Friday, May 29, 2009

FINALLY an OCS Conference Phone: SNOM Meeting Point

Someone FINALLY released a conference phone solution for OCS! While there are a lot of solutions that require being tethered to a PC via USB, the SNOM Meeting Point is the first standalone conference device that doesn't require you lug your laptop to the conference room. While it's a GREAT solution, and currently the only one available, it does have some flaws. Read down for a full review. More

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Plantronics Introduces New Wireless PC Headset for Enhanced

Multimedia and Voice Experiences

The .Audio 995 Wireless Headset Provides Digital Stereo Sound for

Music, Movies, Gaming and Internet Calls Without the Cords

Hoofddorp, May 27, 2009 – Plantronics, Inc. (NYSE: PLT) today introduced the new .Audio™ 995 Digital Wireless Stereo Headset for multimedia and voice applications on the PC. The .Audio 995 combines rich digital stereo sound and great voice quality to provide users with a single headset for all of their PC activities — including music and movie listening, gaming, PC calls and podcasting — without the cords.

The Plantronics .Audio 995 headset utilizes advanced Plantronics audio technology and the digital 2.4gHz frequency for exceptional audio and lower interference with other wireless devices. Users can wirelessly roam up to 40 feet away from the PC and remotely control volume, play and skip tracks on iTunes® and Windows Media Player® via music controls directly on the earpiece.

“Consumers shouldn’t have to decide between superior audio quality and the benefits of wireless when selecting a PC headset,” said Matt Miller, director of PC and Entertainment at Plantronics, Inc. “Unlike other wireless products on the market today, there are no compromises with the .Audio 995. We designed it to enhance the array of multimedia and voice-intensive activities that PC users perform everyday through full-range stereo sound, clear audio and a comfortable fit.” 

The Plantronics .Audio 955 includes pillow-soft, swivel-mounted ear cushions and a lightweight design for long-wearing comfort.  The headset features Plantronics’ noise-canceling Fast Mic Mute™ technology, which quickly mutes audio when the boom is raised. Users can connect the .Audio 995 in one simple step with the plug-and-play wireless USB connector.

About Plantronics

In 1969, a Plantronics headset carried the historic first words from the moon: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Since then, Plantronics has become the headset of choice for mission-critical applications such as air traffic control, 911 dispatch and the New York Stock Exchange. Today, this history of innovation is the basis for every audio product we build for the office, contact center, personal mobile, entertainment and residential markets. The Plantronics family of brands includes Plantronics, Altec Lansing and Clarity. For more information, go to www.plantronics.com

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 Hotfix KB 971083

File Name:
communicator.msp

Version:
6907.22

Knowledge Base (KB) Articles:
KB971083

Date Published:
5/19/2009

Language:
English

Download Size:
9.8 MB

Issue that this update package fixes
This cumulative update fixes the following issue: link

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Ilse Van Criekinge on Technet Chopsticks

Congrats to Ilse Van Criekinge by providing us some good stuff about R2 Group Chat, R2 Dail-in conferencing, R2 Custom Presence States, Communicator Web Access in R2 and lots of more. As she told me please check this site frequently. Lots of stuff is coming up.

More information on Ilse:

My name is Ilse Van Criekinge, born (Sep.1973) and raised in a very small town called Waarloos, Belgium. I graduated with an Economics degree at the Antwerp Business School in 1996. Nowadays I'm a trainer and consultant at Global Knowledge Belgium bvba and founding member of Pro-Exchange.be.

More on: http://www.microsoft.com/belux/technet/nl/chopsticks/

Friday, May 15, 2009

OCS Global Settings Migration Tool (GSMT) - Part 2 (customer case)

As we talked about part 1 of using the GSMT we posted the following article link. Today we are explaining a practical customer case. This customer was using the GSMT in the wrong way and by the end the customer was having two exactly the same pools in their infrastructure while CWA R2 was crashing configuring next hop (pool configuration).

