OCS2007 Enterprise Voice vs Interoute One Services

OVUG section: Enterprise Voice

Today we are the lucky owners of a fully functional OCS environment connected to Interoute One Services.

For a while Interoute   is one of our partners in iSIP services. A couple of month's ago e-office connected LCS to the iSIP cloud. The 16th of October interoute is fully supporting OCS2007RTM and ofcourse federation. Even interoute One is supporting OCS and MOC.

What is interoute One?

Interoute One is an advance VoIP solution, the core of which is the integration to Microsoft Office Communications Server. It acts as a secure communications clearing house, creating a global community of Microsoft Office Communicator (MOC) users. Alternative solutions include a stand alone soft phone and integration into existing IP or TDM PBX devices.

Traditional network:

cons:

• Complex
• Expensive
• Lack of expertise

pros:

• Simple Online Setup
• Zero cost
• Auto Configured

The main question is how can i configure OCS to connect to Interoute One.

Basically you need to do the following steps:

Step 1.

Login as new user of Interoute One. Make sure you have the DNS-name of your company present. Link Sing-Up for FREE!

Domain Name: This is the 'Sip domain' that your users are configured to use. If the user name is like user@company.com, the domain name is company.com. Most of the time this domain name is the same as the corporate SMTP domain space.

Step 2.

Interoute One will send you a loginname and password. Login at Interoute One Login Page:

Example is shown:

After fillin in the required information you will see the control panel every user have when using the Interoute One service.

Example is shown:

Be able to manage all your existing numbers:

Key features:

• one credit for all your available accounts. In our example: €125,52 euro.
• call hostory (duration, number called, call time)
• which services are enabled: Community,Outbound Calling and Inbound Calling.
• call rates and much more....

Step 3.

Make sure an OCS Mediation Server is installed and joined to the domain for example (contoso.local). A Mediation Server must be able to pass SIP requests and media between the Enterprise Voice infrastructure and a media gateway connected to the PSTN.

Assign this Mediation Server 2 separate NIC's with each a separate IP addresses. Configure one IP address to listening for Office Communication Server traffic. Configure the other NIC for listening for voice gateway traffic. There can only be one default gateway! Set it on your external edge of your Mediation Server.

Make sure your internal pool name is filled in (example: pool1.contoso.local) and make also sure that the PSTN next hop address is correct. In your case the PSTN next hop address is the public IP address of the Interoute One servers (89.*) this information fill be provided by Interoute in case you have any questions about that.

Step 4.

Make sure within the OCS Management Console that only users prepared as Enterprise Voice users are checked with the Enterprise Voice option and that the line URI is filled in. Example (+312......) You can configure Enterprise Voice on per user basis.

Step 5.

Make sure all users who are using Enterprise Voice have installed Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 (MOC2007).

Step 6.

Make sure numbers entered in MOC2007 can normalized to E.164. The format of the telephone number associated with the UC-enabled user is E.164 (example: +123456789). Therefore, if a user enters a number that is in different format (example: extension 1234) it has to be manipulated into the E.164 format.

OCS will take this number and search the corporate directory to find the user who has a matching number and then voice mail will be routed to the correct user. OCS uses normalization rules to translate these number formats and uses an internal translation service to perform canonicalization transformation. In our case we use only one normalization rule.

Step 7.

Check your Forest Level Voice Settings

To view global settings for Enterprise Voice:

• Open the Communications Server 2007 administrative snap-in.
• In the console pane, click the forest node.
• In the details pane, click the Voice tab.
• Expand one or more of the following to view the corresponding settings for Voice: Global Policy, Phone Usages, Normalization Rules, Location Profiles and Routes.

Step 8.

Check your pool level Voice Settings

To To view voice settings for a pool:

• Open the Communications Server 2007 administrative snap-in.
• In the console pane, click the pool whose settings you want to view.
• In the details pane, expand Voice Settings. Voice Settings displays pool-level settings for phone lock, location profile, and quality of service.
• Expand the settings you want to view.

Step 9.

Check your Route within OCS. When Communications Server determines that a dialed number needs to be routed to a PSTN gateway, the routing table is queried to determine the optimal gateway for the call. In our case the route is (.*) because we only have 1 normalization rule. So there is no need for logic routing.

Step 10.

Open ports on your FW (only outbound) only to the specific public IP addresses of Interoute (89.*) When configuring the Mediation Server, you are advised to accept the default media port gateway range of 60,000 to 64,000. The default range media port range enables the server to handle up to 1,000 simultaneous voice calls. We as e-office expanded this range.

11. Open ports on your FW (only inbound) only to your external edge of the Mediation Server. Ports (60,000-64,000).

12. There you go! Outbound calling will go through the services of Interoute One. Inbound calling will be forwarded to your OCS infrastructure. All: cheap, easy to use and just perfect! Sign it up for free and do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Tags van Technorati: MOC2007 , Office Communications Server 2007 , Enterprise Voice , Interoute One , Mediation Server , Media Port Range , OCS2007 , Route , Voice Settings OCS , nomalization rules , location profiles

MOR2007 can be ordered!

Today NEC Philips announced that the Microsoft Office Roundtable 360 panoramic view camera can be ordered at their site NEC Philips Roundtable Order Site

Order and fill-in this form: Form ask for Peter.Alexander.de.Graaf@nec-philips.com or call: +31356891198

Price: $3000

Tags van Technorati: MOR2007 , Office Communications Server 2007 , NEC Philips

UC personal newsletters online

Every month I will send an Personal Newsletter to all my technical and non technical contacts to inform them about UC.

I'm also making those newsletters public shared:

http://joafar.winkflash.com/ 

Click to save:

Powered by:  

Assign yourself or someone else? SUBSCRIBE

Tags van Technorati: Winkflash , UC NewsLetter , Joachim Farla

New OCS related downloads

Version 1.1 documents are coming online!

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Update Service Deployment Guide

This document describes how to administer Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Software Update Service.

11/1/2007

Office Communications Server 2007 QoE Monitoring Server Release Notes

This document contains important information that you should know before you deploy and use the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, QoE Monitoring Server.

11/1/2007

Office Communications Server 2007 Quality of Experience Monitoring Server

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Quality of Experience (QoE) Monitoring Server enables you to perform near real-time monitoring and service assessment of unified communications media.

10/31/2007

Business Continuity with Exchange Server 2007 SP1 and Data Protection Manager

Business Continuity with Exchange Server 2007 SP1 and Data Protection Manager

10/26/2007

Planning and Deploying Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007

Planning and Deploying Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator 2007

10/25/2007

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Release Notes

This document contains known issues related to Office Communications Server 2007 and Communicator Web Access (2007 release).

