In the past, if you wished to use S/MIME for e-mail encryption with an external recipient, you would add the recipient to your Contacts folder. This was typically done by having the recipient send you a digitally signed item and then right click on the recipient in the From field and click “Save to Contacts”.

Read more at source: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/04/23/448761.aspx

During the OCS Forest preparation we have the option to choose where we are going to store the OCS Global Configuration. Andrew Sniderman (http://communicationsserverteam.com/articles/142.aspx) blogged some tips to help you to decide which is the best solution for your deployment.

Read at source: http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2008/0...2.aspx

A few customers exploring the new Outlook Web Access customization features in Exchange 2007 SP1 have asked why when they add a button to the main OWA navigation bar does it appear as a small button only, or commonly stating that the text is “missing”.

The answer is relatively simple: To preserve web UI usability the main navigation bar is limited to 6 large buttons. Additional buttons appear in an over flow bar as small icons with the text as an OWA tooltip (OWA tooltips appear as you hover over a button or feature). The OWA buttons take precedence over custom defined buttons. In Exchange Server 2007 SP1 there are 6 OWA buttons by default.

To make a custom button appear with a large icon plus text, you need to remove an existing button from the navigation bar. This can be achieved by using OWA segmentation. In the example below the “Public Folder” button has been removed, you could choose others.

Read more at source: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/04/21/448736.aspx

During the last Interact 2008 I was invited to joing the Blogger’s lunch where the participants were MVP’s and senior MS guys (from Exchange, OCS and Office Communicator Team). So during the lunch, it was announced that a new version of MAC Messenger is coming and this new version will support OCS, here are some features that will apperar in this new version:

• GAL Search
• Instant Messaging
• P2P voice and video
• Rich presence

Technorati : MAC Client, OCS
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Ice Rocket : MAC Client, OCS
Flickr : MAC Client, OCS

Communicator Phone Edition is an intelligent IP phone designed to get the most out of Microsoft’s unified communication platform. Combining advanced network voice performance, user-driven design, up-time reliability, high-quality sound, and the enhanced communication and collaboration of Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007.
This document describes the high-level steps necessary to deploy Communicator Phone Edition within an organization.

Get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?fa...ang=en

Hello folks,

This week I’m participating in the Interact 2008 in California. The event has been great and today I went to two nice sessions with Scott Schnoll and Nino Bilic.

During the first session Scott and Nino Bilic presented a Prototype tool called Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer which helps us to validate some components of Exchange Server 2003 and Exchange Server 2007, such as: Audotodiscover connectivity, Outlook 2003 RPC/HTTP Connectivity and test Inbound SMTP E-mail Test as well.

How can I download such tool? It’s not necessary because it’s web based. It’s very cool, isn’t it? Here is the link: https://www.testexchangeconnectivity.com/

By the way, It’s a SSL protected site however it’s recommend to create a dummy user in your environment and use it in the Test Exchange Connectivity web site.

Best Regards,
Anderson Patricio

Technorati : Autodiscover, Test Exchange Connectivity, web tool
Del.icio.us : Autodiscover, Test Exchange Connectivity, web tool
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Today Microsoft released preliminary protocol documentation for Exchange 2007 (as well as Microsoft Office 2007 and SharePoint Server) as part of Microsoft’s Interoperability Principles. The Exchange protocolsare now publicly available on the Open Protocol Specifications section of MSDN in preliminary form for developers to review and provide feedback. You can read more about the announcement in this press release.

Read more at source: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/04/08/448650.aspx

Two videos explaining how to install Exchange Server 2007 SP1 CCR on Windows 2008 and how to install Windows 2008 clustering using the UI wizard.

Installing Windows 2008 Clustering using the UI wizard:

Installing Exchange 2007 SP1 CCR on Windows 2008:

Read more at source: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/04/07/448637.aspx

There is a new package update for OCS 2007, You can get it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=90...or.msp

There is also a KB containing all the issues fixed in this package, here is the link http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946164

In Exchange Server 2007 RTM and SP1, the Exchange team has published guidance for using a CNAME record in DNS as part of the provisioning process for the file share witness (FSW) component of a Majority Node Set (MNS) quorum on Windows Server 2003, and a Node and Share Majority quorum on Windows Server 2008. Specifically, we state the following in the documentation:

“We also recommend that you create a CNAME record in the Domain Name System (DNS) for the server hosting the share, instead of the actual server name. When creating the share for the file share witness, use the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) for the CNAME record instead of the server name because this practice assists with site resilience.”

Upon review of this guidance, we have learned that its effects and success can be unpredictable in some environments. As a result, we decided to revisit this guidance, and after working closely with the Windows Cluster team on various site resilience scenarios, we have decided to revise our configuration guidance.

In summary, we no longer recommend using a CNAME record as part of the FSW provisioning process. Instead of using a CNAME record and changing the FQDN for the target host to point to a server with a replacement FSW, in a backup site activation process, or in the reactivation process for a primary site, we now recommend using the Cluster service’s built in “force quorum” capabilities.

Read more at source: http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/04/03/448615.aspx