Thursday, January 31, 2008

Mission accomplished..

Today I passed my MCTS exam 70-638:

TS: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007, Configuring

Joehoe! So i'm official:

Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS): Office Communications Server 2007, Configuration

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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Microsoft Voice Ignite Tour

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"Thank you! Your registration for the Microsoft Unified Communications Voice Ignite is now complete. Below are your confirmation details"

Yeah I will go to the Voice IgNite Tour in Paris. If you have some questions please let me know and maybe I will give you some feedback when I'm back. When joining this session in Paris I will update my weblog frequently so check!

LOCATION

Le Meridien Etoile
81 Boulevard Gouvion Saint-Cyr
75848 Cedex 17 Paris
75017 France

Mitel releases interesting news..

imageSaudi Arabia’s Largest ISP Rolls Out Mitel

RIYADH, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - January 30, 2008 – Mitel®, the trusted provider of IP communications solutions, today announced that Nesma, Saudi Arabia’s largest private Internet Service Provider and a recognized leader in providing IT solutions and system integration services in the region, is to become a reseller of  Mitel’s rich portfolio of IP communications solutions. More...

Mitel Graduates with Kuwait’s Ministry of Higher Education

Ministry will deploy sophisticated IP communications to all staff!

KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait - January 23, 2008 – Mitel®, the trusted provider of IP Communications solutions, today announced that Kuwait’s Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) is to deploy Mitel’s 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP) and Web-based IP phones to over 500 staff at the ministry’s headquarters. More...

Interesting to see that Mitel is doing it very well. Especially the 3300 IP Communication Platform. We are very happy with our own 3300 system.

Microsoft Partner first with hosted OCS

A Microsoft partner has become the first to offer Microsoft's new unified communications software as a hosted service.

Intermedia on Tuesday will begin offering Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) as a hosted service on a subscription basis for US$7.95 per user, per month, said Rurik Bradbury, vice president of strategy for Intermedia. The service initially will be available to users of Intermedia's hosted Exchange service, which costs $12 per user, per month. Eventually, the OCS service will be available independently of that service, he said. More info here

Source: networkworld

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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Enterprise Voice and Remote Call Control

Jens (Jens Trier Rasmussen) post an excellent item on how to implement Enterprise Voice in a non-DID (Direct Inward Dialing (DID)) scenario. Basically our own OCS Mediation re-route traffic from/to interoute.

On the other hand we have a IP-PBX Mitel 3300 and Live Business Gateway to enable RCC functionality.

So bottomline we use best of both worlds. The only reason for doing so is to give customers the best advice. Within a short time period I also post how to setup Mitel by using MES (Mobile Extensions Server) for Dual Forking functionality.

So our voice solution is build on:

  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 (mailbox server)
  • Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 SP1 (Unified Messaging Role)
  • Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 + latest hotfixes (Standard Edition Server - consolidated topology)
  • Microsoft OCS Edge Server (Access Edge, Web Conferencing Edge Server)
  • Microsoft OCS Mediation Server (connection with outside iSip trunk services from interoute)
  • MITEL 3300 Ip-PBX (implemented by NEXCT)
  • MITEL Live Business Gateway (LBG)

e-office demo environment:

  • 2 users on RCC / Mitel configuration (fallback on Exchange Server 2007)
  • almost all users are UC enabled on Exchange 2007 (UM)
  • bunch of users is calling through OCS Medation Server, through Interoute iSip services to the cloud.
  • 5 MITEL IP Phones (Hotdesk functionality)
  • MOMC 2007 demo devices on Palm Treo
  • MOC2007 (RCC enabled) how to configure RCC see my post on here (Step 7)

Feel free to subscribe for a live demo or send a e-mail message to Joachim Farla or IM sip:joachim.farla@e-office.com

Mitel infrastructure e-office:

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How to setup UM dailplans, gateway see this example:

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More information on how to configure the Mitel LBG see my post on here

More information on how to configure OCS Mediation Server and Interoute One see: here (general) more technical information see: here (technical)

OCS2007 Resource Kit

The OCS2007 Resource Kit is available in the Netherlands. It took a while when they make this book available in Europe. We ordered right away on here. Be aware it maybe takes 1 to 3 weeks to deliver.

They only deliver in the Netherlands.

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Monday, January 28, 2008

First IP-PBX with Dual Forking with RCC

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First PBX vendor with Dual Forking with RCC functionality.