10/23/2007

Office Communications Server 2007 Document: Standard Edition Deployment Guide

This document describes how to deploy Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition.

10/23/2007

Office Communications Server 2007 Document: Enterprise Edition Deployment Guide

This document describes the process of deploying Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition.

10/23/2007

OVUG online

OVUG is online! This site contains information about Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and will bring the same questions you have together in one simple site.

OVUG: OCS Virtual User Group (OVUG)

Most of the time being active in newsgroups of OCS we see a lot of the same questions. This site combines these questions and can be seen as an extension to the public forum at Microsoft.

Online communities:

• Microsoft.Public.Office.Communicator
• Microsoft.Public.LiveComm.General

Tags van Technorati: Office Communications Server 2007 , OVUC , Online Virtual User Group , LCS , Microsoft.Public.Office.Communicator , Microsoft.Public.LiveComm.General

Try Teletext on your BlackBerry

Download for free:

Download BlackBerry Teletext for Free!

Download

Tags van Technorati: BlackBerry Teletext

MUI Package for Microsoft Office Communicator 2007

Quick Details

File Name:
CommunicatorMUI.exe

Version:
2.0.6362.0

Date Published:
9/21/2007

Language:
English

Download Size:
34.1 MB

Overview

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 introduces a wide range of new features, most notably enhanced presence and enterprise voice capabilities, enabling users to place computer-to-computer calls and to place outbound calls to, and accept incoming calls from, traditional (PBX/PSTN) phone users.
By installing the Multilingual User Interface Package to an existing Office Communicator 2007 installation, users can switch the user interface of Office Communicator 2007 from one language to another.

Download

Tags van Technorati: MUI MOC2007

MOC2007 hotfixes

A couple of days ago i get tipped by an UC-member that there is an hotfix for MOC2007.

Issues that the hotfix package fixes

This hotfix package fixes the following issues:

942566 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942566/) Error message in Communicator 2007: "An error occurred while trying to start the conference" or "This message was not delivered to all participants"

942568 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942568/) The text alignment in an e-mail message may be incorrect in Communicator 2007

942569 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942569/) The Russian language name is spelled incorrectly in the list of available languages in Communicator 2007

942570 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942570/) The telephone number in a Communicator 2007 pop-up window for an incoming call has an incorrect text direction when the language is set to Arabic or to Hebrew

942671 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942671/) A new policy is available to specify the Contacts store that Communicator 2007 uses

942674 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942674/) Unrecognizable characters appear in the date field of the display on a Unified Communications device that is used with Communicator 2007

942677 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942677/) The transport option is not automatically set to TLS when you click "Manual configuration" in "Advanced Connection Settings" in Communicator 2007

942857 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942857/) Menu items are truncated in the Hebrew version of Communicator 2007

943061 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943061/) Communicator 2007 crashes when the SipCompression registry entry is set to PING mode and the Transport registry entry is set to TLS

943062 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943062/) You may be prompted to restart the computer when you try to start Communicator 2007

943063 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943063/) Communicator 2007 crashes when you start it by using the presence control

943064 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943064/) After the computer resumes from hibernation or from standby, Communicator 2007 may consume 100% of CPU usage

943065 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943065/) Communicator 2007 presence icons do not change in Outlook 2007 after you disconnect a computer from the network

943066 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943066/) Presence status does not change from "In a Meeting" to "Available" in Communicator 2007

943067 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943067/) Certain icons may be mirrored incorrectly in the call conversation window in the Arabic version or in the Hebrew version of Communicator 2007

Download here: MOC 2007 hotfix

Quick Details

File Name:
communicator.msp

Version:
2.0.6362.13

Knowledge Base (KB) Articles:
KB941441

Date Published:
10/5/2007

Language:
English

Download Size:
4.8 MB

 

Tags van Technorati: 2.0.6362.13 , Hotfix , MOC2007 Hotifx

InTrack UC

TechNet InTrack: Microsoft Unified Communications - een nieuwe manier van communiceren

Language: Dutch

• Datum: 9 en 16 januari 2008
• Locatie: MIC, Barneveld (9 januari), Auditorium, Schiphol-Rijk (16 januari)
• Direct inschrijven voor 9 januari
• Direct inschrijven voor 16 januari

Magic Quadrant for UC by Gartner

Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications, 2007 by Gartner

Market Overview

The UC market and its technologies are maturing, but, overall, the market remains at an early stage of maturity, and the adoption of converged solutions remains slow. The slow adoption is the result of multiple technical and organizational issues, including:

• Some new technologies, such as presence, are not fully understood.
• Best practices around the use of UC are not well-defined or well-developed.
• Many products are still at an early stage and lack functionality.
• Enterprises have large investments in existing communication infrastructures that must be preserved; this lead to a slower evolutionary approach, rather than to the faster, revolutionary "rip and replace" approach.
• Some applications and products can be complex to deploy.
• The business case frequently is based on a soft return on investment (ROI), such as productivity improvements, rather than on hard ROIs, such as cost savings.

Gartner expects many barriers to slowly be resolved and that, in 2008, UC will enter an early mainstream adoption phase globally. UC offers multiple capabilities and is useful in different ways, depending on the function and users supported. Gartner research (see "Discovering the Value of Unified Communications") suggests that enterprises define their business cases depending on the problems and audiences addressed. Some UC investments are justified in personal-productivity improvements; other investments are geared toward workgroup improvements and should be justified at that level. Still other functions are geared toward broad enterprise workflow improvements and are justified at an enterprisewide-productivity level.

UC solutions often appear to take one of three general approaches:

• One is to bundle most functionality tightly in a single solution; examples of this include Nortel's Multimedia Communication Server (MCS) 5100, Siemens' OpenScape, and Interactive Intelligence's Customer Interaction Center (CIC) products.
• A second approach is to take a broad portfolio of separate communication functions and tie them together through shared services, such as presence, administration and directories. Examples of this include Cisco and Microsoft solutions.
• A third approach is to offer a common communication framework, or middleware, that can be used by unrelated communication applications. IBM and Oracle are taking this approach.

Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses. The bundled approach makes it easier to offer a solution at a departmental or workgroup level, and is useful for pilots and trials, because the overall expense and commitment is low. The broad, established-portfolio approach is useful to companies that already have a strong commitment to a vendor, because this approach enables infrastructure investments to be leveraged. Finally, the framework approach is particularly effective when building a communication solution that fits into a broader Web-services or business-application environment.

