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Traveling Laptops, Exchange 2000, and Multiple Profiles?
PDiddy asks: "Working for a corporation which uses Exchange 2000, I have run into countless traveling users with laptops that have complaints about how their mail is received from the outside vs. inside. Most of these users have a 56k or less dialup when on the road, so having them connect with an Exchange profile is incredibly slow, even with 'Offline Folders' enabled. The second option is to have two profiles. One for Exchange (Inside), and have it default to delivering to a PST. The second profile (Outside) be setup for POP and set it to the same PST. On the surface, this solution looks great to the user, but the ability to nightly backup the mail on the exchange server is removed. The third option would be to have a combination of the two approaches, the difference being the exchange profile (Inside), would leave the mail on the server, but then you have users complaining about having to sort through their new mail twice.
What I need is a good, all around solution. Perhaps their are some third-party plugins for outlook I am unaware of to create a new solution?
Also, are their any recommended methods for accessing an Exchange global address book over a very slow connection, or, perhaps syncing updates to laptop while connected so it can be used on the road? Currently, if you export that address book, it will set the email addresses to X.400, which will not work from a POP profile."
Multiple traveling profiles exchange YOU!
If you arn't connecting with your main computer, the web based interface is one of the better ones. I have no problems accessing over my fairly slow DSL connection, and the one time I saw it used with dialup it didn't work any worse than any other email client over dialup. Wow, its been almost 6 years since I have used dialup for more than a week.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
... try Outlook Web Access, or maybe just have them use Outlook in a Terminal Services session. Either way is a hell of a lot faster than accessing the mailbox directly over dialup.
Remote access can be a pain, especially if you don't have a huge amount of $$$ to throw at the problem.
Now you know.
Not everyone can always have a broadband connection.
Web interface email is your best bet.
Just use IMAP and be done with it. Yes, you must have the space on the server for everyone to store their mail, but you can limit the size of the mailbox on the Exchange server. That will eliminate the calls to the help desk when a user blows away his 2 GIGABYTE .pst file and needs it restored. (True story.) If you're still afraid of the storage requirements, then just consider that it's all disk space in your company, somewhere. Whether it's on the email server, or spread over the file and print servers, it's still the same company spending the same money on the same amount of disk storage.
Acts 17:28, "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being."
Over a remote modem connection, I've found using Terminal Services to run Outlook to be faster than trying any of the other arrangements.
Doesn't help them get mail when offline, though.
o/~ Join us now and share the software
If the Exchange server and Outlook are both setup correctly you should not see this kind of delay and speed issue. The Outlook client should besetup of syncronize the offline folder with the server when they are online. In this way the only headers that need to be sent to the client on each connect are any new ones the client already has all the old ones. Also reasonable limits on the size of the exchange mailbox help alot. We have found here that approx 65MB mailboxes are ideal...the upper limit is around 150MB before things really get ugly. Don't let users use mail as a failing cabinet, or at least force them to personal folders (which we don't recommend to the users here, loose the hardrive loose the mail) as that function. Tell them to keep only useful mail, and be responsible about deleting and keeping the mailbox clean, move attachments to safe storage locations.
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
60. 59 to verify you have the proper liscence and one to actualy do the work
actualy i must say as much of a linux fan that i am its nice to see something get posted for microsoft. i dont think
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From an article at PCMag:
"a massive overhaul in Outlook that makes messages easier to read and manage and lets users switch between online and offline modes without restarting."
from a MS PressPass article site:
"Also, because information workers aren't always working online or from the office, Outlook includes an improved mobile e-mail experience that is more consistent across the range of today's networks and data connections. By introducing a new cached e-mail system and intelligent connection settings, Outlook allows mobile workers to get to their e-mail more quickly and transfer between data connections with little or no interruption."
A speech...
The description of your environment and your problem are not exactly clear, as you list several different configurations. However, I think that there is definitely a problem.
The fact is that Microsoft has already addressed this very issue in the best possible way. Configuring the laptops with mobile Outlook profiles causes the Outlook to leave all mail in the users mailbox on the Exchange server but, at the same time it caches the the mail in a local file along with the global address book. this allows the user full mail functionality while disconnected from the Exchange server but then synchronizes any changes when the laptop is later connected. While the synchronization process is not entirely transparent, especially on slow connections, it is not unreasonably intrusive, either. The only time that I have found it to be an issue is when people have large attachments in the mail messages.
Contrary to the other recommendations, POP3 and IMAP alternatives will NOT be any faster than the native MAPI connection. Indeed, these alternative protocols will instead reduce functionality, as you have partially stated in your post.
From the description of your problem it is difficult to identify the specific problem. But, it sounds as though there is an issue which is causing excessive delays in connecting to Exchange via MAPI. This type of problem is less frequent with Exchange 2000 than it was with 5.5 but, it can still occur. Perhaps the most common problem for delays in connecting to Exchange remotely is a name resolution problem. You can test if this is the issue by starting a remote connection from one of these laptops (don't start Outlook) and see if you can ping the Exchange server by name. If ping does not resolve the name and start pinging immediately then there is a name resolution problem. If that is not the issue there is also a potential problem with name resolution in Outlook itself. I recommend having a look at this Knowledgebase article.
More information about your problem would certainly be helpful in finding the answer but, the only way to use Exchange faster than the above configuration is to use Outlook Web Access through a browser.
Much better support for roaming users. Much much better. You can decide what the maximum size of messages, and of file attachments, that you want to replicate down while you're over a slow link. Encrypted, compressed, streamed transmission. And you can dial in direct to the server itself, or use a pass-thru server (kinda like a reverse proxy) so that users can use any Internet access to securely get back to everything.