Nortel
CS 1000

Dual Forking with RCC

Call Server X2105.00W

Signaling Server 5.00.31

Multimedia Communications Manager 3.0.1.77

Nortel

CS 1000 Series

Communication Server 1000 is a server-based, full-featured IP PBX, providing the bimageenefits of a converged network plus advanced applications and over 750 world-class telephony features. Fully distributed over IP LAN & WAN infrastructure with built-in reliability and survivability, Communication Server 1000 supports business-critical applications, including unified messaging, customer contact center, IVR, wireless VoIP and IP phones.

 

Live Meeting 2007 updated

This software was last updated on January 22, 2008. For information about the fixes included in this latest version (version 8.0.6362.41), please refer to Microsoft Knowledge Base article 947881.

download new client: here

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Unified Communications Voice Ignite

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Dear Microsoft Partner,

We are very pleased to announce Microsoft’s Unified Communications (UC) Voice Ignite worldwide training tour! UC Voice Ignite is a 5-day invitation only  advanced technical workshop for Microsoft field and partners who are proactively mobilizing their IT, Networking, and Telecommunication professionals to deliver Voice over IP solutions to customers.

As a valued member of the Microsoft UC Partner Community, we would like to extend to you an official invitation to the UC Voice Ignite event in Paris,  France, on February 25 - 29, 2008!

Registration Confirmation

Thank you for registering for the Microsoft® Unified Communications Voice Ignite
in Paris, February 25 - 29, 2008.

Yeah we are absolutely over there! Microsoft thank you very much for this nomination. We are very pleased with it.

Friday, January 25, 2008

Office Communications Server 2007 – Security WP

Office Communications Server 2007 – Security Whitepaper released. Specials thanks to Dennis.

Download it here: Security Whitepaper

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Give it a shot!

Evaluate Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 today

The public beta for Office Communications Server 2007 has ended. Welcome to the trial evaluation!

Office Communications Server 2007, the next evolution of Live Communications Server, delivers streamlined communications for your users so they can find and communicate with the right person, right now, from the applications they use most—like Microsoft Outlook.  And when you download the 180-day trial software, you’re automatically registered to receive valuable resources delivered at strategic intervals throughout the software evaluation period.

Try it here

Please review Office Communications Server 2007 system requirements before you proceed. Actual requirements and product functionality may vary based on your system configuration.

Give me your feedback if you having some questions. Implement OCS and make sure it works for you. How do I get my latest presence information?

VOIP AS YOU ARE!

BusinessPartners Go Exclusive with Mitel Unified Communications

More than 100 have signed up to Exclusive BusinessPartner Program

PHOENIX, Arizona, – January 24, 2008 – Having smoothly completed its $729 million merger with Inter-Tel, Mitel® has launched an expanded Exclusive BusinessPartner (EBP) program that gives resellers strategic advantages in selling and servicing its comprehensive portfolio of unified communications solutions. Introduced three months ago following a 26-city road show in October to meet with the channel of both companies, Mitel has signed up more than 100 members to the EBP program. More: here

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Mitel Welcomes Unified Channel in Orlando

 

New Force in Communications inspires at 2008 Business Partner Forum

PHOENIX, Arizona – January 22, 2008 – The unified Mitel® and Inter-Tel U.S. channel partners will join together for the first time later this week in Orlando, Florida, just five months after the completion of Mitel’s $729 million merger with Inter-Tel. Under the theme of “Freedom to Communicate”, the new force in communications will welcome some 750 attendees from its unified partner channel partner, user group and consultant community to celebrate the previous sales year and look forward to new products and channel programs for the coming year. More see: here

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

e-office Microsoft Gold Partner for 2008

e-office is again Microsoft Gold Partner 2008 and expires on 1/31/2009. Specials thanks to Jan van der Heide. Yeah!

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Monday, January 21, 2008

BPA update available

The Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Best Practice Analyzer is updated (updated configuration file).

Open the BPA tool and check for updates online.

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Make also sure you run Windows Update after your OCS deployment:

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Sunday, January 20, 2008

Lotes Notes beacon award for e-office

offer details

Each year, the IBM PartnerWorld Beacon Awards acknowledge the best solutions from IBM Business Partners in every part of the business.

e-office is awarded for the Best Lotus Notes 8 Composite Application Award  this year!

Congrats to the guys who worked on this! Special thanks to Ronald, Michel, Edgar, Frank & Frank!