Another important distinction among vendor solutions is the extent to which they are open to standards and to integration with third-party communication products. Some solutions are intended primarily to enhance and operate on their own IP-PBX or presence environments. Others clearly are intended to interoperate in multiple environments. Some solutions, such as those from AVST, are designed specifically as part of a broader portfolio.

However, there is no single-best approach, and no one vendor offers everything an enterprise needs for communications. Companies must make decisions by evaluating the emerging options based on current needs and how these options fit with the business's longer-term strategies. Because most enterprises will end up with communication solutions from multiple vendors, enterprises should ensure that the different products can interoperate.

Added:

Ability to Execute

Gartner analysts evaluate UC product providers on the quality, efficacy and overall maturity of the products, systems, tools and procedures that enhance individual, group and enterprise communications. Ultimately, UC providers are judged on their ability and success in capitalizing on their vision (see Table 1).

Completeness of Vision

Gartner analysts evaluate UC product providers on their ability to convincingly articulate logical statements about current and future market directions, innovations, customer needs and competitive forces, and how well these map to Gartner's overall understanding of the marketplace. Ultimately, UC product providers are rated on their understanding of how market forces can be exploited to create opportunities for providers and their clients (see Table 2).

Leaders

The Leaders quadrant contains vendors selling comprehensive and integrated UC solutions that directly, or with well-defined partnerships, address the full range of market needs. These vendors have defined migration and evolution plans for their products in core UC areas and are using their solution sets to enter new clients into their client roster, and to expand their footprint in their existing client base in new function areas.

Challengers

Vendors in the Challengers quadrant offer solutions that are poised to move into leadership but have not yet done so. The reasons for this can include a solution set that covers most but not all UC functions, is full but not yet mature, or is not yet being delivered to a new client base or being adopted by new clients and is almost uniquely sold as an add-on to the installed client base.

Visionaries

Vendors in the Visionaries quadrant demonstrate a clear understanding of the UC market and offer a strong and differentiating approach to one or more core areas. However, these vendors have limited ability to execute across the entire set of requirements, or have marketing and distribution limits to their ability to challenge established leaders.

Niche Players

Vendors in the Niche Players quadrant offer stand-alone components in several UC areas but do not have a comprehensive product; or they have a solution that will have limited market reach. Although these solutions often perform specific functions well, they do not represent a complete solution for the broader UC market.

MOC2007 Keyboard Shortcuts

I get lots of questions about hotkey's in MOC2007. Attached all the well know hotkeys:

Tags van Technorati: hotkey MOC , Communicator , IM

Clinic 5091 Free content for 1 year Exchange 2007

Clinic 5091: Introduction to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging

In this online clinic, you are introduced to the new Unified Messaging features and functionalities in Exchange Server 2007. In addition, you learn how telephony and Unified Messaging can be integrated in Exchange Server 2007.
This online clinic is composed of a rich multimedia experience. It is intended for IT Professionals who are interested in telephony or Unified Messaging.

Title: Clinic 5091: Introduction to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging

Course Type: Self-paced Course

Available Offline: Yes

Estimated Time of Completion: 2 Hours

Language: English

Clinic 5091

LGCSB and Eircom to use Unified Communications

24.10.2007 - Eircom and the Local Government Computer Services Board (LGCSB) are among the first Irish organisations to begin using Microsoft’s new Unified Communications software, which was officially launched in Ireland yesterday.

Eircom will roll out the software in its new corporate headquarters at Dublin’s Heuston south quarter, which is due to open in March next year.
Jim Udell, productivity lead with Eircom Advisory Services, said this forms part of Eircom’s ICT strategy which is being driven around the need to improve collaboration among staff and have greater organisational agility.

“There are bottom-line improvements to be had through tying business processes with ICT,” said Udell.
In June of this year, the Local Government Computer Services Board (LGCSB) installed Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS) to more than 30 users throughout the organisation.
Tim Willoughby, assistant director of LGCSB, said the group now wants to roll out the entire unified communications package, which he said would increase productivity and efficiency throughout the organisation.

“In the future we intend to work with a number of different local authorities, starting with Waterford County Council,” he added.
With Unified Communications, what people use today as their inbox would effectively become a single repository for all messages, whether email, instant message chats, voicemail, conference calls or calendar appointments, accessible from anywhere.

Instead of playing ‘phone tag’, users could quickly establish whether colleagues are online and available to speak, choosing the most appropriate means to contact them.
Microsoft claimed the technology offers significant productivity improvements; research has shown employees lose up to 30 minutes per day trying to contact people and switching between communications devices to do so.
Colour-coded ‘presence’ icons appear beside contact names in common Microsoft applications, indicating whether people are available or busy. Clicking on a name brings up a range of contact options.
In one scenario, sending an instant message to a person could establish if they are free to take a call. This communication could then be expanded to a conference with multiple participants where documents could be shared among them.

“From an IT point of view, this is not a huge radical change. It’s relatively easy to put in,” said Richard Moore, head of the information worker group within Microsoft.
He suggested that many organisations might pick a group of 10 users to trial the software first, ahead of a larger rollout. “We don’t think people will go to this overnight. It will be a gradual transition,” he said.

For mobile phone users, handsets running Windows Mobile version 6 will be compatible with the unified communications system, Moore confirmed. These devices are already available from operators Vodafone, O2 and Meteor.
Users could dial in to the exchange server when out of the office and retrieve voicemail or email messages. Alternatively, people looking to contact that person would be routed to their mobile.
The full unified communications and VoIP suite comprises Office Communications Server 2007, which delivers voice over IP, video, instant messaging, conferencing and presence to applications in Microsoft Office as well as new versions of its Dynamics and CRM business software.

Also included are Office Communicator 2007 client software, Office Live Meeting and a service pack update of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Microsoft is working with several partners to deliver Unified Communications systems in Ireland, including BT, Nortel and HP.
Microsoft also hopes to make videoconferencing more widely used through its RoundTable videoconferencing device. It plugs into a USB port and has a 360-degree camera that captures a panoramic view of meeting participants, tracks the speaker and can record meetings.
Pricing has not been disclosed but Moore claimed it would be a “tiny fraction” of the cost of a dedicated videoconferencing system. RoundTable will be available in Ireland from early next year.

Tags van Technorati: LGCSB , Eircom , Unified Communications , OCS2007RTM

e-office deployed OCS for almost 2500 users

 

e-office deployed an OCS environment for almost 2500 users worldwide!

The last two days i've been working on a customer deployment of OCS2007RTM and Communicator Web Access 2007. It's a very nice project because it also integrates with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 EE.