Things don't get any more secure than that.
The CIA uses Lotus Notes. If it's secure enough for them.....
After re-reading your post, I got to thinking that you don't specify what client the workstations are running. It Occurred to me that you may be running Windows 2000/NT on these laptops and that you may have implemented Roaming Profiles (for Windows).
This type of configuration can be an issue as users frequently store full files on their desktop which is part of the profile, rather than just short cuts to the files. This causes the profiles to grow very large, I've seen 60 Meg profiles, before people started complaining about performance when logging in.
If this is the problem that you are having, you should configure your environment to use the locally cached profile when slow links are detected. This will prevent trying to pull a 60 Meg desktop profile across a 56K link. This configuration is done at a domain level using Group Policy Objects.
But, like I said before, you don't really give enough information in your post.
I know that this is offtopic, but I can't help but be grateful that I can use pine over a ssh connection when I see articles like this. I can access all of my mail from nearly anywhere in the world and have the same capabilities as if I were sitting at my desk. I can even access it using only a java-enabled web browser using mindterm.
Your exchange box is behind a firewall, right?
Having them VPN in solves a lot of DNS, routing and other such issues, as well as security, and blah blah blah. That's how I did it, at least, last time I had to worry about offline users talking to Exchange. Worked pretty good, too.
Oh, and Outlook Web Access. True, doesn't help with the offline stuff, but how many users REALLY need that? Otherwise, tell them to sync at night in the hotel room when it doesn't matter, or to find a broadband connection.
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I'm running Outlook 2000 w/ Exchange 2000 on the backend. Connecting from home over a VPN takes 3-4 minutes to initialize the connection and start seeing new mail. Connecting with Mozilla via IMAP takes less than three seconds to read new mail. I'm not even exaggerating or joking.
is the reason why users have two different profiles because you have an established WORKGROUP that the user must be on to connect to the Exchange server via the Exchange method?
If so, why not create two different profiles, but then alias the mail to one shared PST file r/w by both profiles?
In addition to setting up offline folders, you need to force Outlook to 'Work Offline' or present the user with a choice between 'Connect' and 'Work Offline' when Outlook starts.
If Outlook sees any kind of network connection, it will default to 'Connect' if not told otherwise, no matter if the link is 56k or 100Mbps...
So, combine that with properly sync'd offline folders (sync when logging off when connected), you'll have none of this trouble.
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O W A. As in "Outlook Web Access"
Can be configured to allow anyone with a valid login/password to attach to your mail server WITHOUT the need for a VPN. Face it, VPNs confuse some people and for the most part end users are stupid.
OWA doesn't address the off-line issue, but still allows you to back up their mail. When they return to the office, they can sync up and get their mail copied down locally.
Cruising the internet on my TI-99/4A @ a whopping 300 baud!
..go back to your Microsoft cronies..!
Oh, there's no site quite like Slashdot but for Windows? Make one! We're busy being open-source zealots here. Bugger off!
Metaframe allows you to access bandwidth-intensive applications like Outlook over low bandwidth links such as 56k modems. The application runs on the server, and Citrix only sends compressed screen deltas and keystokes across the WAN.
Client software runs on any operating system, including OS X and Linux. I use this configuration daily to access Outlook and MS Office from my home Linux and Solaris machines, and it works great.
I
MAP
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
When you buy proprietary, you do so for "support" reasons. Use them.
Dear Sir,
Thank you for using the Microsoft helpdesk at Slashdot. Unfortunately your request should be redirect to the main Microsoft website . You purchased the Exchange server and client from them, so they will be providing you the top-notch support you expect from Slashdot. If you feel that they cannot help you, please ask for a refund for your product.
There's no news, there's no stuff that matters. It's all been replaced by a pile of stinking microsoft exchange weenies.
While Outlook Web Access (OWA) is a decent product, with the advent of Exchange 2000 it becomes quite expensive. With Exchange 5.5, you could install OWA on any IIS4 or above machine. With Exchange 2000, you have to put a full blown install of Exchange 2000 Enterprise on the OWA server (Enterprise is not needed on the regular database servers).
A better alternative might be any other Web based mail front end such as Squirrelmail or, the one I like better, is IMP from Horde. These use IMAP for connectivity.
I'm personally not a big fan of GroupWise, but I think it has some of the functionality you're looking for. Mind you, I'm somewhat new at supporting GroupWise, and I could be a bit off on my details here, but I think I'm pretty close.
The GroupWise client has 3 modes:
Online
Caching
Remote
The Online mode acts as a local LAN connection should, a consistant connection to the server.
I'm a little confused as to the exact operation of the Remote mode, but it does copy everything down. I haven't used this much, but it appears to be more like the local PST file scenario.
The cool feature is the Caching mode. The first time you switch to Caching mode, you should be on the LAN. This will create a local copy of all your mail. Now when you go, you have everything with you. Changes made will effect both the local system and be propegated back to the server so that when you switch back to Online mode, it's like nothing ever happened.
How does this help you? You may try experimenting to see if the GroupWise client will function in the same manner in your Exchange environment. Yeah, it's kind of annoying having a second client, but the good news is that there's add-ons to make GroupWise look and feel just like Outlook.
I guess the ultimate solution would be to have Microsoft do something similar with the Outlook client.
IMHO, Outlook/Exchange is a better overall system than GroupWise, but GroupWise has this one feature that makes it worthwhile, especially for travelling.
Don Head
UNIX/Linux Administrator