http://www.theocsinsider.com The "Inside" Perspective on OCS 2007, VoIP and Unified Communications Wed, 03 Mar 2010 19:15:19 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I saw a great discussion thread on LinkedIn today (view the thread here) - about whether a consultant''s client should move to Hosted Exchange or Google Apps. The replies leaned a bit more toward Google Apps than Exchange. Many good points about how much IT help is available/budgeted, "getting what ... http://www.theocsinsider.com/exchange-2007/hosted-exchange-vs-google-apps-which-works-better-for-small-business/ It's bound to happen. New systems, hundreds of possible configurations…bugs will pop up. Today I've collected four bugs found when you put OCS 2007 R2 and the Windows 7 OS together. We've run across a couple of them ourselves. I'm including source links for all of ... http://www.theocsinsider.com/ocs-2007/ocs-and-windows-7-problems-to-watch-out-for/ One quick point for today. When implementing an OCS 2007 R2 setup, make sure there's plenty of bandwidth available. Standard or Enterprise edition. With or without VoIP built-in. One of our clients (a nationwide energy firm) uses OCS to communicate between branches. Initially this was facilitated by ... http://www.theocsinsider.com/ocs-2007/got-enough-bandwidth-for-ocs-r2/ You''re about to have your first full-on Live Meeting conference with a client! OCS is all set up; you''ve got the cameras ready in case they want to jump to video. VoIP is set up, Mediation server is a go, Edge server in place. Let''s call them up, right? ... http://www.theocsinsider.com/ocs-2007/6-things-to-check-before-an-ocs-conference/ SIP Primer from SearchUnifiedCommunications Back in November I posted a few resources for SIP trunking. Here''s one more: a more in-depth SIP primer at Unified Communications News. Author Elaine Hom talks about the many points in SIP where cost and time savings come about. It''s a good introduction, and even ... http://www.theocsinsider.com/ocs-2007/three-articles-on-unified-communications-tech/ In most IM clients you have to add new contacts one by one. It''s annoying, it''s piecemeal…and if you''re in a big office with lots of people, skipping it altogether starts to appeal after about 5 seconds. Avoiding this is good. Especially if you want to actually use OCS ... http://www.theocsinsider.com/ocs-2007/get-on-the-list-putting-together-ocs-contact-lists-for-users/ Here''s a list (Microsoft Technet) of Direct SIP Gateway and IP-PBXs approved for use with Office Communications Server. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/office/ocs/bb735838.aspx#direct Obviously, we haven''t tested them all. I can only give you what we''ve learned on our own install (and subsequent client installs). Aculab - The ApplianX Gateway The ApplianX Gateway for OCS 2007 was ... http://www.theocsinsider.com/ocs-2007/which-voice-gateway-should-you-use-for-ocs/ The client app that ships with OCS 2007 is called Office Communicator. When you ask the average user what OCS is, they''ll point to their Communicator window (which looks like this) and call that OCS. [caption id="attachment_140" align="alignnone" width="204" caption="Office Communicator Window"][/caption] Communicator does its job very well. (I actually ... http://www.theocsinsider.com/ocs-2007/jbuddy-messenger-an-office-communicator-alternative/ Welcome to 2010! Are we back to scrambling already? Before we get too crazy, let me make a few predictions about OCS. (It''s the thing to do this time of year.) We''re headed for another year of big shake-ups and racing towards better-priced options. I''m sure Office ... http://www.theocsinsider.com/ocs-2007/ocs-2007-r2/four-predictions-on-ocs-in-2010/ Let''s talk about OCS Presence for a moment. Specifically, what happens in the minds of others when you leave yours the same for days on end. Do You Do This? If your office use OCS at all, you know someone like this. You never know what Bill or Mary is ... http://www.theocsinsider.com/ocs-2007/what-happens-when-you-dont-change-your-ocs-presence-status/