Within a short time period we need to demo OCS and also show the presence states within MOSS2007. The corporate portal also needs automatic sign-in for OCS while the user is logging on to the portal with Windows Integrated Authentication. So this is a very cool project and of course for me because it's an technical adventure ;-)  

For you a short wrap-up how we drill down this project:

1. Make an design document together with your customer to discuss how and who preps the Schema, Forest and corresponding domains. While talking to our customer we only need to prep 1 domain.

2. Make an output document how the customer or yourself can see how the preparation steps need to processed. Make sure this document is present when preps are performed.

3. Demo the steps in ADS (what you see is what you get!). Within the world of a customer it's very difficult to convince them that preparing the Schema is not a very scary procedure. So show it to your customer by making 2 virtuals (1DC and 1OCS Server) and demo the steps by using the LCScmd.exe command line tool.

4. Perform the preps (Schema, Forest and Domain) within a weekend (when it goes wrong you have probably the most time available to restore your AD) hopefully not of course ;-)

5. Deploy your server products. In my case OCS2007Std Edition + Communicator Web Access 2007 and MOC2007.

When installing OCS we had some technical issues but we solved that.

Tip 1.

Case (issue):

When installing OCS with an UNC-space you will get an error: Error 0x80004005 (Unspecified Error) while executing command CScript.exe > See local Temp. Within the logfile you will see an error message: The call to SRSetRestorePoint API failed. And within the OCS Deployment Tool you get an error message: No such interface (0x80004002)

Workaround:

Install OCS from the installation CD. When you copy the contents of the entire CD to a local hard drive it's sometimes can happen that there is a space within the UNC-path. OCS will crash when installing from a local folder when there is a space between the UNC-path. Example d:\install\ocs 2007\setup etc. Make sure it becomes: d:\install\ocs2007\setup.

Tip 2.

Case (issue):

When installing OCS makes sure that your online Certification Authority is available. Before installing and assigning certificates make sure the CA Administrator is available for issuing your CA request. Otherwise it will cost lots of time and money. An Enterprise Root Certification Authority is the recommended configuration. My opinion is that this is true but third party certificates also work within OCS. You need to make sure that while requesting a certificate also the private key can be exported. OCS needs certificates which contain the private key.

 

Tags van Technorati: OCS2007RTM , 0x80004005 , SRSetRestorePoint API , No such interface , certificates OCS , e-office , 8000 users , deployment

VoiceCon Orlando 2008 is upcoming

VoiceCon Orlando 2008

Unify Your Enterprise Communications

Date: March 17-20, 2008
Location: Orlando, Florida

A new era has begun in enterprise voice networking. Standalone, time-division multiplexing (TDM) voice networks are migrating to IP telephony and enterprises are consolidating their voice and data services over a converged voice/data backbone network. This massive and rapid change involves new products, new services, and new players.

Come to VoiceCon Orlando 2008 and get objective, reliable information that you can use to plan your network evolution. Meet industry thought leaders, market movers, and designers and developers of IP telephony platforms and converged network

systems. Hear senior IT and telecom executives describe their migration strategies, decision criteria, and the lessons they've learned from installing state-of-the-art technology.

VoiceCon Orlando 2008 can help you decide why, when, and how to invest in this new technology, and how to leverage the platform for maximum advantage. Topics will include the basics of IP telephony, IP telephony security, updates on major product announcements, integrating Microsoft Office Live Communications Server into IP telephony, and more.

So join us at VoiceCon Orlando 2008, March 17-20, 2008, at the Gaylord Palms Hotel in Orlando, FL, and find out how to plan and build your enterprise IP telephony platform.

OCS2007 licensing

Today I get a couple of questions about licensing in OCS2007. The licensing model of OCS2007 is very straight forward. I will attach more information:

Office Communications Server 2007 is offered in two server editions: Standard Edition and Enterprise Edition.

• Office Communications Server 2007 Standard Edition
  Standard Edition requires that primary server components, as well as the database for storing user and conference information, be configured on a single computer. Standard Edition is recommended for organizations that do not require higher availability through clustering.
• Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition
  Enterprise Edition enables separation of server functionality and data storage to achieve higher capacity and availability. Enterprise Edition is recommended for organizations that that require higher availability through clustering.

Office Communications Server 2007 is offered in two Client Access license (CAL) editions: Standard CAL and Enterprise CAL.

• Office Communications Server Standard CAL
  Provides users access to instant messaging, presence, peer-to-peer voice and video, and file transfer capabilities.
• Office Communications Server Enterprise CAL
  An additive CAL that requires that a Standard CAL is also purchased for each user or device. Provides user access to voice and call management, application sharing, and multi-party Web conferencing.

A CAL is required for each user or device (depending on the license) accessing the server. Either version of the CAL may be run against either version of the server.

Feature comparison:

Office Communications Server 2007 External Connector licenses

Office Communications Server 2007 is offered in two Client Access license (CAL) editions: Standard CAL and Enterprise CAL.

• Office Communications Server Standard External Connector
  Provides the rights associated with the Office Communications Server Standard CAL for external users. With an Office Communications Server Standard External Connector license you can extend Office Communications Server Standard CAL functionality to external users.
• Office Communications Server Enterprise External Connector
  An additive license and requires that a Standard External Connector is also purchased for each server that is accessed by external users. With an Office Communications Server Enterprise External Connector license, you can extend Office Communications Server Enterprise CAL functionality to external users.

The Office Communications Server External Connector license grants access to the Office Communications Server by an unlimited number of external users.

Prices:

For more information about pricing please contact e-office (Sales Representative) > see contact information.

Tags van Technorati: OCS2007RTM , Licensing Model , OCS CAL , OCS Device CAL , OCS External Connector

Day of an information worker

Johann Kruse is the National Technology Specialist for Unified Communications at Microsoft Australia.  Johann shows a great hands on demonstration of what Microsoft Unified Communications is like in the day of an information worker.  The demos of the Touch screen Tanjay and Office Communicator Mobile 2007 are really cool. We ordered also the devices so hopefully get these very soon. Guys in Australia thank you very much for the demo's!

