Please don?t say ?why in the world are you trying to do this in the first place? ? unfortunately, it?s just the situation I?m in.

OK ? I am admin?ing a group of about 15 eMacs and Power Macs on a network that is utilizing a Microsoft Small Business Server running Exchange 2003. Some of these computers are running 10.3, some 10.4 ? we?re trying to get all on the same version, and that will happen as soon as budget allows.

Problem: Mac Mail client (with account configured for Exchange) does not communicate reliably with the Exchange server. Sometimes the mail notification ?ding? will sound in Mac Mail, but there will be no mail that appears - or ? mail will appear to be in the mailbox (indicated by a number to the right of the mailbox name), yet once clicked, no new mails appear. When this happens, I usually will double check the account using Outlook Web Access (the server's web based mail) and find that the mail that I heard coming into Mac Mail has indeed come into the account.

I?ve been told by the IT company that installed the SBS that the server is configured in the following manner:

The SBS server is setup with Microsoft Exchange. The name of the product is Microsoft Small Business Server 2003.

The Exchange Server is configured with the following protocols:
MAPI - Enabled by default for Outlook
IMAP - Turned On for Entourage / Mac Mail (aka Tiger Mail)
WEB DAV - For OWA
SMTP - For Outgoing E-mail

So, my question to all the amazing Mac/PC knowledge brain trusts of the world is ? are we trying to do the impossible? Can Mac Mail co-exist within a MS Exchange environment, and if so, please do tell how it needs to be configured.

In all seriousness, we spent a lot of money trying to get a system that would work for our company (in a time when we desperately needed to put such a system in place), and we may have gone the wrong direction ? but that being what it is, we need help.

Thanks for your time and I look forward to a solution on the horizon.

Sincerely and quite frustrated,

Jay Patrick