Desktop Proxy (SOAP<->IMAP,iCAL,SMTP)

[chrisgb]

Hi!

I have several mail accounts which I handle all together in Thunderbird. Now recently the admins behind one of the accounts decided to switch to Zimbra. Unfortunately they want to force all users to use the Zimbra-Desktop/Web-Client by only allowing SOAP connections. Is there a way to set up a Proxy on a desktop computer? Zimbra-Proxy seems to require the admin password of the central LDAP server which is a) unreachable from outside and b) won't be given away by the admins anyway.

Any ideas?


chrisgb

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by chrisgb

I have several mail accounts which I handle all together in Thunderbird. Now recently the admins behind one of the accounts decided to switch to Zimbra. Unfortunately they want to force all users to use the Zimbra-Desktop/Web-Client by only allowing SOAP connections. Is there a way to set up a Proxy on a desktop computer?

Why do you think you need a proxy on your PC?

Originally Posted by chrisgb

Zimbra-Proxy seems to require the admin password of the central LDAP server which is a) unreachable from outside and b) won't be given away by the admins anyway.

That would be remarkably insecure if they did.

[chrisgb]

Originally Posted by phoenix

Why do you think you need a proxy on your PC?

Because Thunderbird only speaks IMAP, POP3, SMTP and iCal (via Lightning)? These interfaces are disabled on the mail server. Only Zimbra-SOAP is permitted/possible.


Christoph

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by chrisgb

Because Thunderbird only speaks IMAP, POP3, SMTP and iCal (via Lightning)? These interfaces are disabled on the mail server. Only Zimbra-SOAP is permitted/possible.

Then Thunderbird won't be able to access the server. The zimbra-proxy isn't for these situations and is meant to be run by the Admin the context of allowing users access to the server, it's not an end-user product. What's wrong with using Zimbra Desktop?

[chrisgb]

Originally Posted by phoenix

Then Thunderbird won't be able to access the server. The zimbra-proxy isn't for these situations and is meant to be run by the Admin the context of allowing users access to the server, it's not an end-user product. What's wrong with using Zimbra Desktop?

Well Zimbra Desktop is for the moment also ruled out because the IT department hasn't officially deployed it. So all need to fall back to the web interface.
"Illegally" I downloaded Zimbra Desktop on my own but it seems that it can't handle multiple accounts at the same time. In Thunderbird I can see all my accounts and IMAP folders at a glance and can drag and drop messages between them. Also the thread view is quite different. The Zimbra approach to put together messages from different folders is quite helpful, but when reading high volume mailing lists, the Thunderbird variant is IMHO better.
At the end it's all a matter of taste and as the saying goes: "All mail clients suck..." (I know Zimbra is a groupware :-) )

Regards
Christoph

[phoenix]

Originally Posted by chrisgb

"Illegally" I downloaded Zimbra Desktop on my own but it seems that it can't handle multiple accounts at the same time. In Thunderbird I can see all my accounts and IMAP folders at a glance and can drag and drop messages between them. Also the thread view is quite different.

You can do all of that in Zimbra Desktop, it handles multiple accounts without problems and provides a 'combined' view of them all. We are talking about ZD 2.x here aren't we, that is what you've installed?