Office Communications Server 2007 Document: Edge Server Deployment Guide

Quick Details

File Name:
OCS_EdgeServerDeploy.doc

Version:
1.1

Date Published:
10/19/2007

Language:
English

Download Size:
2.0 MB

Overview

This document guides you through the deployment of edge servers in your Office Communications Server 2007 topology. You typically deploy edge servers after you have deployed Office Communications Server in your internal network.
If you need to communicate with users and organizations outside your internal network by using your Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 deployment, you need to deploy one or more edge servers. You install edge servers in your perimeter network (also known as screened subnet) so that users outside your organization’s firewall are authorized before they obtain access to your Office Communications Server deployment.
The information in this document includes the following:

• Guidelines to help you decide which edge servers you need and which topologies to deploy.
• Procedures to configure DNS, firewalls, a reverse proxy, and a Director.
• Steps to deploy and configure a load balancer, individual edge servers, and certificates.
• Environment configuration settings.
• Validation of edge server configuration.

Download: Link

Tags van Technorati: Edge Server , Deployment Guide , OCS , OCS2007RTM , Edge Roles , DNS , NLB , firewall considerations

My new UC set ;-)

  Simplify your communications! The lightweight, versatile Plantronics Voyager 510 Bluetooth Headset delivers all-day wearing comfort and provides a WindSmart® wind-repelling screen for clear voice transmission. Featuring exclusive Multipoint Technology, the Voyager 510 seamlessly transforms into a powerful communication solution for up to two Bluetooth devices. It’s right here…Wherever, Whenever, Wireless.

I did a couple of tests with MOC2007 and OCS2007. I will post my tests very soon. At this moment i'm not sure if this device can pickup conversations by ticking in my ear. So i send an service call. To be continued.

Tags van Technorati: Plantronics , Voyager 510 USB , headset , MOC2007 , OCS2007RTM

Office Communications Server 2007 Document: Supportability Guide

Quick Details

File Name:
OCS_2007_Support.doc

Version:
1.0

Date Published:
10/12/2007

Language:
English

Download Size:
620 KB

Overview

The purpose of the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Supportability Guide is to provide a central, high-level reference for supported Office Communications Server 2007 topologies and configurations. It is also intended to answer frequently asked questions. This document identifies supported topologies, configurations, and scenarios described in detail in the existing deployment and planning documentation.

Download: Link

Tags van Technorati: Communications Server 2007 Supportability Guide

Live Forums

Problems or questions about LCS or OCS or other UC products? Meet me in:

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.livecomm.general

or

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/list/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.office.communicator

Lets meet over there and please feel free to ask me questions if you need to.

Problems are things that need to be solved!

Press message UC Launch event Netherlands

Language: Dutch

Microsoft lanceert unified communicationspportfolio

Microsoft heeft een nieuw portfolio van unified communication-oplossingen aangekondigd. Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS), Office Communicator 2007 en Office Livemeeting moeten alle vormen van communicatie samenbrengen. Tientallen Nederlandse partners zijn inmiddels gecertificeerd en getraind voor de verkoop.

Het nieuwe unified communications-portfolio van Microsoft wordt gepresenteerd op 9 november 2007 in De Kuip, Rotterdam

Het unified communications-aanbod van Microsoft is een communicatieplatform dat e-mail, instant messaging, sms, telefonie en videoconferencing samenbrengt. Ook zou de integratie met traditionele pbx-telefonie verbeterd worden. Op die manier profileert Microsoft zich als rechtstreekse concurrent voor Cisco's Unified Communications Manager. Microsoft zegt dat de markt voor unified communications in 2010 ruim 45 miljard dollar waard is.

In Nederland zijn er al tientallen partners actief om zich te certificeren voor de verkoop en hebben enkele klanten de oplossingen gekocht. Rob Elsinga, business group lead for Information Worker bij Microsoft, zegt dat bij de verkoop diverse soorten partners zijn betrokken. Dat zijn telecompartners zoals NEC Philips en Nortel. System integratoren en resellers verkopen de oplossingen, zoals e-office, Wortell, Dimension Data en HP. KPN is van plan deze oplossingen in een hosted vorm aan te bieden. Verder zijn er training partners betrokken en tal van leveranciers die hardware leveren voor de Voip-oplossingen van Microsoft. Partners krijgen trainingen in sales en techniek, aldus Elsinga. "Het unified communitons portfolio is makkelijk op te pakken door partners die al een specialisatie hebben in Exchange of Sharepoint." Elsinga zegt dat eindgebruikers het nieuwe portfolio gebruiken, zoals PGGM, Shell, Interpolis en de Rabobank.

Toch noemen analisten het product niet helemaal 'nagelnieuw' omdat veel functionaliteiten al te zien waren in de Microsoft Live Communications Server. De huidige lancering vloeit voort uit de samenwerkingsdeal die de Microsoft vorig jaar tekende met Nortel.

Microsoft zag de bètaversies van Office Communications Server 2007 (de serversoftware) en Office Communicator 2007 (de gebruikerssoftware) meer dan 80.000 keer gedownload worden. Ruim 150 bedrijven in 30 landen hebben de producten getest.

Microsoft Nederland presenteert het nieuwe unified communications portfolio aan zijn partners en klanten op 9 november in De Kuip, Rotterdam. Daar zal onder andere Microsoft's coo Kevin Turner spreken.

Microsoft launches next wave of communications software

Spotlight

Microsoft launches next wave of communications software

At the Unified Communications Launch 2007 worldwide event in San Francisco, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Jeff Raikes, Microsoft Business Division president, launched the company's next generation of unified communications products and services.
Read the press release.

View the keynote address
Streaming video: 100K | 300K | 750K

Visit UC Press Room

Personal note from Bill Gates

If you’ve been in the work force for 20 years or more, you can remember a time when the pace of business—and life in general—was quite a bit slower than it is today. Back then we read newspapers and magazines and watched the network news to stay informed. Faxes were just becoming a common way to share written business information. A phone call might elicit a busy signal or no one would answer at all. In those days, no one expected to send documents to coworkers on the other side of the globe instantly, collaborate in real-time with colleagues in distant cities, or share photographs the very day they were taken.

These and similar advances have delivered remarkable results. The ability to access and share information instantly and communicate in ways that transcend the boundaries of time and distance has given rise to an era of unprecedented productivity and innovation that has created new economic opportunities for hundreds of millions of people around the world and paved the way for global economic growth that is unparalleled in human history.

But few people would argue that there is no room for improvement. Although we have once-unimaginable access to people and information, we struggle today to keep track of emails and phone calls across multiple inboxes, devices, and phone numbers; to remember a growing number of passwords; and to synchronize contacts, appointments, and data between desktop PCs and mobile devices. The fact is that the proliferation of communications options has become a burden that often makes it more difficult to reach people than it used to be, rather than easier.