More information about Lotus Awards see: here

More information about the awarded application (Dutch): here

Application we developed (our IBM development team)

Presentation

Friday, January 18, 2008

Consolidated multiple SQL instances

For organizations that want to consolidate multiple SQL instances on the same physical server, this configuration is now supported for Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 and Office Communications Server 2007. More information see: here

configure your roundtable

This section describes how to apply new settings to a Microsoft RoundTable device.

Before starting, make sure that you have a supported version of Office InfoPath installed—Office InfoPath 2003 or Office InfoPath 2007.

To apply new settings to a Microsoft RoundTable device

1. In the %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft RoundTable\DeviceManagement\ directory, double-click DeviceConfig.xsn to launch the InfoPath form. The figure below shows a portion of this form.

clip_image004

2. After you change the settings to suit your particular installation, save the configuration (as RTConfig.xml, for example) to the same directory as Rtmanage.exe. The section following this procedure provides details of the InfoPath configuration form.

3. Open a command prompt, change the directory to the %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft RoundTable\DeviceManagement\ directory, and type the following command line.

Rtmanage.exe -m:img -i:config -f:RTConfig.xml

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4. Check for any XML parsing errors by running this command.

Rtmanage.exe -m:cfg -q:cfgparseresult

5. If there are no errors, proceed to the next step. Otherwise fix the errors and repeat from step 3.

6. Reboot the device by running this command line.

Rtmanage.exe -m:cfg -r

We had to switch off the Roundtable fully to continue the upgrade process. When starting up you see that the rountable is upgraded with the latest firmware.

New Roundtable Firmware

Today, I get tipped by Microsoft that there is new firmware available for the Microsoft Office Roundtable.

Microsoft® RoundTable™ Firmware

Microsoft® RoundTable™ Firmware

Released at: 1/3/2008

Quick Details

File Name:
RoundTable_Firmware.msi

Version:
1.0.4006.0

Knowledge Base (KB) Articles:
KB942334 KB945549

Date Published:
1/3/2008

Language:
English

Download Size:
18.2 MB

Tips for updating your Roundtable device:

Update the Firmware Images

The fastest way to update the Microsoft RoundTable device is by means of an automatic image update using the image update server. However, if you must update the device in the absence of the update server, you can use the USB image update functionality.

1. Obtain the latest firmware image files from the Microsoft download center.

· Boot loader package—CPUEBOOT.cat and CPUEBOOT.bin

· Operating system package—nk.cat and nk.bin

2. To update the boot loader, run the following command at a command prompt.

Rtmanage.exe -m:img -i:EBOOT -f:<file path to CPUEBOOT.bin> -s:<file path to CPUEBOOT.cat>

3. To update nk.bin, run the following command at a command prompt.

Rtmanage.exe -m:img -i:nk -f:<file path to nk.bin> -s:<file path to nk.cat>

IMPORTANT: the passcode to access the Microsoft Office Roundtable

Sets the password for the device. The factory default password is 78491.

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image  image

done ;-)

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

RoundTable short demo

For people who did not see the Microsoft Office Roundtable before Johann Kruse in Australia is presenting the device in a short video on SoapBox.

What is he presenting:

  • Microsoft Office Roundtable how it actually works (camera's, technology)
  • Microsoft Office 2007 (integrating presence in applications - basic one's in Office)
  • Microsoft Live Meeting 2007 (panoramic view  - audio/video capabilities)

More info see the MSN SoapBox: Johann Kruse, more information on the MSFT UC page (here)

Monday, January 14, 2008

Nice article on forrester

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December 06, 2007

Microsoft RoundTable: An IMAX Movie Experience After Listening To FM Radio In Your Car

by Erica Driver.

This week I had a 2 ½ hour conference call with....

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Mitel Delivers Direct SIP Connection to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging

Mitel's embedded SIP integration eliminates the need for a separate SIP gateway as a go-bewe tween from a 3300 ICP SIP connection to an Exchange Server 2007 resulting in support for multiple forms of Unified Communications including voice, email and fax. Mitel can deliver this capability to existing 3300 ICP customers through a software upgrade that simply delivers the SIP server's (gateway) functionality resulting in reduced complexity, time and cost for our customers. Native support of SIP on the 3300 ICP enables customers to take full advantage of the deployment of open standards and maximize their investment either in a Mitel or a multi-vendor environment that supports an open standards approach.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Unified Communications Group at the Office Developer Conference 2008

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Are you an avid developer? Do you want to learn how to expand the power of the Unified Communications with the wide array of API’s and SDK’s that are available? If so, please take the time to register and attend ODC 2008.

