (kind of the way IMAP works).

Thanks for any references or ideas!

Steve

Loralorain

Answer 1

Ok - of course 20 seconds after posting this, I find an answer on superuser. Probably where I should have posted to begin with (I swear I googled before posting but apparently not enough).

SU post: https://superuser.com/questions/43238/activesync-owa-desktop-client

Answer: http://davmail.sourceforge.net/

This appears to be a POP3/IMAP and SMTP bridge to activesync which is exactly what I want. If it works as claimed, I can point any mail client to it and it will sync my mail in two directions so I can send messages that will pass through the system and see all the messages that come in.

Update 2013: I've been using this DavMail OSS software for a few years now and it's really great. For retrieving mail from relatively locked-down Exchange servers, that only permit OWA access, it very easily allows me to "break out" of the box the IT guys want to put me in, and use rational tools and protocols like IMAP, POP, SMTP and Thunderbird to send/retrieve mail from the Exchange server. If I were really motivated, I could get this running on a public server, and serve my mail so that Gmail could poll it, and bridge Exchange and Gmail, but of course I'd have to pay more attention to security.

I haven't had a ton of luck getting the Calendar portions of the system working, primarily because I can't find a caldav client (on Windows) that I like - I think the DavMail part works as well as can be expected.

Loralorain

For note of clarification the sync is not through Activesync but the OWA interface on the exchange server. This is actually better (IMO) b/c almost all exchange servers leave the OWA port open whereas Activesync is sometime disabled. – Loralorain

Answer 2

I tried "TouchDown" just today. I am able to fetch my email and calendar etc.. to my Mac from my Corporate ActiveSync account.

Which operating system are you using? They have support for various OS, including Windows 8.1 and Mac.

Here is the list of all major activeSync clients - http://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1150.exchange-activesync-client-comparison-table.aspx

Janeejaneen