SWGFL Imap and Google Apps

[teachingtim]

Hi,

I have run into a little trouble and wondered if anyone might be able to help?

 

We are starting to roll out google apps for education in our primary school in Exeter.

 

The children are fine and are using the web interface which works fine, but for our teachers we are hoping to use outlook.

 

I can ping the two sites imap.gmail.com and smtp.gmail.com but when in outlook it cannot make a connection via imap

 

Has anyone had this problem and found a solution?

 

Thanks

 

Tim

[localzuk]

Hi,

I have run into a little trouble and wondered if anyone might be able to help?

 

We are starting to roll out google apps for education in our primary school in Exeter.

 

The children are fine and are using the web interface which works fine, but for our teachers we are hoping to use outlook.

 

I can ping the two sites imap.gmail.com and smtp.gmail.com but when in outlook it cannot make a connection via imap

 

Has anyone had this problem and found a solution?

 

Thanks

 

Tim

 

Usually, the IMAP and SMTP ports are blocked, so you'll need to log a request to have them opened to the gmail servers.

[teachingtim]

Hi,

Thanks for that, I had already called SWGFL when I first set it up, but they had said everything was unblocked at their end and that it was my settings in outlook that were probably wrong, I will get back on to them on Monday.

Thanks

Tim

[localzuk]

Hi,

Thanks for that, I had already called SWGFL when I first set it up, but they had said everything was unblocked at their end and that it was my settings in outlook that were probably wrong, I will get back on to them on Monday.

Thanks

Tim

 

What ports are you trying to connect to in Outlook? Imap should be port 993 using SSL and SMTP should be port 587 using TLS. A way to check the ports are open is to try to telnet to the 2 servers on the ports just mentioned. If it works, the telnet window will stay open (you'll likely not get any text response). If it can't connect, it'll complain and say so.

 

Also, with SWGfL - unless you filled in a form to get ports opened, then the advice given is likely wrong. In my experience, SWGfL will not open ports without written authorisation from the school.

[CyberNerd]

IMAP is set to off for all users as default and you need to turn it on

 

gam all users imap on

 

ExamplesEmailSettings - google-apps-manager - GAM Account Commands to Configure User Email Settings - Dito Google Apps Manager - Google Project Hosting

[teachingtim]

I think I was given bad advice, they said if I can ping the address it is not blocked, I will try telnetting tomorrow. thanks

[teachingtim]

Thanks also Cyber, I had already turned it on within google apps. It all works fine out of school, making me think it was grid connected

[Boredguy]

You can log change requests to alter the firewall via the esi.swgfl.org.uk site if it turns out the ports are still blocked when you test today. Normally they say it will be done in a week, but mine never seem ready within that window =(

[hudzen76]

We use an internal SMTP relay server to send messages out from an 'automated' address so I had to raise change request to get ports open. For some users that needed a MIME compatible client, I'm using the Google Apps Sync tool (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gappssync) to work with Outlook; that doesn't seem to need any ports opening so may be worth a look...

[teachingtim]

Thanks for all the help everyone, thankfully SWGFL were really quick to work on this, and once I had completed the form they had the ports open with a few days, and we are all up and running:)