Outlook 2016 and Exchange 2010

There i was thinking that Microsoft was trying to outsource Exchange......

TBH I'm starting to dislike Office 365 with its licensing scenarios and so on, but then again its a cheaper option in some aspects than using Office Pro + Exchange.

ANYWHO!!!!

Outlook 2016 was released and failed to incorporate a manual method to connect to exchange from outside the company, in other words its method to connect to an onsite exchange server would be the same as connecting to Office 365.

So the steps we need to complete are as follows (Assuming your exchange server has been setup correctly for autodiscover internally):

-Setup autodiscover.yourdomain.co(m)

Create this as a CNAME that resolves to your current mail server's external address or MX record

-Create new Exchange certificate to include autodiscover.yourdomain.co(m)

Import it into exchange GUI and check IIS for correct bindings

http://www.careexchange.in/how-to-use-a-self-signed-certificate-in-exchange-2010/

If you are using SBS for this then you will have to install the Web Enrollment feature for the currently installed CA.

If you are missing the "WebServer" template within the web enrollment you will HAVE to use this command from a CMD:

Certreq.exe –submit –attrib “CertificateTemplate:webserver” C:\RequestFile.req NewCertName.cer

Then:

Certreq.exe –accept NewCertName.cer

If the first command comes up with an error regarding being (Incomplete) then look at this article:

http://www.itwriting.com/blog/3544-microsoft-exchange-2010-annoyance-certificate-wizard-incompatible-with-certificate-services.html

It says that you need to open the .req file and re save it with ANSI encoding.

-Copying the certificate

Go to the Certificate Authority and copy the newly created certificate to a Base64 file.

-Test your autodiscover setting

Using https://testconnectivity.microsoft.com/

-Install root certificate on client PC

Copy your CA's root certificate to your external clients computer and install it into Trust Root Certs store.  The above link explains this.  If there is a certificate problem Outlook will not connect.

-Setup Outlook 2016 to connect using autodiscovery setting

Enter your details into outlook 2016 and cross your fingers for 3 green ticks

Through this process you will be going too and fro between these articles so becareful not to get lost.

So fear not it is possible to still use Exchange with Office 2016