In 2006, I wrote about how unified communications innovations were already beginning to transform the way we communicate at work. Today, I want to provide an update on the progress we’re making toward achieving our vision for unified communications. I also want to share my thoughts on how rapid advances in hardware, networks, and the software that powers them are laying the foundation for groundbreaking innovations in communications technology. These innovations will revolutionize the way we share information and experiences with the people who are important to us at work and at home, and help make it possible to put the power of digital technology in the hands of billions of people around the globe who have yet to reap the benefits of the knowledge economy.

Moving Beyond Disconnected Communications

A fundamental reason that communicating is still so complex is the fact that the way we communicate is still bound by devices. In the office, we use a work phone with one number. Then we ask people to call us back on a mobile device using another number when we are on the go, or reach us on our home phone with yet another number. And we have different identities and passwords for our work and home email accounts, and for instant messaging.

This will change in the very near future. As more and more of our communications and entertainment is transmitted over the Internet thanks to email, instant messaging, video conferencing, and the emergence of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), and other protocols, a new wave of software-driven innovations will eliminate the boundaries between the various modes of communications we use throughout the day. Soon, you’ll have a single identity that spans all of the ways people can reach you, and you’ll be able to move a conversation seamlessly between voice, text, and video and from one device to another as your location and information sharing needs change. You’ll also have more control over how you can be reached and by whom: when you are busy, the software on the device at hand will know whether you can be interrupted, based on what you are doing and who is trying to reach you.

One of the best examples of how communication is changing—and how technology is integrating the way people share experiences across devices—starts in the world of video games. With Xbox Live, the online gaming and entertainment network for Xbox 360, people can play games with friends who are in distant locations. Xbox Live also provides a comprehensive range of communications options including video chat and instant messaging, as well as text, voice, and picture messaging, all seamlessly integrated into the video game experience. With more than 7 million subscribers, Xbox Live is quickly redefining the way people access entertainment of all kinds. And it is enabling them to share experiences with each other in real time without being constrained by the limits of location.

But that’s just the start. We recently launched Games for Windows – Live, which links Xbox 360 gamers with the millions of people who play games on their PCs. Now, Windows and Xbox 360 video game players can compete and communicate with each other without being constrained by the limits of devices.

The communications expectations that young people—and anybody else who has adopted the latest digital communications tools—bring to the workplace are already changing how we do business. To them, the desk phone is an anachronism that lacks the flexibility and range of capabilities that their mobile device can provide. A generation that grew up on text messaging is driving the rapid adoption of instant messaging as a standard business communications tool. Accustomed to forming ad hoc virtual communities, they want tools that facilitate the creation of virtual workgroups. Used to collecting and storing information online, they look for team Web sites, Wikis, and other digital ways to create and share information.

All of these expectations are prompting companies to adapt by implementing new communications strategies and technologies. Those that do are already seeing a wide range of benefits including significant cost savings and important productivity gains. At Microsoft, for example, we replaced our old voice mail system with Exchange Server 2007 unified messaging, a move that is saving the company $5 million annually by lowering hardware and maintenance costs. More importantly, Exchange Server 2007 provides a software solution that enables integration of traditional telephone infrastructure and VoIP with corporate messaging, calendaring, and directories. This convergence of telephony and messaging increases employee productivity and decreases the administrative workload for IT professionals.

The Next Wave of Communications Technologies

Today in San Francisco, Microsoft is launching the next wave of enterprise VoIP and unified communications products for business. Among the products we’ll launch are Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, which bring together a broad range of communications options including voice, instant messaging, and video into a single, consistent experience. Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communicator make it easier for employees to communicate and collaborate with each other in real-time by letting them see at a glance if the people they want to contact are available. They will also be able to initiate a conversation by email, voice, video, or instant messaging from within Microsoft Office system applications, making communication and collaboration an integral part of day-to-day work processes, rather than an interruption. In addition, when they use the new version of Office Communicator Mobile that is launching today, they will be able to stay connected using Windows Mobile-powered devices.

We’re also announcing the availability of Microsoft RoundTable, an advanced video and VoIP conferencing device that provides a 360-degree view of a meeting room, along with wideband audio and video that tracks the flow of conversation between multiple speakers. With RoundTable and Office Live Meeting or Office Communications Server, meeting participants in different locations will be able to converse and share information as if they were in the same room. RoundTable also enables companies to record meetings for later use.

All of these products are important steps toward achieving our long-term vision for streamlined, integrated communications that will enable people to be more productive, more creative, and to stay in touch more easily without being limited by the device they have at hand or the network they are connected to.

A Foundation for Future Innovation

It would be hard to overstate the magnitude of the changes that are coming. Standardized, software-powered communications technologies will be the catalyst for the convergence of voice, video, text, applications, information, and transactions, making it possible to create a seamless communications continuum that extends across people’s work and home lives. This will provide the foundation for new products, services, and capabilities that will change the world in profound and often unexpected ways.

This will happen not only in developed countries where access to digital technology is the norm, but also in emerging economies around the world. Currently, about 1 billion of us have a PC, just a fraction of the world’s 6 billion people. As we make technology more accessible and simpler to use—often in the form of affordable mobile devices—we can extend new social and economic opportunities to hundreds of millions of people who have never been able to participate in the global knowledge economy. And as more and more of the world’s people are empowered to use their ideas, talents, and hard work to the fullest, the results will be new innovations that make everyone’s lives richer, more productive, and more fulfilling.

Bill Gates

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Phone Edition

Quick Details

File Name:
UCUpdates.exe

Version:
1.0.522.0

Date Published:
10/15/2007

Language:
English

Download Size:
10.8 MB

Overview

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Phone Edition enables you to make outbound audio calls and answer inbound phone calls from callers (PBX, PSTN, VoIP or soft-phone callers) and provides this functionality from inside or outside the company firewall. In short, you can do everything you can do today with your regular phone - and more.
With Office Communicator 2007 Phone Edition, you have new voice communication capabilities not available with your traditional desktop phone. For example you can:

• Set call-handling options to forward calls to another number or contact, so you can get calls on your mobile phone, for example, when you’re not in the office
• Configure your presence and view the presence for your Contacts
• Touch-to-call a contact without needing to look up their phone number
• Easily initiate calls to contacts, transfer calls and conference callers together
• Play individual voicemails without needing to go through the full voicemail menu
• Search for and call people in your company’s global address list (GAL) without needing to look up their phone number

These are just a few of the features enabled by Office Communicator 2007 Phone Edition.

