Mixed LAN / Dial-in in CW mode (O2K)

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The company is migrating from Netscape to Outlook and is concentrating on the desktop PC environment. This leaves the relatively few laptop users feeling a little lonely.

We have hit problems trying to find a way of working with laptops which are mainly connected via the LAN, but need to dial in from outside locations. We want to be able to share calendars, and have concluded that this means working in CW mode.

At the moment we have successfully created offline folders (now the primary store), and set up delivery to be to a personal folder. In LAN connected mode this works well with incoming and outgoing messages focused on the personal folder and passing through the primary store on the way in/out.

The synchronisation seems to work fine, though seems much more invisible than in Netscape.

We have run dial-in from both Outlook Express and Outlook IMO mode. but trying to achieve it in CW mode has defeated us. Is it our configuration, or settings on the server that need attention?

On-the-fly swapping between IMO and CW mode seems possible but clumsy. It asks for the setup disks as it goes each way and needs some of the configuration “topping up” in going from IMO to CW mode.

Any ideas please

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This gets more complex than it ought to be. And it’s been a while since we went through this, so I am going on my poor memory. But I think part of the problem is your setting of delivery to a pst instead of the primary in box. That affects tons of stuff. Our laptops are set to cw mode with delivery to the mailbox. Setting up offline folders creates an ost file; this is the primary container when working off line. Outlook knows when to use which (most of the time).

Some other settings we had to set up to make this work included:

1) Setting network security to none, so the users have to log on. You’d want this anyway on a laptop for security reasons (Tools, Services, Exchange Server, Properties, Advanced Tab)

2) Setting connection type to manual control, so the users choose at log on time (Tools, Services, Exhcange Server, Properties, General Tab)

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Sorry this took so long, but I was prowling around what you said. I now have a “standard” set-up working fine. The only thing that has left a question is that following standard use, I set up a couple of rules for on-line use mainly to move messages from server inbox to local pst inbox, and sent messages from server sent items to local pst sent items. Typically when working offline, I bring headers down first, mark some messages bring them down then manually disconnect. The headers dont get moved by the rule, and sit in the ost file. next time online the full message comes down, pairs up with the header to clear it, and the real message obeys the rule and moves folder. Once I got stick with some mismatched headers I had to clear by hand. I think it was when I pulled the network cable out without tidying up….

Thanks again,

M

Thanks

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I would not have mail delivered to a .pst file–these can get really tricky. Use offline folders, which means mail is delivered to the mailbox while a user is in the office, and synchronized into the .ost file. When a user is out of the office, they use the .ost file (still through the Outlook client in CW mode; absolutely no reason to switch back and forth) and dial-in and synchronize their mailbox on the server to their offline folder file (the .ost file).

To have users control their “state” (i.e., connected or working offline), set the Exchange services to manual control. (Tools| Services| Microsoft Exchange Server| click Properties| choose Manually Control Connection State).

This will ease your GAL synch issues mentioned in your other post, too…

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Copy of other reply, but thanks meant personally

Sorry this took so long, but I was prowling around what you said. I now have a “standard” set-up working fine. The only thing that has left a question is that following standard use, I set up a couple of rules for on-line use mainly to move messages from server inbox to local pst inbox, and sent messages from server sent items to local pst sent items. Typically when working offline, I bring headers down first, mark some messages bring them down then manually disconnect. The headers dont get moved by the rule, and sit in the ost file. next time online the full message comes down, pairs up with the header to clear it, and the real message obeys the rule and moves folder. Once I got stick with some mismatched headers I had to clear by hand. I think it was when I pulled the network cable out without tidying up….

Thanks again,

M

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