Situation:

“Customer was having LCS 2005 SP1 deployed with almost 3900 users in one pool. The customer also configured Access Proxy to make sure users can logon remotely with their Communicator 2005 client. Parallel on the LCS 2005 SP1 deployment the customer was starting a pilot for in the first place for 25 users on OCS 2007 R2. Strange enough the customer was thinking that the OCS Gobal Settings Migration Tool was a prerequisite for installing OCS 2007 R2. To make this more clear. The GSMT is not a requirement to install OCS 2007 R2 in the correct way.” 

Anyway the OCS GSMT was downloaded and they installed the *.vbs files on the server. After that they started with the first migration step. To make the migration steps more clear review the steps below:

Source: OCS Global Settings Migration Tool documentation

The supported scenarios are closely related to expected Active Directory schemas. Because the Global Settings Migration Tool heavily relies on Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) queries and Office Communications Server Active Directory classes and attributes. While you can tweak the script to fit your deployment, the tool requires certain prerequisites.

From an Office Communications Server perspective, the tool supports global settings migration with the following products:

  • Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 (with appropriate QFEs: KB911966 and KB921543)
  • Office Communications Server 2007

From an Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) perspective, the tool only supports Windows Server® 2003 or later. It doesn’t support Windows® 2000. The key here is the requirement of inetOrgPerson schema. So please make sure you installed the QFE’s on LCS 2005 SP1 before proceeding with the steps below.

Migration has six steps.

Phase 1 (customer)

1. Migrate the global settings tree structure.

2. Copy over the global settings attributes.

3. Run ForestPrep to create necessary ACEs on the new global settings tree structure.

Phase 2

  • 4. Update the Office Communications Server distinguished name references to the global settings tree.
  • 5. Update the Office Communications Server users/contact/inetOrgPerson’s msRTCSIP-PrimaryHomeServer distinguished name references.
  • 6. Remove the global settings tree under the root domain System container.

Because the customer did run the SchemaPrep for OCS R2 2007 and the rangeUpper attribute value was updated to: 1008…

image

  • 1006: corresponds to Live Communications Server 2005
  • 1007: corresponds to Office Communications Server
  • 1008: corresponds to Office Communications Server 2007 R2

they failed to run the GSMT on step 4. In step 4 we need to accomplish to update the Office Communications Server distinguished name references to the global settings tree. The following message was shown:

image

As you probably understand this was caused by the SchemaPrep they run before running the GSMT. In general the customer was stuck on this migration and needed to contact PSS. After some chalk and talk sessions we figured out that we need to undo the previous migration steps.

The failure we had on installing CWA R2 by configuring the hext hop was directly related on double pool names in the system and configuration container. The way to fix this is to delete global settings tree structure in the configuration container by opening ADSIedit.

Before you do that please make sure you made a Active Directory backup (and test the backup!).

Conclusion:

Please be careful with the OCS GSMT! 

Source: OCS Global Settings Migration Tool documentation

During the Office Communications Server development cycle, it was noticed that some Office Communications Server deployments that start out as centralized move towards being distributed. Theoretically, this is what was recommended, because the closer Office Communications Server and its component services (conferencing server, web components, and so on) are to the SIP-enabled user, the better the collaboration experience will be. In practice, two issues were found:

  • Long service start time
  • Long replication delay when managing Global Settings in the snap-in

Both issues are expected from product design’s perspective. However, they are not acceptable to typical customers, especially to those who have been using the product since Live Communications Server 2003. There are many short-term workarounds. The best long term approach remains to migrate the Office Communication Server global settings from the root domain System container to the Configuration container.

FaceTime IMAuditor version 9.7

Special thanks to Nick Sears / FaceTime Communications Inc. for pointing me out.

Are you managing OCS R2 deployment projects that:

  • Require security (anti-virus) / Disclaimer management or Content Filtering for Information Leak Prevention across externally Federated connections.
  • Require granular control and reporting of Group to Group communications across all modalities within OCS.
  • Require message and event logging for internal or external OCS or Group Chat communications.
  • Require exporting of OCS and Group Chat messages to a single messaging archiving platform.

If any of the above are familiar to you, this announcement will be of interest to you.

I am excited to announce the availability of FaceTime IMAuditor version 9.7.

