Thank you! :)

Ok: iMac OS X 10.5.8, Safari 5.0.6 accessing work emails from an Exchange server through Outlook Web Access. Is there a way I can script it to automatically refresh the page periodically and notify me if there are any new emails? I can't get the emails through my normal Mail program because they haven't set up the mail server thingy and I keep missing emails because I forget to refresh it when I switch over to the tab I have it open in.

Outlook Web Access should update automatically. Not sure how it works with Mac browsers like Safari. I know it automatically updates when my Exchange server gets a new mail in the mailbox I'm monitoring on Chrome, Firefox and IE, so perhaps there may be a Safari setting you can hunt down.
Failing that, I'm not sure. I can give you scripts all day for Windows, but not Mac.

Also, do you not have a mailbox account on Mac OS that you can set up? On my iPhone I can set up a mailbox, use the Exchange option that utilizes Activesync, and then make sure I have push notifications on for it. I get bothered by work all day long because of it. Do they not have something similar for Mac OS?


Edit:

I just re-read your message, and by "haven't set up the mail server thingy", I'm assuming they haven't purchased and/or installed the SSL certificate necessary for the autodiscover service and created the appropriate DNS records for such. (which allows you to just put in your email address and get everything set up automatically)
If that's the case, you can still manually set up your mail program so long as you have the server information, which you can get from your network admin.

Ok thanks. I might try it in Chrome and see if that makes a difference.



Well I use Mail for my normal pop accounts. They do have an Exchange option in set up but it's never worked in the past when I have tried to set it up for my work emails.



Yeah that's the problem mostly. They don't have an IT guy. They are fiscally challenged at the moment and operating on a skeleton staff so the person in charge of IT can only do what they find and manage to work out through Google.

Yea, the Exchange option will default to an automatic setup, which is reliant on whether there's an autodiscover record in DNS or not. Basically, it just tells you to put your email address and password, then it queries DNS to figure out what the IP address of the server is, then negotiates with the server for all the set security protocols and other things. So when you don't have autodiscover set up for the Exchange, simply putting in your email address and password is probably going to say something about not being able to contact the server, or some other error.
If that's the case, you should be able to choose to manually set up the mail account, which will afford you the opportunity to enter the FQDN of the server, the user account, password, and security settings. If you know this information, it should connect, since it's not relying on an autodiscover protocol that isn't there.
But obviously, you would need to know certain things only the network admin would know, like the FQDN of the mail server.

Well someone had to set up the Exchange server. Someone also has to manage it, otherwise there would be no one to add/remove mail accounts. However, a lot of businesses simply rely on hosted mail, like Rackspace and these other services, that give them the mail functionality but don't require as much administrative overhead because the technical stuff is managed by the host. If this is the case, you can still get the technical details of the servers, however, these services will always have autodiscover features applied, and I would not think that a hosted solution would not be operable in the ways we're talking about, as that's how they make their money.

So is there no one to manage the Exchange server on which your company has its email? No one managing the server? Seems hard to swallow. That's a pretty important thing to manage.

They host their own server. They did have a guy who set everything up but he moved on and they never replaced him. Basically when the **** hits the fan (which it often does) they scramble around and eventually pay him to come back and fix it (which he does reluctantly because my boss is a nightmare to work with). I get the feeling they're tanking and just trying to bide their time until business picks up.

Damn. That's a really crap situation. They need someone they can rely on for this stuff and not have to pay crazy amounts to resolve problems.

Would your bosses be opposed to hiring someone to manage it, or would they rather pay fees for consults and all that?
Hell, I'd take a look at the system remotely myself and probably give them a better deal than they're getting with the ex-employee.

They absolutely need someone who knows what they're doing but I don't see them hiring anyone in the near future. They are trying to rope me in to help but I have made it clear I know nothing about that side of things. My boss doesn't really think like normal people. He has a knack for turning the simplest thing into an impenetrable maze of bull****.

Well, I wouldn't even charge to go in and assess the situation. Obviously there would need to be some contract agreement so that the company knows I won't run off with sensitive data, but it'd be as easy as someone with access to the server enabling remote desktop, creating a username and password with domain admin privileges for me, and me checking things out.

Obviously, this seems highly suspect coming from a person on the internet. But if you ever feel like it, just give your boss my email address and office number, which, you can ask for in PM.

Cool. I'll keep you in mind if it comes up but he seems pretty resistant to the idea of hiring someone at the moment. I think eventually he will have to admit defeat so who knows.