Profiles in Outlook to Exchange

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Guest

Hello to all,

Scenario:-

Main office - Windows 2003 server and client PCs
Remote office - Windows XP PC

I setup Outlook Web Access on the remote PC to connect to the Exchange
server at the main office which works fine. However, my Manager insists that
the users on the workgroup PC at the remote office, should connect to
Exchange at the main office using Outlook provided within office 2003 rather
than through OWA.

He has asked that I setup profiles in outlook in the control panel using the
'mail' applet, and users connect to Exchange this way.

My questions are:-

(1) Can this be done remotely in the above scenario? It works locally at the
main office when testing this.

The reason for this was that users cannot access shared calendars and such
through OWA's limitations.

Question (2):-

When testing this on a PC at the main office which is not connected to the
domain (which is the same scenario as at the remote office), it worked fine.
Emails could be sent and recieved, the only problem was that when trying to
access shared calendars an error came up with:-

'connection to Microsoft Exchange Server is unavailable.....'

I wondered why this occured when I could access emails through outlook being
set up as described above. Remember that this second question relates to a PC
at the main office and not the remote office.

Many kind regards to all,

Jeff
 
(1) Not quite sure how to interpret, but here goes the two ways I am reading
your question.

a) Can Microsoft Outlook 200x on a network connected PC attach to Microsoft
Exchange when it is not a member of the domain and have full functionality.
The answer is absolutely. The key thing here with Outlook 2003 is that name
resolution (DNS/WINS) of the server name(s) that consist of your Exchange/AD
environment + the needed ports to support the needed RPC (and/or RPC over
HTTPS) calls is permitted between the two locations.

b) You are asking can I connect to the remote machine and create an Outlook
profile for the user remotely. Sure, Remote Desktop.

What it might be better to look at here is using a preference (PRF) file
that can be deployed with Office/Outlook via the CIW/CMW. This would allow
the first lauch of Outlook to build a mail profile so you don't have to walk
users thru the steps on how to create one. (Note: PRF files can also be
imported/used by calling outlook.exe /importprf <path\to\prf_file>)


(2) Username/password & workgroup name of the workstation could be playing a
role here if doing straight RPC calls. (Watch for passthru authentication.
Kerberos vs NTLM auth....)

Also you didn't go into a lot of detail if there is anything between said
workstation and servers that could be limiting network traffic. Remember
that Outlook 2003 will need access to all Exchange server(s) in the site +
all domain controller/global catalog servers.

/neo


PS - It is possible to access a shared calendar in OWA.

https://servername/exchange/mailbox/calendar
 
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