Uber-Geeks Please Read: Adding IMAP to work Outlook when IT don't want me to. How?

alexjohnson

(deleted.)

tryingtosave_3

I know you're looking for technical help, not someone to tell you this isn't a good idea ... but it really isn't. I know you say that your employer isn't going to fire you for this (if you succeed) but they may have cause to - probably worth having a look at your company's IT policies before doing anything. Plus it seems to me that if you're confident that it won't present a problem, why not just ask for the IT department to help? (and I realise you explain why in your post ... but my point is you've explained why this *would* be viewed badly in your first para).

However, if you're able to install software (and again, I really recommend checking this isn't a violation of your IT policies), you might find something like Yahoo! Widget Engine (formerly Konfabulator) can help. Certainly there is a Widget for pop mail checking, and may well be an IMAP version. The idea here is that the Widgets run in the background/on your desktop and could alert you to new mail ... and then you could go online and check it. Not ideal I know but maybe an improvement!

I've said it already I know, but I can't say enough that messing with your company's IT systems, and possibly risking dismissal, is usually really not worth the risk.

wolfman

Won't you need to use the same port as whatever the Apple service uses? Might be why port 8080 doen't work as the Apple IMAP service probably isn't running on that port.

I think you'll basically be stumped. We have the same thing here with pop. The company firewall won't let any outgoing pop requests (port 110). I can't use a custom port either as gmail have their pop server set to use 110.

What you can try and find is a kind of email proxy. There was one for Yahoo, called YahooPop. It would basically get your mail via webmail by stripping out the html etc... Very clever coding. You basically make Outlook connect to it (YahooPop) on your local machine and it goes off making http requests, getting your email and acting as an email proxy. It's making the requests via port 80, which is a standard browsing port so overcomes the port problem.

Not having admin rights might be a pain. Can't really help you there as I've not really used a restricted account, benefit of being a coder.

wolfman

alexjohnson wrote:

This might be what I am misunderstanding. If the request came from me I thought I could just change the port. Perhaps not. But port forwarding is usally the point at which my eyes glaze over, hence asking the question...

Yeah, it's the server that's running the application. You're the client so make the connection to the server. The server will be running the service on a set port, so you'll need to have your client app set to that port in order to connect.

Using the standard IMAP port will probably get blocked as it may conflict with any company IMAP services running. They probably only allow mail in from their own domain.

I think the easiest solution is to use webmail. Maybe try and find a notifier (like the gmail one) that will let you know when you've got mail.

cosmokramer2004

Have you tried using an SSL connection instead? SSL IMAP default port is 993. Worth a try..

The Outlook setting for SSL is in More Settings>> under the "Advanced" tab btw.

smevans

Why not create a Gmail account, forward your mail to that then use the Gmail web interface to manage your email ?

cosmokramer2004

smevans wrote:

Why not create a Gmail account, forward your mail to that then use the Gmail web interface to manage your email ?

The point of the OP's OP is that he doesn't want to have to open a web browser to check his email since doing so leads to distractions - ie. checking out other websites....

smevans

cosmokramer2004 wrote:

The point of the OP's OP is that he doesn't want to have to open a web browser to check his email since doing so leads to distractions - ie. checking out other websites....

:rolleyes:

wolfman

In this situation the phrase beggers can't be choosers comes to mind.

tigermatt

You'll probably find that all unnecessary ports are blocked in your companies client firewall, that's the one between the servers and the client computers. They couldn't block ports like POP3 or SMTP in the main firewall between the internet and corporate network because that would restrict Exchange from performing its tasks properly, but because clients don't need to access it they block it.

The easiest way is to forward mail to your work address and this shouldn't be detected - if its a big company then thousands of emails will be sent every day and the few from your home address will most likely be undetected.

smevans

Your best option is to stick with webmail, being .Mac, Gmail or another.

As for being a productivity issue - baloney !! Just be stern and dont let yourself browse anything else when you should be working !