More info see our friends at MSFT UC blog: Communicator blog

Main page: ODC2008

Blog: here

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Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit Sample Chapters

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit Sample Chapters

download it now: here

Quick Details

Version:
1.0

Date Published:
8/14/2007

Language:
English

Download Size:
466 KB - 7.4 MB*

Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit [MSPRESS]

image The book covers most all aspects of the extended product with over 700 pages of content and visual examples. The book is very technical in general (written by Jeremy Buch - development lead for the protocol stack team for 7 years, Rui Maximo - program manager and technical author in the team for over 4 years now and Jochen Kunert - program manager working with VoIP/telephony).

Book available:

More information (including sample chapters) are available from Microsoft.

The book is also available for sale now for $35.99 at Amazon.

 

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Connect Mitel and OCS2007

MitelToday we had a wonderful day. We connected our Mitel MX 3300 to Office Communications Server 2007 and enabled Remote Call Control (RCC). A very talented partner of us NEXCT (www.nexct.nl) helped us when implementing.

Special thanks to John de Breij (MITEL) and Hans de Jong (NEXCT). Project leader (NEXCT) Jos Tollenaar.

What do you need to have to setup a Mitel infrastructure:

  • HP PoE Switch
  • HP Server with the LBG (Live Business Gateway) software (LBG_3.1.0.7 version) and Windows 2003 Server SP2 as operating system - workgroup installation / 1 GB RAM is enough
  • Mitel 3300 IP Communications Platform
  • IP Phones: Mitel 5340 IP Phone (in our case 6 IP phones)
  • ISDN2 (EUR) to have access to the outside world

Short questions you may have:

What is LBG?

Live Business Gateway provides standards-based (SIP /CSTA) connectivity to Office Communications Server 2007 via a single platform design. It complements Office
Communications Server 2007 with business-rich
telephony and presence, directly from the Microsoft®Office Communicator 2007 desktop client or Microsoft®Office program. more info:
here

What does Mitel 3300 IP support?:

The Mitel® 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP) provides enterprises with a highly scalable, feature-rich communications system designed to support businesses from 10-65,000 users.

Well the main question is how to setup this environment:

Step 1. Make sure the 5340 Ip phones are setup up. Make sure the phones are configured retrieve an IP address by DHCP or static IP address. We choose to assign static IP addresses. The IP phones are also in our production VLAN. Another option is to create a special VLAN for your telecom IP traffic.

Step 2. Make sure the PoE Switch (in our case HP) is connected and uplinked to your production switches. In our case we use non-PoE switches from Cisco and PoE switches to power up our IP 5340 phones.

Step 3. Install Windows Server 2003 SP2 (R2) on a spare server (3.00 Ghz / 1RAM is enough), add more hardware to make your LBG more redundant (recommended is RAID1, secondary power supply)

Step 4. Configure LBG

Step 4.1 (default port 5060, internal IP address LBG server)

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Step 4.2 configure your RCC SIP URI (default sip:):

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Step 4.3/4.4 Configure your licensing and Active Direcoty connection for reading ADS objects from your Active Directory (for security we did not add these printscreens.

Step 5. Configure your Mitel 3300 ICP on /esm_loginMain.htm">http://<IP>/esm_loginMain.htm (SSLimage secured) More information on how to configure Mitel please contact me by e-mail or IM and I will put you through to the right person for doing this. As you probably know I'm not an "telecommunication guy". Just OCS/MOSS ;-)

 

Step 6. Configure the static route in OCS. Open your standard edition server or enterprise pool. Adjust for MCC view (restart after modification):

Step 6.1 (organize servers as list)

image Step 6.2 configure pool settings

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  • Matching URI: SIP.*@<domain-FQDN>
  • Next Hop: IP address of your LBG server
  • Port: default port 5060 (in our case)
  • Transport: TCP (default)

Step 7. Make one or more users OCS enabled (make the user from the OCS MMC)

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  • Select: enable Remote Call Control
  • Fill-in: sip:LBG@<domain-FQDN>
  • Full-in: tel:<internalnumber>;phone-context=mitel.com
  • Federation: check all

**Do this for each user you will have. Make sure the corresponding numbers are even setup in Mitel 3300 (configure it by hitting the HTML configuration page) 

Step 8. Import/configure the Office Communicator 2007 administrative template into your ADS (select the corresponding OU where the users resides)

Configure it under User Settings

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scroll down to the following administrative template setting:

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Configure like screendump below (not all telephony modes in OCS are functional - microsoft is working on that > information from MCS consultant in the Netherlands ;-) setting: 2e RCC Enabled

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Step 9. Return to your hopefully (Vista) workstation where Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and Live Meeting 2007 is installed. Close MOC2007 from your taskbar en clear it in memory. Go to START>CMD>gpupdate /force > ENTER-command. The GPO is forced to update. Restart your MOC2007 client.