Tags van Technorati: OCS2007RTM , Office Communications Server 2007 , OCS Phone Edition , GAL

Australian case studies on Unified Communications

Lion Nathan Australian Beverage Maker Improves Efficiency with Unified Communications Solution

Lion Nathan, a maker of fine alcoholic beverages in Australia and New Zealand, wanted to enhance its collaboration tools. Geographically dispersed team members needed a faster way to locate one another and to share information. To improve communication, the company became an early adopter of Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft RoundTable™. The company integrated its existing voice over IP (VoIP) telephony system with the new solution, and pilot users now can manage voice, e-mail, instant messaging, and conferencing through a single interface. These users are more efficient because they can locate one another faster and because integrated technologies mean more connections and fewer missed calls. Enhanced conferencing features improve internal collaboration, and the company looks forward to improving communication with external parties as well.

Eastern Health Healthcare Provider Improves Patient Outreach with Unified Messaging Solution

Eastern Health is the second largest healthcare provider in the State of Victoria, Australia. It provides public healthcare services to a population of 800,000 people across an area of 2,800 square kilometers. With more than 7,000 staff working in five hospitals, Eastern Health relied on e-mail and voice mail to contact its practitioners. The organization wanted an integrated messaging solution to streamline collaboration and cut operating costs. Using Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 with Unified Messaging in conjunction with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Eastern Health has created a unified communications environment that offers extended capabilities and improves patient outreach. The new system provides a one-stop gateway for collaboration that is scalable for future expansion, is cost-effective, and helps improve patient care.

BHP Billiton Global Commodities Company Saves on Travel Costs with Unified Communications

BHP Billiton is the world’s largest diversified resources company. It has 39,000 employees working in 25 countries worldwide and returned a profit of U.S.$13.7 billion (excluding exceptional items) in fiscal year 2007. With global operations demanding frequent inter-office communications, the company found itself hindered by a range of different systems and protocols, and poor call quality from its many remote offices. To consolidate its online meetings solutions worldwide, the company turned to Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 to deliver an integrated communications solution to improve collaboration and communication for its employees. With highly secure content sharing, software-based voice over IP capability, and integrated presence management, the new environment creates a unified communications solution that helps reduce long-distance call costs and travel budgets, and removes company dependence on hardware-based IP telephony solutions.

University of Sydney Major Research University Increases Productivity with Unified Communications

Founded in 1850, the University of Sydney is a leading research institute that operates in multiple campus locations worldwide. Over the years, the university’s many departments had adopted a diverse range of incompatible technology solutions—including various e-mail systems. To provide a common messaging solution enterprise wide, the IT department deployed Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 in January 2006. In December of 2006, the university took the next step toward unified communications when it launched a pilot program with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007. By using built-in instant messaging and presence capabilities, employees now have real-time access to their colleagues’ availability. With instant messaging and sophisticated Web conferencing capabilities, users also have a variety of ways to contact colleagues quickly and work collaboratively on local or global projects.

Queensland Rail Limited QR Limited Gets on the Collaboration Train with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Staff in the geographically dispersed coal division of QRNational needed to travel extensively to meet and make critical decisions. As part of the Microsoft Queensland Spotlight 2007 program, QRNational worked with Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Data#3 to create a prototype online collaboration portal based on Microsoft® Office SharePoint® Server 2007. This has the potential to increase productivity, streamline order management, improve timely decision making and enhance strategic planning.

Technorati Tags: Australian companies, Office Communications Server 2007, OCS 2007, Exchange 2007, Data#3, Dimension Data, Hewlett Packard, HP, PABX integration, Cisco, Polycom, PBX integration

Creating Bots using the UCMA API and MOSS 2007

Based on the series of Blog posts of Joe Calev ( http://blogs.msdn.com/jcalev/default.aspx ) on using the UCMA API, my colleague(Marc Wetters) created a simple bot. His series of blog post is an excellent start on building bots.

You can ask the bot a question using keywords. The bot then searches a MOSS 2007 environment en presents the results as a series of titles and links to the a set of documents. Next to the set of results (Max 5) the bot returns the names of the author’s. The next step for this bot is to put you through to one of the author’s (which I didn’t get to work yet ;-(  )

For searching a MOSS 2007 environment Marc Wetters used the standard Search Webservice from MOSS 2007.
( http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/search.aspx )

Example code

In Visual Studio first you need to add a Web reference to your MOSS search Webservice ( https://<server>/_vti_bin/search.asmx )

In this case it’s called EOSSearch.

Here is the event handler for incoming messages, which does the actual search in MOSS and presents the results. (The session class/object used here is almost identical to the one from the blog posts of Joe Calev, except that it has some extra properties and methods. One of them is an integer called step to know where we are in the process of questions and answers)

void _manager_MessageReceived(object sender, MessageReceivedEventArgs e)

{

Session session = sender as Session;

switch (session.Step)

{

case 0:

{

if (e.MessageType == MessageType.Message && e.HasTextBody)

{

session.SendMessage("Hello " + e.Participant.Name + ".");

EOSSearch.QueryService search = new EOSSearch.QueryService();

search.Credentials =

System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;

string queryXMLString = "<QueryPacket " +

"xmlns='urn:Microsoft.Search.Query'>" +

"<Query><Range>" +

"<Count>5</Count>" +

"</Range><SupportedFormats><Format revision='1'>" +

"urn:Microsoft.Search.Response.Document:Document></Format>" +

"</SupportedFormats><Context>" +

"<TrimDuplicates>true</TrimDuplicates>" +

"<QueryText type=\"MSSQLFT\" language=\"en-us\">" +

"select rank, title, path, author from scope() where " +

"(\"SCOPE\"='All Sites')";

queryXMLString += " AND (freetext('" + e.TextBody + "'))";

queryXMLString += "</QueryText>" + "</Context></Query></QueryPacket>";

string queryResultsString = search.Query(queryXMLString);

XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();

xmlDoc.LoadXml(queryResultsString);

XmlNamespaceManager nsm = new XmlNamespaceManager(xmlDoc.NameTable);

nsm.AddNamespace("q", "urn:Microsoft.Search.Response.Document");

nsm.AddNamespace("d",

"urn:Microsoft.Search.Response.Document.Document");

nsm.AddNamespace("r", "urn:Microsoft.Search.Response");

XmlNode statusnode = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("//r:Status", nsm);

if (statusnode.InnerText == "SUCCESS")

{

XmlNode result = xmlDoc.SelectSingleNode("//r:TotalAvailable",

nsm);

int available = Convert.ToInt32(result.InnerText);

XmlNodeList nl = xmlDoc.SelectNodes("//q:Document", nsm);

session.SendMessage("You searched for " +

e.TextBody + " on MOSS.");

if (available > 5)

