Mac OS X Snow Leopard Now as Built-In Support for Apple Mail, iCal, and Address Book Syncing to Exchange

Snow Leopard is the first Mac Operating System with built-in support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 allowing you to truly collaborate with your partners and colleagues through “anywhere access” using your native Apple Mail, iCal, and Address Book applications.

Snow Leopard Exchange Calendaring & Presence Solutions for Apple iCal & Address Book

Easily and efficiently connect with others through sharing and meeting scheduling tools with iCal and Address Book.

Get shared calendaring and scheduling features through iCal and set up meetings effortlessly with group scheduling and availability tracking.

Manage your Address Book by creating a shared list of contacts and distribution groups.

How it works      

Additional software installations are not needed (i.e. Entourage). Just configure your system through the Accounts pane in Apple Mail, enter your Exchange user name and password, and check the box to automatically set up your other applications. Apple Mail uses the Autodiscover feature in Exchange to grab all the pertinent information from the Exchange server and configure your settings.

Adding an Exchange 2007 (EWS) account to Mail

Most Exchange servers have Auto discovery enabled, authoritative Exchange 2007 accounts can be easily configured if your domains DNS provider creates an Auto discovery record.

Auto Discover setup for Outlook/APPLE Mail and Exchange 2007:

How to setup your account:

Open Mail (click its icon in the Dock, or open it in the Applications folder).

*From the Mail menu, choose Preferences.

*Click Accounts in the toolbar.

*Click the + icon. The “Add Account” sheet appears.

*Enter your real name, email address, and password; click Continue. If Autodiscovery is enabled through your DNS provider, the setting should automatically populate.

Note:If the Exchange server Autodiscovery does not complete, you will need to manually fill in your mail server information fields mentioned below.

Setup Manually:

The “Incoming Mail Server” sheet appears.

Enter the following: 

Account Type: Exchange 2007

Description: (optional)

Email Address:  your-exchange-email-address

Internal server: mail.yourserver.net

External Server: (leave blank)

User Name: Your OMA Username

Password: Your account password

Outgoing Mail Server: mail.youserver.net

Under Advanced settings 

Check Enable this account

Check Include when automatically checking for new messages

Keep copies of messages for offline viewing: All messages and their attachments

Internal Server Path: EWS/Exchange.asmx

Internal Port: 443 (Check Use SSL)

External Server Path: (Leave Blank)

External Port: 80 (Uncheck: use SSL)

Verify your settings in the Account Summary. Check “Take account online”. Click “Create” to complete the process.

After completing these steps you should be able to send and receive email via this account.