This latest version of IMAuditor offers several significant enhancements including:

  • Support for Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2
  • Support for Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS) 2007 R2 Group Chat Server.
  • Support for installing the FaceTime OCS Connector on an OCS Access Edge Server.
  • Support for AIM Client version 6.9.13.4.
  • Support for importing BlackBerry SMS and BlackBerry PIN messages.

FaceTime Adds Support for BlackBerry and Microsoft OCS Group Chat to IMAuditor security and compliance software

SMS messages from corporate BlackBerries can now be logged and archived to meet corporate governance and compliance regulations

BELMONT, Calif., May 11, 2009 – FaceTime Communications, the leading provider of solutions enabling the safe use of Web 2.0, and unified communications in the enterprise, today introduced key new capabilities for its IMAuditor security and compliance software. IMAuditor now monitors SMS messages sent by corporate BlackBerry users and provides real-time visibility and logging of group chats conducted via Microsoft’s Office Communications Server (OCS).

FaceTime IMAuditor ensures security, management and compliance for unified communications - from presence and instant messaging to conferencing and voice - and has been continually developed to meet new challenges since its debut in 2001.

Support for BlackBerry Messaging

The new IMAuditor version 9.7 integrates with BlackBerry Enterprise Server to capture SMS and PIN messages (PIN messaging lets users send messages between BlackBerry devices based on their personal identification numbers.) allowing managers to monitor messages sent by corporate BlackBerry users. This is an increasingly important requirement for companies in regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare and energy. For example, in the financial services sector, SEC regulations in the US as well as the UK’s FSA and other regional financial services authority regulations demand that all electronic records - including messages sent over instant messaging and SMS – be logged and archived.

Beyond the financial services sector, the advent of broad based regulations such as PCI and Sarbox and e-discovery requirements make it increasingly important to monitor, control and archive enterprise messaging. The growing popularity of BlackBerries represents a new messaging channel that needs to be addressed.

“President Obama, a well-known BlackBerry user, announced his running mate using SMS, clearly demonstrating that this form of communication is both highly effective and an accepted professional tool,” said Kailash Ambwani, CEO for FaceTime. “Yet, many companies can’t allow their employees to use any communication tool that cannot be tracked. With IMAuditor 9.7, we enable our customers use SMS and PIN messages on their corporate BlackBerries – safely increasing productivity.”

IMAuditor 9.7 also provides real-time monitoring and compliance capabilities for group chats within Microsoft’s OCS. This functionality was recently introduced in OCS Release R2 and allows users to create topic-based chat rooms. IMAuditor gives visibility into who joined and who left a particular chat room, and at what point. Management can therefore determine exactly who was privy to certain parts of the conversation. While group chat is a new feature in OCS, it’s been available as a stand-alone application for several years and has developed a large user-base over time, hence the need for a solution to monitor these electronic conversations. As a Gold Level ISV Partner of Microsoft, FaceTime is the only vendor that provides this capability.

IMAuditor is used by Fortune 1000 companies including 9 of the top 10 US banks and the majority of global financial services firms to secure and manage real-time communications and ensure that instant messaging and unified communications platforms can be safely used without compromising security, allowing information leakage or impacting productivity. IMAuditor is also used to meet regulatory and corporate requirements, such as eDiscovery and SEC regulations, which demand logging, archiving and easy retrieval of messaging communications.

About IMAuditor

FaceTime IMAuditor is a full-featured proxy that secures and manages all public and enterprise Unified Communications use over an organization’s network. The IMAuditor, which resides on the local area network, system scans and applies established policies to all the popular file types transferred over unified communications platforms such as Microsoft OCS and IBM Lotus Sametime, as well as public networks such as AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, GoogleTalk Windows Live (MSN), and now BlackBerry messaging.

The software analyzes and detects sensitive or confidential information in both messages and file attachments, can prevent transmission of the information, and will warn the user about established company policy regarding the sharing of corporate intellectual property.

IMAuditor, maintains an integrated trust relationship with FaceTime’s secure Web gateway appliance, the Unified Security Gateway (USG). Working together IMAuditor and USG deliver complete end-to-end security, management and compliance for real-time communications in the enterprise, ensuring that corporate data is protected both from outside threats such as spyware, viruses and worms, as well as from intentional or unintentional information leakage from within the company.

