looking for a multi-user alternative (to MS Exchange) to view gmail emails
For more than 10 years I have been using a gmail account for users to send support questions. I had that gmail account linked (somehow) to MS Exchange hosted by Rackspace. This was recommended by someone on this list. It has been working for >10 years and I have long-since forgotten how I set all that stuff up.
Now Rackspace no longer supports Exchange 2007 and the Outlook 2007 client that we use to access exchange and see the emails that came into gmail. Hope that makes sense. I think it should be simple to have imap and/or POP in the gmail account activated (which it/they is/areprofox@leafe.com). It seems like Exchange should be able to 'poll' the gmail server and download the email (hope that makes sense). Somehow the people at Rackspace don't know what I am talking about?? the support person today says I need to set up MX records in gmail so gmail will send to exchange? that does not make any sense to me. I admit that I may not be the youngest person on this list, but I am still alive and I love VFP and most of the support issues. Anyone out there know what I am missing?
Thx in advance
Ken
Ken,
I use Thunderbird to retrieve email from both Rackspace, and Gmail, and also from Protonmail. Works great.
I have set up and support over 300 users on Rackspace and interact with the Rackspace tech support at least once a week. They switched to overseas support (and also threw a BOT into the mix) a few months back, and now what used to take 5 to 10 minutes to resolve usually takes a half hour. As I've told them many times, I don't blame them for outsourcing their support to Outbackistan, it is annoying to have to walk through the script with someone who obviously doesn't know what I need to find out. But, I've also never had them refuse to escalate to an Austin, TX-based support agent who either knows the answer, or will find it. My most recent foray with Rackspace Tech Support Chat was concerning how their spam filter system works (about as poorly as everyone elses.)
The other thing I've noticed is that Rackspace is both-feet and arms-up-to-the-elbows in deep with Microsoft and they heavily promote and resell all the MSoft apps. They have little to no, maybe even a negative, incentive to support anything older than 'what came out yesterday', so I'm not surprised to hear they bailed out on Outlook 365 or whatever the last version released is.
All that to say Thunderbird is still well supported by it's developers, and it's stable now. You can set up any mail account as SMTP or IMAP, your choice. It is a tad tricky to switch once you have it set up for one format to the other, but it can be done.
Mike
Ken McGinnis wrote:
looking for a multi-user alternative (to MS Exchange) to view gmail emails
For more than 10 years I have been using a gmail account for users to send support questions. I had that gmail account linked (somehow) to MS Exchange hosted by Rackspace. This was recommended by someone on this list. It has been working for >10 years and I have long-since forgotten how I set all that stuff up.
Now Rackspace no longer supports Exchange 2007 and the Outlook 2007 client that we use to access exchange and see the emails that came into gmail. Hope that makes sense. I think it should be simple to have imap and/or POP in the gmail account activated (which it/they is/areprofox@leafe.com). It seems like Exchange should be able to 'poll' the gmail server and download the email (hope that makes sense). Somehow the people at Rackspace don't know what I am talking about?? the support person today says I need to set up MX records in gmail so gmail will send to exchange? that does not make any sense to me. I admit that I may not be the youngest person on this list, but I am still alive and I love VFP and most of the support issues. Anyone out there know what I am missing?
Thx in advance
Ken
I use Thunderbird portable for my personal email and it is the best client I have found. The problem with using it for the company is that it is not multi-user (at least I don't know how to use it that way)
On 4/22/2021 11:12 PM, Mike wrote:
Ken,
I use Thunderbird to retrieve email from both Rackspace, and Gmail, and also from Protonmail. Works great.
I have set up and support over 300 users on Rackspace and interact with the Rackspace tech support at least once a week. They switched to overseas support (and also threw a BOT into the mix) a few months back, and now what used to take 5 to 10 minutes to resolve usually takes a half hour. As I've told them many times, I don't blame them for outsourcing their support to Outbackistan, it is annoying to have to walk through the script with someone who obviously doesn't know what I need to find out. But, I've also never had them refuse to escalate to an Austin, TX-based support agent who either knows the answer, or will find it. My most recent foray with Rackspace Tech Support Chat was concerning how their spam filter system works (about as poorly as everyone elses.)
The other thing I've noticed is that Rackspace is both-feet and arms-up-to-the-elbows in deep with Microsoft and they heavily promote and resell all the MSoft apps. They have little to no, maybe even a negative, incentive to support anything older than 'what came out yesterday', so I'm not surprised to hear they bailed out on Outlook 365 or whatever the last version released is.
All that to say Thunderbird is still well supported by it's developers, and it's stable now. You can set up any mail account as SMTP or IMAP, your choice. It is a tad tricky to switch once you have it set up for one format to the other, but it can be done.
