Outlook/Exchange

[Jonathan Hutchins]

Guys, it's not a big, mysterious deathtrap, it's software, and darned good 
software for what it is.  I've had a home network running Exchange and Outlook 
since 5.0 came out, and it's fast and elegant.  Yes, it has gaping security 
holes in it - most software from the mid-90's did, because we really didn't 
understand what the web was becoming.  Open Source software has vulnerabilities 
too, and if there were as many active attacks circulating as there are for the 
more popular Windows products you'd see a lot more problems with Linux boxes.  
I'm no Microsoft lover, but there are things about NT4 and Exchange 5 that are 
far superior to their later code.

Anyway...

The IMAP and POP connectors have to be installed, then there are two places to 
switch them on and off, a system-wide default setting and a per-user setting.  
If they're installed, you'll probably see the port open, even if they're 
disabled by default because they're disabled on the authentication level.  
Ditto for the per-user setting if you personally are not enabled.  

That's it.  No big, mysterious, misunderstood configuration to baffle the poor 
administrator, just a simple on-off switch.

SMTP is likewise probably not mis-configured, it's just not set up for what you 
personally want to do.

A little sound research beats wild arm-waving speculation any day.  It's people 
who speculate about what Microsoft was "up to" who screw up their own 
configurations far more than those who try to learn what it's really designed 
to do.

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