IMAuditor 9.7 is available now from FaceTime and authorized distributors, resellers and partners worldwide. For pricing and additional information call 1-888-349-3223 or visit www.facetime.com.

About FaceTime Communications
FaceTime Communications enables the safe and productive use of instant messaging, Web usage and Unified Communications platforms. Ranked number one by IDC for five consecutive years, FaceTime's award-winning solutions are used by more than 1,000 customers for security, management and compliance of real-time communications. FaceTime supports or has strategic partnerships with all leading public and enterprise IM network and unified communications providers, including AOL, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Skype, IBM and Jabber.

FaceTime is headquartered in Belmont, Calif. For more information visit http://www.facetime.com or call 888-349-FACE. The FaceForward blog, at http://blog.facetime.com, offers thoughts and opinions about the changing nature of Internet.

# # #

FaceTime, FaceTime Communications, IMAuditor, FaceTime Unified Security Gateway, FaceTime Insight, FaceTime Security Labs, SpywareGuide.com and the FaceTime logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of FaceTime Communications, Inc. Other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

MAXXUS COMMUNICATIONS WINS PLANTRONICS' WIRELESS OFFICE PRIZE

Hoofddorp, May 15, 2009 --- Headset specialists Plantronics today handed out the Wireless Office Prize to partner MaXXus Communications. MaXXus are the winners of the annual Wireless Office Campaign, which Plantronics organises to bring the advantages of wireless calling to the attention of potential customers. MaXXus Communications sold the most wireless Plantronics headsets in the last half year and were awarded a 47-inch Philips Ambilight LCD television.

One of the wireless headsets that Plantronics has highlighted during the campaign is the CS60. This DECT-headset offers the freedom to move and has a reach of 50 meters from the base station. This makes it possible to walk away from your desk and keep your hands free for other activities. Companies had the opportunity to test and use the wireless headsets during the campaign and experience the advantages for themselves. It worked: after the test period with the wireless headsets a large number of customers have changed over permanently to the CS60.

Brenda van Dura, manager of eXXtended solutions with MaXXus Communications, is impressed with the price and the results of the campaign. ‘This initiative by Plantronics is a response to the desire of companies to increase the flexibility and freedom of movement of employees and to improve the sound quality of calls. The responses have been very positive. This has not only helped us with the sale of Plantronics products, the sale of our whole portfolio has increased,’ laughed Van Dura.

‘The number of office workers who don’t use a headset is still large. This means there is a huge market potential for our partners’, said Peter Wuyts, General Manager Benelux and Nordics with Plantronics. ‘We know from experience that once office workers use a headset they no longer want to work without.’

About Plantronics

In 1969, a Plantronics headset carried the historic first words from the moon: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” Since then, Plantronics has become the headset of choice for mission-critical applications such as air traffic control, 911 dispatch and the New York Stock Exchange. Today, this history of innovation is the basis for every audio product we build for the office, contact center, personal mobile, entertainment and residential markets. The Plantronics family of brands includes Plantronics, Altec Lansing and Clarity. For more information, go to www.plantronics.com or call (800) 544-4660.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

GotUC sandbox is now live

Marshall Harrison just posted this – the GotUC sandbox is now live. If you could help spread the word it would be appreciated. If you have blogs the please give us a mention.

If you are interested in developing for OCS or Exchange then check out the link and come join us..

http://gotuc.net/blogs/gotuc/archive/2009/05/13/sign-up-for-the-uc-developer-sandbox.aspx

In special I wish Marshall all the luck for setting up this initiative.

-Joachim Farla

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

OfficeMaster Gate certified now also for OCS R2

Just wanted to let you know that Tekvizion has certified OfficeMaster Gate now also for OCS R2 (including MTLS/SRTP)!

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/bb735838.aspx#direct

http://www.ip-mediagateway.com

Sunday, May 10, 2009

OCS Global Settings Migration Tool (GSMT) - Part 1 (how,when and why?)

…and especially and particular what do you need to do when having a failure?  As I see it a lot in the community there are lots of confusions about the OCS Global Settings Migration Tool aka OCS GSMT. I’m writing this article because we recently had a customer who use this tool completely wrong. To clarify it more in-depth see the answers below:

What is the OCS Global Settings Migration Tool?

The Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Global Settings Migration Tool enables Administrators of existing deployments of OCS 2007 to migrate the OCS-specific global settings residing in Active Directory, from the root domain’s System container to the Configuration container. The migration of OCS global settings to the Configuration container provides a better solution for decentralized AD topologies.

Where can I get the OCS Global Settings Migration Tool (GSMT)?

The OCS GMST can be downloaded via the Microsoft Download site @ download

What are the advantages of setting your configuration partition to system container?

The global settings for Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007 are normally stored in the root domain’s System container. This approach offers a lot of advantages in a centralized topology compared with storing it in the Configuration container, specifically faster replication and fewer replicated copies.

What is the most common reason to run the OCS GSMT?

During the Office Communications Server development cycle, it was noticed that some Office Communications Server deployments that start out as centralized move towards being distributed. Theoretically, this is what was recommended, because the closer Office Communications Server and its component services (conferencing server, web components, and so on) are to the SIP-enabled user, the better the collaboration experience will be. In practice, two issues were found:

  • Long service start time
  • Long replication delay when managing Global Settings in the snap-in

Both issues are expected from product design’s perspective. However, they are not acceptable to typical customers, especially to those who have been using the product since Live Communications Server 2003. There are many short-term workarounds. The best long term approach remains to migrate the Office Communication Server global settings from the root domain System container to the Configuration container. It’s not a prerequisite for installing OCS 2007 R2! 

In the next blog post I will explain a recent failure we had on the wrong use of OCS GSMT. They stuck in the migration steps and installers failed in OCS R2. PSS was contacted and the effort they (me ;-) put into this support call is exclusively made available through this UC weblog. Stay tuned!

Upcoming:

Part 2: customer case (CONTOSO infrastructure when OCS GSMT is used wrong)

Part 3: How to fix a broken configuration?

Sources: Microsoft Download, OCS_Migrate_Global_Setting.doc

OCS WebChat interview posted on UCVUG.nl

A couple of weeks ago we interviewed Rob Overkamp – project manager at e-office responsible for OCS WebChat (project management) and Michiel van Oudheusden (Software Developer) at e-office responsible for writing the code on OCS WebChat.

Since today the entire interview is published on UCVUG.nl (Unified Communications Virtual User Group) in the Netherlands.

Special thanks to Gijs Lokker for making this happen. Especially on mothers day ;-)

  • Interview info UCVUG: link (Streaming Media)
  • Product info (Dutch):  link (Website)
  • Product info (English): link (PDF)

Special thanks to entire UC development team for setting up his wonderful extension on Unified Communications.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Additional Windows Live Messenger PIC/Federation IP Addresses

Notification

Additional Windows Live Messenger PIC/Federation IP Addresses

In an effort to provide enhanced capacity and service reliance, Windows Live Messenger will soon be adding additional IP addresses used for PIC/Federation traffic.  Some organizations have chosen to restrict this type of traffic to specific IP addresses, as referenced in Microsoft KB 897567 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897567).  With this in mind we want to give you advanced notice of our intended change if you have configured your enterprise network in this manner.

Please ensure your enterprise firewall configuration is updated with the full list of Windows Live Messenger addresses below on or before Friday, May 8, 2009.  Windows Live Messenger will NOT enable any of the additional IP addresses until on or after May 9th (Pacific Time) to ensure your services will not be disrupted by this change.

IP address for Windows Live Messenger PIC/Federation:

· 65.54.227.249

· 64.4.9.181

· 64.4.9.245

· 65.54.52.53

· 65.54.52.245

For more information please reference Microsoft KB 897567, or for further assistance, please engage Microsoft Customer Support Services via http://support.microsoft.com.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

SIP Trunking with Interoute One (e-office)

Today, we are the lucky owners of a fully functional Microsoft Office Communications Server R2 environment connected to Interoute One Services (SIP Trunking Provider).

