Quick Tips on Easier Ways to Use OCS 2007
Filed under: Instant Messaging (IM), OCS 2007, OCS 2007 R2, Reference
We”ve been using OCS for a while now. When you use a system day in/day out, you begin to pick up a few tricks. Ways to make chatting easier, taking advantage of lesser-known features, that sort of thing. Some questions along the same lines have come in from our OCS clients too. So I collected a few for today’’s OCS Insider post.
When you”re done with a conversation, leave the window open for a moment. This gives OCS a chance to realize you”re through, so it can record the conversation in Conversation History. You”ll see a notice when it’’s done so like this:
----------
This conversation is being saved in the Conversation History
folder in your Outlook mailbox.
----------
When in a conference call or chatting on IM, you may need to pass a link to someone. If you put an underscore ( _ ) in front of the link URL, OCS will not activate the link. Much easier to copy this way.
If for some reason you want to “appear offline” in Office Communicator…long lunch anyone?…I have some bad news. It IS possible to appear offline. But it’’s not enabled by default.
You should really use Away for anytime you”re not at the keyboard. Or Do Not Disturb if you can”t have anyone bugging you. But, if you absolutely HAVE to get out, this is how you enable Appear Offline (warning: this involves editing the registry).
- Log on to a computer running Communicator Web Access as a member of the local Administrators group.
- Click Start / Run.
- Type regedit in the Run dialog box. Hit ENTER.
- In Registry Editor, expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, expand Software, expand Policies, expand Microsoft, click Communicator, and then do one of the following:
- If the Policy key already exists, go to step 6.
- If the Policy key doesn”t exist, right-click Communicator, point to New, and then click Key.
- After the new registry key is created, type Policy to rename the key.
- Right-click the new Policy registry key, point to New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value.
- After the new value is created, type EnableAppearOffline to rename the value.
- Double-click the new EnableAppearOffline registry value.
- In the Edit DWORD (32-bit) Value dialog box, type 1 in the Value data box, and then click OK.
(Instructions courtesy of Enabling Users to Appear Offline, Microsoft TechNet)
If you haven”t changed your Presence status message in more than 24 hours, do so at once. Leaving your status message unchanged for days means people don”t know what you”re doing. So they”ll often assume you”re available anyway, and bug you about their stuff.
Remember, the default status is Available. Unless you illustrate that you”re not, people will act like you are.
That’’s it for now. We”ve got more though; you”ll see them soon.
Have you found a useful tip while using OCS? If so, please list it in the Comments.
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OCS 2007 R2
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OCS 2007 R2 Web Scheduler Released for Free Download
While we were finishing up the new site (which you can see at www.planetmagpie.com if you like), Microsoft was sneaky and released a new OCS tool!
It’’s called Web Scheduler. It lets you schedule an OCS conference using your browser, instead of Outlook or the Office Communicator desktop client. When you don”t have Outlook open, or can”t get to it for some reason, you can still join conference calls.
The Web Scheduler is pretty small too - less than 2MB. I get the feeling it”ll be included in the next update. But we can start using it in the meantime!
Uses for the Web Scheduler
Web Scheduler lets you:
- Schedule a new Live Meeting conference or conference call.
- View/change details of an existing conference.
- Check the schedules of conference attendees.
- Send out email invitations to conference participants (by using a configured SMTP mail server).
- Join a conference.
I”m thinking of two potentials where an OCS Web Scheduler would be handy.
One, on smartphones. Use OCS as a bridge from your iPhone/Android mobile into a conference while off-site. (Yes, the Office Communicator can do this from phones too. It’’s always good to have a Web-based alternative though.)
Two, when you”re on someone else’’s computer or network. On-site with a client perhaps, or logging in from home.
Any other ideas? Let us know in the Comments.
Technical Details
Web Scheduler is a 64-bit tool. It works on Windows Server 2003 (Standard and Enterprise x64 Edition) and Windows Server 2008. An SMTP server like Microsoft Exchange Server is needed for sending out email invitations in Web Scheduler.
To download Web Scheduler for Microsoft OCS 2007 R2, visit this Microsoft.com page: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6d6848ec-e7d6-41f4-82d9-5bed3526fcbd&displaylang=en
This IS a free download, but of course you”ll need OCS 2007 R2 to run it.
I”ll see about some more technical details - maybe instructions for use - for a later post. Setup is detailed on the above page. Have fun with Web Scheduler!
Look for Another OCS Insider Post Next Week
No post this week, OCS folks! We”re in the home stretch on our new website.
(If you”re reading this, send cookies. Or maybe a file? They”re keeping us locked up down here!)
How to IM People on Other Networks (AIM, Yahoo, MSN) from OCS — Part 2
Filed under: Instant Messaging (IM), OCS 2007, OCS 2007 R2
Last week I discussed what you”d need to connect OCS 2007 R2 to the MSN/Windows Live IM service. This week I”ll do the same for AIM and Yahoo - the two biggest Instant Messaging services out there.
A word of caution before I write this out, though — spammers & phishers use AIM and Yahoo to send out dangerous links and files. Make sure your company’’s communications policy explains this. And advises all users to ignore/block any suspicious messages they receive.
As I mentioned last week, in order to connect to AIM or Yahoo you must move up from a Standard CAL to a Public IM Connectivity (PIC) License. PIC licenses are available through Microsoft Volume Licensing. This is necessary because your Edge Servers will need the PIC License Numbers before Microsoft can approve their provisioning.
But Wait! Configure Users” Ability to Connect First
I found this in TechNet yesterday. It’’s a prerequisite step to individual users communicating with external Instant Messages. It’’s probably covered in existing OCS documentation, but I thought it was prudent to add here:
Configure Users for Federation, Public IM Connectivity, and Remote User Access
Connecting to AIM And/Or Yahoo IM
With that settled, let’’s move to what we”re here for. The process for AIM and Yahoo is very similar to provisioning MSN/Windows Live. Here it is:
- Purchase an OCS Public IM Connectivity (PIC) License under Microsoft Volume Licensing (Enterprise, Select or Open Value). Contact your local Microsoft partner for this.
- Once the PIC License is approved by a Regional Operations Center (ROC), Microsoft Volume Licensing sends you a letter with instructions on public IM connectivity provisioning.
- Use the instructions provided to start the provisioning, depending on which IM service you”re connecting to.
- When all requested public IM providers complete their provisioning, Microsoft sends a notice of completion to you. It may take up to 4 weeks for provisioning to finish on both Microsoft’’s side and AOL/Yahoo’’s.
Things to Note
–AOL requires the A record to be published in DNS in order to authenticate its public certificate.
–While you can IM between networks with this setup, Multi-party IM, file transfers, and audio/video aren”t supported.
That’’s it. That’’s how you connect OCS 2007 to Public IM networks. Not too difficult, provided your setup is in order.
If you”d like more, Microsoft has published a guide with detailed specs and some more information. Download it here: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=155970
OCS 2007 R2 Documentation Published
Microsoft published new documentation for OCS 2007 R2 July 27th. The new documentation is split up in Word and CHM files. Download just one reference; Small- to-Medium Business Deployment Walkthrough, for example. Or grab the “Communications_Server_2007_R2_Documentation.zip” file for everything.
Insanely useful page for OCS reference material.
Microsoft.com Downloads — Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Documentation
Thanks to Tom Keating’’s TMCNet Blog for the notice.