Mike
Ken McGinnis wrote:
looking for a multi-user alternative (to MS Exchange) to view gmail emails
For more than 10 years I have been using a gmail account for users to send support questions. I had that gmail account linked (somehow) to MS Exchange hosted by Rackspace. This was recommended by someone on this list. It has been working for >10 years and I have long-since forgotten how I set all that stuff up.
Now Rackspace no longer supports Exchange 2007 and the Outlook 2007 client that we use to access exchange and see the emails that came into gmail. Hope that makes sense. I think it should be simple to have imap and/or POP in the gmail account activated (which it/they is/areprofox@leafe.com). It seems like Exchange should be able to 'poll' the gmail server and download the email (hope that makes sense). Somehow the people at Rackspace don't know what I am talking about?? the support person today says I need to set up MX records in gmail so gmail will send to exchange? that does not make any sense to me. I admit that I may not be the youngest person on this list, but I am still alive and I love VFP and most of the support issues. Anyone out there know what I am missing?
Thx in advance
Ken
[excessive quoting removed by server]
Ken,
Possible to configure gmail account to forward your support emails to multiple email addresses, eg. using a forwarding rule to replace your MS Exchange? https://gsuitetips.com/tips/gmail/automatically-forward-emails-to-multiple-r...
Malcolm
On 4/23/2021 10:45 AM, Malcolm Greene wrote:
Ken,
Possible to configure gmail account to forward your support emails to multiple email addresses, eg. using a forwarding rule to replace your MS Exchange? https://gsuitetips.com/tips/gmail/automatically-forward-emails-to-multiple-r...
Malcolm
That's what I do -- my mbss.bugs@gmail.com forwards to my mbabcock@mbsoftwaresolutions.com account. Likewise for some automatic reporting, clientname@mbsoftwaresolutions.com forwards to their company's direct email accounts.
--Mike
Thought I would follow the conversation with my solution.
1. I let Rackspace upgrade exchange to a version they suggest. Same monthly fee. One mail box.
2. Me and the support guys continue to use Outlook 2007 because it seems to work fine.
3. regarding the access to the emails in gmail, I set up a new account in Outlook 2007 using the specs given by gmail. that causes Outlook to 'poll' gmail every minute and download the email. From any one copy of Outlook, it 'magically' appears in exchange so other persons can access it. Hope that is clear. Seems easy looking back but since I have not played around with that stuff in well over 10 years, it took some time.
I appreciate all the input (as usual) from this list.
-------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: Re: looking for a multi-user alternative to view gmail emails Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2021 06:30:58 -0700 From: Ken McGinnis kamcginnis@gmail.com To: profox@leafe.com
I use Thunderbird portable for my personal email and it is the best client I have found. The problem with using it for the company is that it is not multi-user (at least I don't know how to use it that way)
On 4/22/2021 11:12 PM, Mike wrote:
Ken,
I use Thunderbird to retrieve email from both Rackspace, and Gmail, and also from Protonmail. Works great.
I have set up and support over 300 users on Rackspace and interact with the Rackspace tech support at least once a week. They switched to overseas support (and also threw a BOT into the mix) a few months back, and now what used to take 5 to 10 minutes to resolve usually takes a half hour. As I've told them many times, I don't blame them for outsourcing their support to Outbackistan, it is annoying to have to walk through the script with someone who obviously doesn't know what I need to find out. But, I've also never had them refuse to escalate to an Austin, TX-based support agent who either knows the answer, or will find it. My most recent foray with Rackspace Tech Support Chat was concerning how their spam filter system works (about as poorly as everyone elses.)
The other thing I've noticed is that Rackspace is both-feet and arms-up-to-the-elbows in deep with Microsoft and they heavily promote and resell all the MSoft apps. They have little to no, maybe even a negative, incentive to support anything older than 'what came out yesterday', so I'm not surprised to hear they bailed out on Outlook 365 or whatever the last version released is.
All that to say Thunderbird is still well supported by it's developers, and it's stable now. You can set up any mail account as SMTP or IMAP, your choice. It is a tad tricky to switch once you have it set up for one format to the other, but it can be done.
Mike
Ken McGinnis wrote:
looking for a multi-user alternative (to MS Exchange) to view gmail emails
For more than 10 years I have been using a gmail account for users to send support questions. I had that gmail account linked (somehow) to MS Exchange hosted by Rackspace. This was recommended by someone on this list. It has been working for >10 years and I have long-since forgotten how I set all that stuff up.