Interoute is one of our partners in SIP services and a Microsoft Gold Partner. A couple of year's ago e-office connected LCS2005 to the VoIP cloud of Interoute. However, our current infrastructure only supports Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2, so we needed to make sure that Interoute’s service will also work correctly with the OCS R2 Mediation Server.

On the 16th of October our e-office Microsoft Team connected to Interoute via SIP trunking (using SIP over TCP, as supported in OCS 2007 R2) and of course federation. Together with Interoute we accomplish some tests to get certified.

Since then Interoute has achieved its certification for SIP Trunking Services Qualified for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2

image

What is Interoute One?

Interoute One is a unique development brought to you by Interoute, the largest pan-European VoIP network owner. It is designed to integrate seamlessly with Microsoft OCS.

Interoute is the VoIP provider to many large Corporates and currently carries over 6 billion VoIP minutes per year.

Main features:

Feature:

  • Business quality VoIP
  • Free calls between your sites on the Interoute network
  • Free calls to other Interoute One customers
  • Realise real cost savings with our low cost calls package
  • Reduce your mobile roaming costs
  • No new hardware required – easy integration

Traditional architecture:

clip_image002

cons:

  • Complex
  • Expensive
  • Requires greater expertise
  • Geographically limited

Interoute architecture:

clip_image004

pros:

  • Simple online setup
  • Zero cost
  • Auto configured

So what are the steps required to try it out for yourself… before eBay-ing your PBX?

Basically you need to do the following steps:

Step 1.

To request a trial go to on www.InterouteOne.com and click ‘click here to apply’.

clip_image006

Fill out the request form, making sure you to enter your corporate email address. Webmail addresses like yahoo, gmail or hotmail are not eligible. Link Sing-Up for FREE!

clip_image008

Note: no inbound numbers are not available with the trial. This feature is only for postpaid customers.

Step 2.

Once your request will be approved, you will receive an email from Interoute with a link directing you to the sign-up page.

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 3.

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

Example is shown:

clip_image009

Step 4.

Make sure an OCS 2007 R2 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.

clip_image011

Assign this OCS 2007 R2 Mediation Server with one NIC and assign two 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!

clip_image013

Sometimes:

The customer may have decided to implement their OCS 2007 R2 Mediation Server on a machine that has two interfaces, where they may dedicate one interface for OCS 2007 R2 facing communication and the other for external communication. Unlike the access edge proxy, the OCS 2007 R2 Mediation Server may not always intelligently select the right interface for packets destined for the Interoute One service.

Be careful when using a static NAT mapping set up, this may cause issues on the interconnect (traffic sentfrom the other interface may end up originating from a different public IP, which will be dropped by the Interoute servers). If the customer can see SIP traffic leaving the OCS 2007 R2 Mediation Server, but it doesn't seem to arrive at Interoute Servers, please check that the traffic is using the correct interface.

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.

clip_image015

Step 5.

Make sure within the OCS 2007 R2 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.

clip_image017

Step 6.

Make sure all users who are using Enterprise Voice have installed Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 (MOC2007) minimal version 3.5.6907.

Step 7.

Make sure numbers entered in Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 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 2007 R2 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 2007 R2 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 8.

Check your Forest Level Voice Settings

To view global settings for Enterprise Voice:

· Open the Microsoft Communications Server 2007 R2 administrative snap-in.

· In the console pane, click the forest node.

· In the details pane, click the Location Profiles/Routes 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 9.

Check your pool level Voice Settings

To view voice settings for a pool:

· Open the Microsoft Communications Server 2007 R2administrative 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 10.

Check your Route within OCS 2007 R2. 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.

clip_image019

Step 11.

Open ports on your FW (only outbound) only to the specific public IP addresses of Interoute (89.*) When configuring the OCS 2007 R2 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.

Step 12.

Open ports on your FW (only inbound) only to your external edge of the OCS 2007 R2 Mediation Server. Ports (60,000-64,000).

Step 13.

There you go! Outbound calling will go through the services of Interoute One. Inbound calling will be forwarded to your OCS 2007 R2 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.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2,MOC,OCS 2007 R2 Mediation Server,Mediation Server,Interoute,Interoute One,SIP,Secure SIP,location profiles,routes,Voice properties,Enterprise Voice,URI