ExQuilla alternatives for connecting to MS Exchange Server?
Solution 1:
If you have web services enabled on the exchange server, then Davmail will do the trick: http://davmail.sourceforge.net
Here's how to set up :
Once davmail is installed, go ahead and run it.
- Right-click the tray icon
- Go to Settings→General and enter your OWA exchange URL (ask your IT for this URL, or whoever set up exchange).
- You can leave the rest of the settings as default if you wish- But do take note of the Local IMAP port (it defaulted to 1143 for me) as well as the SMTP port (it defaulted to 1025 for me).
- Now, open up thunderbird and add an account.
- Enter your email/password as normal and hit continue. It will try to connect and fail, but go ahead and click Manual Config.
- Change the incoming server to localhost and the port to 1143.
- Change the outgoing server to localhost and the port to 1025. Use your existing exchange email/password.
Voila.
Keep in mind davmail does not automatically start after reboot, so you will need to make sure it starts before trying to connect with thunderbird.
To explain what davmail is doing:
Davmail is acting as a man-in-the-middle to your exchange server, relaying info to and from: thunderbird <-> davmail <-> exchange. Thunderbird just connects to Davmail (which is running on your localhost) and davmail connects to your exchange server.
Solution 2:
Ok my first answer was deleted so I will try to be more specific.
MExInt is a Thunderbird add-on that can download e-mail messages and send e-mail messages via EWS.
You can download it here: https://github.com/guderkar/MExInt/tree/master/xpi
You can examine the code here: https://github.com/guderkar/MExInt
How to use it:
- Install the add-on from the .xpi file
- Go to Account Settings -> Account Actions and select Add Microsoft Exchange Account
- Fill the account information - You will need Exchange username or e-mail, password and URL to Exchange Web Services
- Click Add Account
- To download messages right click on account in Thunderbird account pane and select Get Mesasges
- To send message use standard way
Solution 3:
I was using Exquilla...but once it became paid, I looked elsewhere. Mostly because we are moving from a hosted 2010 EXCH to 365, and once the migration is completed, I shouldn't need that plugin.
I switched to the DavMail solution, and it worked flawlessly. I wanted to avoid the popup and tray icon, so I tried the server install. This created problems for me because the davmail.properties file was also created in /home/USER/.davmail.properties. Once I removed the duplicate file, I could check email, but it would not send. Doh, I had my outgoing port at 25,not 1025. With that simple fix it worked perfectly. I'm using Mint and followed these instructions: http://davmail.sourceforge.net/serversetup.html
Solution 4:
You might be interested in BlueMail.
It's not a Thunberbird Add-on but it might be worth mentioning since it's available on many platforms, it's free (as in free beer), easy to install and supports Exchange via ActiveSync or EWS.
# Make sure snapd is installed :
sudo apt update
sudo apt install snapd
# Install Bluemail :
sudo snap install bluemail
For the ActiveSync URL, I simply used the OWA URL without https:// or /owa. So someexchangeserver.com instead of https://someexchangeserver.com/owa/.
PS : I'm not affiliated to BlueMail, just pleasantly surprised by the ease of use.