Now Rackspace no longer supports Exchange 2007 and the Outlook 2007 client that we use to access exchange and see the emails that came into gmail. Hope that makes sense. I think it should be simple to have imap and/or POP in the gmail account activated (which it/they is/areprofox@leafe.com). It seems like Exchange should be able to 'poll' the gmail server and download the email (hope that makes sense). Somehow the people at Rackspace don't know what I am talking about?? the support person today says I need to set up MX records in gmail so gmail will send to exchange? that does not make any sense to me. I admit that I may not be the youngest person on this list, but I am still alive and I love VFP and most of the support issues. Anyone out there know what I am missing?
Thx in advance
Ken
[excessive quoting removed by server]
I am using VFP9 SP2.
For many years and previous versions we had the program 'run' a batch file which was used to transmit a file. Now, a client with Windows 11 is not able to run the batch file. We even tried administrator mode. Anyone have any ideas?
Ken
I am using VFP9 SP2.
For many years and previous versions we had the program 'run' a batch file which was used to transmit a file. Now, a client with Windows 11 is not able to run the batch file. We even tried administrator mode. Anyone have any ideas?
Ken
Do you have a technical bug report or just this end-user one, Ken? 😊
--
rk
From: ProfoxTech profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com On Behalf Of Ken McGinnis Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2021 2:44 PM To: profoxtech@leafe.com Subject: Re: looking for a multi-user alternative to view gmail emails
I am using VFP9 SP2.
For many years and previous versions we had the program 'run' a batch file which was used to transmit a file. Now, a client with Windows 11 is not able to run the batch file. We even tried administrator mode. Anyone have any ideas?
Ken
Good question.
My support team just said it won't work. Same set up in Windows 10 works fine. I will try to get more information.
Ken
On 12/16/2021 4:25 PM, Richard Kaye wrote:
Do you have a technical bug report or just this end-user one, Ken? 😊
--
rk
From: ProfoxTech profoxtech-bounces@leafe.com On Behalf Of Ken McGinnis Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2021 2:44 PM To: profoxtech@leafe.com Subject: Re: looking for a multi-user alternative to view gmail emails
I am using VFP9 SP2.
For many years and previous versions we had the program 'run' a batch file which was used to transmit a file. Now, a client with Windows 11 is not able to run the batch file. We even tried administrator mode. Anyone have any ideas?
Ken
[excessive quoting removed by server]
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--- StripMime Report -- processed MIME parts ---multipart/alternative text/plain (text body -- kept) text/html---
It might seem an obvious question but why not just view them on Gmail in a web browser? If it's just reading emails what are you getting from Exchange\Outlook that you wouldn't otherwise ?
Ken:
If the only reason you are using a MS Exchange server is to read gmail from a single gmail account, you should eliminate it completely. It's swatting flies with a howitzer.
Does each user have Outlook installed on their own machine, or are they sharing a VM or Remote-Desktop'ing into a single machine? If it's a simple configuration it should be straight-forward and if it's more complex, well, let us know.
If it's one person per Outlook, you should be able to configure them to access the Gmail account directly and read the mail there. Log onto Gmail via a web browser and select the gear icon in the upper right ("Settings") and "See All Settings" and then the tab labeled "Forwarding and POP/IMAP" and look for the "Configure your email client" links for the setup you need to do in Outlook. I'm not positive whether POP (an ancient protocol) or IMAP (a slightly less geriatric) is more appropriate for your situation, and you may need to do some experimentation to get the behavior you want.
On Thu, Apr 22, 2021 at 10:47 PM Ken McGinnis kamcginnis@gmail.com wrote:
looking for a multi-user alternative (to MS Exchange) to view gmail emails
For more than 10 years I have been using a gmail account for users to send support questions. I had that gmail account linked (somehow) to MS Exchange hosted by Rackspace. This was recommended by someone on this list. It has been working for >10 years and I have long-since forgotten how I set all that stuff up.
Now Rackspace no longer supports Exchange 2007 and the Outlook 2007 client that we use to access exchange and see the emails that came into gmail. Hope that makes sense. I think it should be simple to have imap and/or POP in the gmail account activated (which it/they is/areprofox@leafe.com). It seems like Exchange should be able to 'poll' the gmail server and download the email (hope that makes sense). Somehow the people at Rackspace don't know what I am talking about?? the support person today says I need to set up MX records in gmail so gmail will send to exchange? that does not make any sense to me. I admit that I may not be the youngest person on this list, but I am still alive and I love VFP and most of the support issues. Anyone out there know what I am missing?
Thx in advance
Ken
-- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus
[excessive quoting removed by server]
-
Alan Bourke -
Ken McGinnis -
Malcolm Greene -
MB Software Solutions, LLC -
Mike -
Richard Kaye -
Ted Roche