Feng Office & Google Apps Email/Calendar/Contacts

[Boxerworks]

We have installed Feng Office on our server at Host Gator. LOVE this package!  It is professional, quick, well designed & organized! So thank you guys for such a slick cloud based software!

I do have a question though and it doesn't seem to be one that's been easily solved as I've noticed that many others are having email problems.

Boxerworks uses Google Apps to handle our email, contacts & calendar.  I have the imap side of Google Email configured but still receive an error that says, "Error: Connection Refused". I receive this no matter what configuration I use. (i.e. port 465 or 587....tls or ssl...)  Attached is the current configuration with said error message.

Additionally, I need to know how to hook up our calendar and contacts so that it syncs with the Boxerworks Google Apps account.

Can someone please tell me how to get these pieces working so that I can just RAVE about Feng Office???  That would be absolutely stellar if you can!!

[Boxerworks]

Certainly, I can't be the ONLY person with this problem?  Please, I'm asking for help from those who have experience.  Will you please assist me in making this a perfect app for our company so that I can tell everyone I know about it?  Thank you.

[markc]

Well, I am not in a similar position but I looked up the gmail page on using IMAP:

http://mail.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?hl=en&topic=12806

I looked on the pages for Windows Mobile 6, Outlook '07, and Apple Mail 2.0 to get a bit of variation and they all say to use 'imap.gmail.com' and 'smtp.gmail.com' instead of using the 'googlemail.com' domain you have entered.

I did nslookup on them and it looks like they are not the same server.

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    googlemail-imap.l.google.com
Address:  74.125.95.16
Aliases:  imap.googlemail.com

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:    gmail-imap.l.google.com
Address:  74.125.95.109
Aliases:  imap.gmail.com

I have never actually set up IMAP access to my gmail account so I may be missing something... This would be easy enough to overlook though (especially if it used to be the googlemail.com domain), so I thought I'd mention it.

I don't know anything about the calendar sync so I'd be searching from scratch on that one. Maybe someone else has an idea there.

hth,
Mark

[Boxerworks]

Sadly, I've been there and it didn't help any.  Have tried using both "googlemail.com" and "gmail.com" and neither give me a connection... which sucks!

I love this package but can't help but to wonder what they were thinking when they released the app without fully supporting Google email.  They ARE afterall, trying to compete and/or win the race against gApps.  Hmm... I sure hope this gets solved quickly.... Else, I'm going to have to retreat back to their nemesis. 

[markc]

I presume you've been able to get this working in Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Thunderbird, or etc.?

If not, you should. In this case fengoffice is the unknown and so you should get it working in a more regular environment first. Any errors you receive from those mail clients while doing so will be vastly more documented than anything you'll find on FO.

Then, when that works, move the settings over verbatim and you'll finally have an argument against FO's implementation. Until then there are too many unknowns.

hth,
Markc

[Boxerworks]

Yes, I've been able to obtain IMAP access through Thunderbird 3, Mail Mail, Entourage and *ugh* Outlook... so I'm certain my settings are correct.

*sigh*

[markc]

Also...come to think of it. Be sure and double check or disable the firewall on your FO box.

It is not improbable that your workstation has a more open firewall than the FO server. We know that you've tried the servers that google recommends (at least for @gmail.com) addresses, and you're getting "Connection refused" so it may not be able to talk to the imap server at all. I bet if it was the username or the password that was wrong you'd get something more along those lines as the error (just a guess).

hth,
Mark

[Boxerworks]

Now, that IS something I haven't tried... and having looked in the Administrative back end, I don't readily see anything to do with a firewall.  Can you point me to where I might find this?

[markc]

I just remembered you're on a hosting server and may not be directly in charge of the firewall. I did not mean in FO's settings. I meant the settings in the Windows Firewall/iptables/ISA/etc firewall that is on your host's server. They may not allow outbound access on the ports you are trying.

[edit] Or...they could even be on a spam blocklist and google is shunning them.

hth,
Mark

[franponce87]

Heh, it's funny, while I was gathering information to reply you, markc has been replying too

First of all, Gmail accounts do work wonderful at Feng Office.. but yours happens to be a Google Mail one, so I assume you might be from the UK and I'm not so sure why do you have this issue  

So, you have already mentioned it, but could you please double check if your IMAP settings are enabled for your account?

The other thing I was going to suggest you to try was using imap.gmail.com instead of imap.googlemail.com as II'm not so sure what's Google Mail default email server, but it seems like you have already tried that, otherwise please do so.

What about the POP3 settings? Have you tried that way if you manage to connect to the server?

Regarding the calendar synchronization: you may synchronize your calendar from Google Calendar to Feng`s, but not viceversa

About the contacts, you may export all your contacts either from your email account and then import them to Feng Office, and viceversa

Greetings!

[Boxerworks]

*smile* I appreciate ALL the help I can get!

The reason I haven't enabled POP is because me & my business partner have Android phones and "sync"  our calendar, contacts and of course, email so that we're ALWAYS on top of things.

That said, I have "googlemail.com" because we're on Google Apps.  I'm supposed to be able to use either the "imap.gmail.com" OR "imap.googlemail.com" servers.  Both work ons several desktop mail clients... *shrug!*

I'm assuming to "enable" imap in Feng (as I haven't seen it anywhere else) is in the "Email Accounts" section of the Admin.  Then once you're in the screen to set up an account, one would select "imap" over "pop".  Am I wrong?  Tell me I am... as I'm truly hoping there's somewhere else I can enable this.

[franponce87]

Well, actually, by checking if the IMAP was enabled I meant at your email account, not in Feng as that would mean choosing IMAP or POP3 as you said..
However, by trying a POP3 connection, even though you and your partner need IMAP for obvious reasons, you might find out if the problem is due to the server name, a firewall blocking the ports as mentioned above, etc.

You may also would like trying the very same settings on Thunderbird or any other mail client of your like, and check if there's something wrong there, so that way you might realise if there's something wrong at the configuration.

Another thing you may try, is bypassing the captcha manually to see if that's the problem or not, but this usually has a different error name, not the one from your screenshot. In order to do that, go to https://www.google.com/accounts/displayunlockcaptcha and unlock your captcha. Good luck!

[JTR5]

Hello

Boxerworks

I think I had the same problem as you. I also have Feng Office installed on HostGator. The problem was solved by contacting HostGator chat support and asking them to enable port 993.

See: http://forums.hostgator.com/gmail-imap-connection-refused-t58192.html

[franponce87]

That is a nice tip JTR5, thanks!
Greetings!

[DeeVAS]

I followed these instructions and was still having issues; I couldn't receive emails and I got the "connection refused" error. I checked with Hostgator if ports 993, 465 and 587 were enabled on my domain. They confirmed it was. I still couldn't get it to work.

Well now I have. After an online chat with Luke Le at Hostgator we have discovered tht you need to ensure the port 993 is enabled for outgoing AND incoming data.

I have Feng Office 1.7.3.1 installed. Emails are now working fine.