Step 10. Configure your MOC2007 client by enable phone integration mode and set it to automatic.

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Step 11: RCC is enabled! Test your communication by dailing a number and see if your presence is switched to "In Call".

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Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Once I was almost famous..

Are the webservers hosting www.microsoft.com Windows 2003 Servers or what..no, Windows Server 2008!! 49 days we have to wait after that "rock that body"!

See the story

New Communicator Phone Edition update!

This download was originally released on October 15, 2007. For a complete list of fixes and changes in this latest version, please see KB article 946149.
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.

System Requirements
  • Supported Operating Systems: Windows Server 2003
  • Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007
  • Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Software Update Service
  • IP phone compatible with Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Phone Edition for installation of the software update on the IP phone

Download: here

Quick Details

File Name:
UCUpdates.exe

Version:
1.0.522.34

Knowledge Base (KB) Articles:
KB946149

Date Published:
1/7/2008

Language:
English

Download Size:
10.8 MB

 

Monday, January 7, 2008

50 days and then...

Reminder: Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008, Visual Studio 2008 are released within a 2008 Global Launch Wave

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iPING host OCS2007 Speech Server

Source: Link

If you have a working Microsoft OCS 2007 Speech Server application, you can try it with the iPing Hosting Service now by signing up at http://www.iping.com/speech and deploying your application via iPing’s Deploy Wizard.

The wizard gets added to Visual Studio and all you have to do is right click on your project and choose Deploy Project Wizard and enter your account information. It's really that simple and you can deploy both inbound and outbound applications. The wizard will deploy any files or resources you can put into your project.

 

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Thursday, January 3, 2008

OCS and WMI

Interesting post on how OCS uses WMI to get information from for example ADS, SQL or WMI.

more information see: here

Tags van Technorati: ,,

Phones and Devices Optimized for MOC2007

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Phones and other devices that conform to the Unified Communications Device Qualification will display the Optimized for Microsoft Office Communicator wordmark.  These devices meet the following criteria:

  • “Just works” installation experience
    • Plug-and-play with no drivers or additional software required
    • Seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Office Communicator 2007
  • Lower total cost of ownership
    • Designed for simple setup without assistance from IT
    • Fully compatible with Office Communicator 2007 and available in familiar form factors
  • Greater choice and superior end-user experience
    • Feature wideband audio, or, if a video device, high-quality video for clearer, crisper communications
    • Are compatible with Office Communicator 2007’s call management features, including call forwarding and simultaneous ringing, and can be used from within familiar Microsoft Office applications

The phones and devices listed below have received the Optimized for Microsoft Office Communicator qualification.

For a complete list of available of devices: here

OCS development guy MSFT back in business

Yeah Joe Calev's is back in business! See his weblog and of course his weblog of photography!

Joe

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

TIP: MSFT when creating normalization rules

TIP: Rob Pittfield (Microsoft) Support Escalation Engineer. (Thanks for the tip) For anyone who creates normalization rules.

The first thing I do when I’m talking to customers is tell them about the Helper button on the Normalization rule creation screen as shown below...

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More see: Here

Resource Center for OC Clients: MOC2007

The Resource Center for Office Communications Server 2007 Clients, including Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007, Office Communicator Mobile (2007 Release) and Office Communicator Web Access (2007 Release ), is now available online at: Resource Center

For everybody especially end users they can choose between different categories:

Evaluation
Overview and Features
Getting Started - Day One Resources
Training and How-to's
Administrator Resources
Community and Related Resources

More about LiveMeeting 2007 see: LM2007

More about Communicator mobile: MOCM2007

More about Communicator Web Access: CWA2007

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

dada...

New year! 2008

Do you have all your fingers and legs? hehe. This year will be a very special year for me. In the beginning of august 2008 I will become a dad.

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Yeah!!!