{

session.SendMessage("Here are the top 5 results from " +

available + " found items.");

}

else

{

session.SendMessage("There are " + available + " results");

}

string[] Authors = new string[5];

int counter = 0;

foreach (XmlNode node in nl)

{

XmlNodeList propertyNl =

node.SelectNodes("d:Properties/d:Property", nsm);

Authors[counter] = propertyNl[3].ChildNodes[2].InnerText;

counter++;

session.SendMessage("(" + counter.ToString() + ") " +

propertyNl[1].ChildNodes[2].InnerText + " " +

node.SelectSingleNode("q:Action/q:LinkUrl",

nsm).InnerText);

}

session.SendMessage("From the following authors:");

for (int i = 0; i < counter; i++)

{

int j = i + 1;

session.SendMessage("(" + j.ToString() + ") " + Authors[i]);

}

session.Authors = Authors;

session.SendMessage("If you want to do another query " +

"please type 'q'. If you want to contact one " +

"of the authors please type the number of the author.");

session.Step = 1;

}

else

{

session.SendMessage("There are no results.");

session.SendMessage("Please try an other query.");

session.Step = 0;

}

}

}

break;

case 1:

{

if (e.MessageType == MessageType.Message && e.HasTextBody)

{

switch (e.TextBody.ToLower())

{

case "q":

session.SendMessage("Please try an other query.");

session.Step = 0;

break;

case "1":

//Not yet functional

Refer(session, 1);

break;

default:

session.SendMessage("I didn't understand you're response.");

break;

}

}

}

break;

}

}

For questions please do not hesitate to ask. I will but you through. Marc great job and a excellent job for the OCS community.

Results in the UI:

So we cooked an application and is constantly running:

Tags van Technorati: MOSS search Webservice , UCMA API

Microsoft Sets Date to Launch Next Generation of Unified Communications Software

Unified communications launch will be Oct. 16.

REDMOND, Wash. — Aug. 21, 2007

What:

A webcast with Microsoft Corp. executives to highlight the general availability of Microsoft^® Office Communications Server 2007, Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and Microsoft Office Live Meeting, part of Microsoft’s unified communications portfolio, which also includes Microsoft Exchange Server 2007

Who:

Bill Gates, Microsoft chairman, and Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division

When:

Tuesday, Oct. 16, 9:15–10:30 a.m. PDT

Where:

Via live webcast

Webcast Information:

Information about the webcast will be available closer to the event date.

Office Communications Server 2007 Document: Security Guide

Quick Details

File Name:
OCS_Security_Guide.doc

Version:
1.0

Date Published:
10/11/2007

Language:
English

Download Size:
1022 KB

Even if your Office Communications Server 2007 deployment is modest, you probably have components in your network that are themselves the subject of books devoted to their security. Therefore, it is unlikely that this guide covers all aspects of security for all components and areas that are pertinent to your deployment.
Use this guide as a starting point to help secure and maintain a secure Office Communications Server 2007 deployment. This guide provides general guidelines and best practices for assessing and managing the most common security risks. Additional product and security resources are listed at the end of this guide. As new threats and solutions arise, outdated documents, solutions, and methods should be replaced with new ones.
The guide addresses the following:

• Common Security Threats
• Office Communications Server Security Framework
• Addressing Threats to Your Core Infrastructure
• Addressing Threats to Your Internet Boundary
• Addressing Threats to On-Premise Conferencing
• Addressing Threats to Enterprise Voice
• Addressing Threats to the Office Communicator 2007 Client

Tags van Technorati: OCS2007RTM , Security Guide , Addressing Threats

Configuring Context-Sensitive Custom Tabs MOC2007

How to configure custom content sensitive tabs in Microsoft Office Communicator MOC2007?

Well its very simple to do. For more indepth information see Communicator_2007_Deployment_Guide from pagr 14.

Setting up a custom tab requires:

• A network-accessible custom tab definition file in XML format that gives the location of each tab’s main page and controls the information Communicator passes to this page.
• A registry entry in the \Software\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator registry hive that gives the location of the tab definition file.

· A graphic in Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format for the tab. The graphic can be:

• Up to 16 pixels high by 16 pixels wide, or
• Exactly 32 pixels high by 32 pixels wide.

One or more Web pages for display in the Office Communicator window.

Step 1. Create a custom XML file to prepare your MOC2007 configuration:

Example:

<?xml version="1.0" ?> 
<tabdata>
<tab>
   <image>/.png">http://<COMPUTERNAME>/<IMAGE>.png</image>
   <name>Smoelenboek</name>
   <tooltip>Tooltip text</tooltip> 
   <contenturl> /">http://<WEBURL>/</contenturl>  
   <userid>true</userid>
   <contactid>true</contactid>
   <accessibility>inside</accessibility>
</tab>
</tabdata>

Step 2. Customize the registry in:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator

The TabURL setting can be added to either section of the registry. However, settings in the hkey_local_machine\software section take precedence.

The HTML file containing the tab content must be in a trusted location on the network. The XML and PNG files can be stored in the same location as the HTML file, or on a network server or local machine. For example:

· file:///\\contonso-it\oc\tabs.xml

· file:///c:/myTab/tabs.xml

Example:

file:///c:/temp/customtab.xml

Step 3. Restart your MOC2007 client and there you go ;-)

Tags van Technorati: MOC2007 , Custom Tabs , TabURL , XML

Custom Presence States in MOC

How to make custom presence states in MOC2007:

Result:

Step 1. Create custom XML file (same it in permanent folder)

Example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<customStates xmlns=
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/09/2005/communicator/customStates"

xmlns:xsi=
"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

xsi:schemaLocation=
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/09/2005/communicator/customStates
http://livecommteam/sites/main/ice/Wave%2012%20Docs/CustomActivities.xsd">

       <customState ID="1" availability="online">
              <activity LCID="1033">Working from Home</activity>
       </customState>
       <customState ID="2" availability="busy">
              <activity LCID="1033">In a Live Meeting</activity>
       </customState>
       <customState ID="3" availability="busy">
              <activity LCID="1033">Meeting with Customer</activity>
              <activity LCID="1055">meeting with client</activity>
       </customState>
       <customState ID="4" availability="do-not-disturb">
              <activity LCID="1033">Presenting</activity>
       </customState>
</customStates>

Step 2. Make a *.reg file (and import it):

Example:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator]
"CustomStateURL"="c:\temp\customactivities.xml"

Result:

Step 3. Restart your MOC2007 client. There you go.

 

Tags van Technorati: custom presence states , moc , CustomStateURL , REG_SZ , OCS2007RTM