Setting up thunderbird 17 on Linux with Exchange server 2010 emails, contacts and calendar

Are you running Thunderbird 17 (beta)??

Lets see the components required for setup this time ---

Basic

Thunderbird 17

Setup ppa:mozillateam/thunderbird-next

Details: https://launchpad.net/~mozillateam/+archive/thunderbird-next

Setup your exchange email account with MAPI plugin.

Subscribe to folders. After you add the account right click on it in the main window (left pane) -> "Subscribe..." -> Select all folders

Calendar

Install following add-ons -

1. Lightning 1.9b2
   Provides calendar feature in thunderbird
   Description: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/lightning/
   Direct download: https://addons.mozilla.org/thunderbird/downloads/file/172032/lightning-1.9b2-tb+sm-linux.xpi
2. Exchange 2007/2010 Calendar and Tasks Provider 3.1.1
   Allows to sync Calendar and Tasks with Microsoft Exchange 2007/2010 Exchange Web Services server using Lightning
   Description: http://www.1st-setup.nl/wordpress/?page_id=133
   Direct download: http://www.1st-setup.nl/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/download.php?id=13

Contacts setup

This the tricky part. I am posting the settings/steps that worked for me after reading numerous forums on the internet

Steps

1. Launch address book (CTRL+SHIFT+B)
2. Menu -> File -> New -> LDAP directory
   You should see “Directory Server Properties” window
3. Setup the window with following settings
   1. Name: Name of the addressbook (could be any string)
   2. Hostname: name of the ldap server (in my case it was thecompanyname.co.in)
   3. Base DN: Samples -
      • dc=companyname,dc=co,dc=in
      • dc=companyname,dc=com
   4. Port number: Change 389 to 3268
      This step is very very important, 389 works but is really very very slow. 3268 works and is quite fast.
4. Press OK to exit the dialog
   You now lookup contact details in the address book. Password will be asked for the first time.
5. Thunderbird->menu->Edit->Preferences->Composition->Addressing-> Check “Directory Server: ” and select the created addressbook.
   This will help in auto completion of email addresses while writing new mails.