Certifications
Categories
RSS
Last web search to here
5
0Wednesday, June 24. 2009
Free eBooks from MS Press for OCS for a limited time - OCS 2007 R2 Resource Kit and Programming for Unified Communications
How to download the alpha builds of Digsby directly from the Digsby website
Sunday, June 7. 2009
KB 968858 - Noteworthy post-SP2 Office 2007 hotfix - reduces the number of RPC connections to the Exchange server from Outlook
If you browse the long list of updates for this Outlook 2007 SP2 update (which can be applied to Outlook 2007 SP1 from the looks of it), you'll notice a fairly innocent looking fix:
"When you are running Outlook 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 on a client computer, Communicator unexpectedly creates persistent Outlook connections to Exchange Server."
This is a bit of an understatement because I've noticed a difference in the number of connections (logical and physical) even when Office Communicator isn't involved with Outlook 2007.
To give an example, this is what my connection status dialog box (outlook /rpcdiag) looks like before:
After:
Take into consideration, many times my Internet connection is over an EVDO Rev A data line and the importance of this change skyrockets. I want every little extra bit of bandwidth left for other applications if at all possible.
As pointed out by some of the Exchange gurus at Microsoft, the connections listed in those dialog boxes represent the 'logical' RPC connections back to the Exchange server. The actual amount of physical connections (as in, connections viewable by doing a 'netstat -a -n -o' and filtering for your Exchange client access server) will drop by a smaller amount.
Either way, this has sped up Outlook a considerable amount even compared to unpatched Outlook Service Pack 2, which is leaps and bounds faster than any previous Outlook 2007 version.
This has the potential of reduced bandwidth usage and reduced connection counts on your Exchange server and/or ISA setup. Overall, a great update so far.
Read more about the update and request the binaries here.
Thanks go out to Gary Cooper for pointing out this Outlook update.
"When you are running Outlook 2007 and Office Communicator 2007 on a client computer, Communicator unexpectedly creates persistent Outlook connections to Exchange Server."
This is a bit of an understatement because I've noticed a difference in the number of connections (logical and physical) even when Office Communicator isn't involved with Outlook 2007.
To give an example, this is what my connection status dialog box (outlook /rpcdiag) looks like before:
After:
Take into consideration, many times my Internet connection is over an EVDO Rev A data line and the importance of this change skyrockets. I want every little extra bit of bandwidth left for other applications if at all possible.
As pointed out by some of the Exchange gurus at Microsoft, the connections listed in those dialog boxes represent the 'logical' RPC connections back to the Exchange server. The actual amount of physical connections (as in, connections viewable by doing a 'netstat -a -n -o' and filtering for your Exchange client access server) will drop by a smaller amount.
Either way, this has sped up Outlook a considerable amount even compared to unpatched Outlook Service Pack 2, which is leaps and bounds faster than any previous Outlook 2007 version.
This has the potential of reduced bandwidth usage and reduced connection counts on your Exchange server and/or ISA setup. Overall, a great update so far.
Read more about the update and request the binaries here.
Thanks go out to Gary Cooper for pointing out this Outlook update.
Tuesday, June 2. 2009
Use FAT16 with 64K cluster size for best performance on <=4GB ReadyBoost devices, plus W7 Intel Turbo Ram drivers!
Exchange 2010 killer feature (for me) - voicemail transcription into an e-mail
To give you some background without giving too much away, I've had my e-mail hosted on an Exchange 2010 server since around April. I also take advantage of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 quite a bit. I consider my OCS phone number my primary number. I also have a local office phone number and work cell phone. All in all, that's 3 voicemail "boxes" to keep track of.
Most of the time, I'm out of the office, but I still want people that call the office to reach me as long as I have cell signal. Many times while inside buildings or datacenters, cell signal is poor or you aren't allowed to bring your cell phone inside. Usually, if I don't have cell signal, I'll have some kind of Internet data connection, so this is a great example of using OCS for reach-ability while at a customer site. Of course, this assumes you have permission to connect into their network.
Where am I going with this? Unified Communications/Messaging. I know you probably hear that buzz word quite a bit, but this is a good example.
I forward my office phone to my OCS phone number.
I forward my work phone number to my OCS phone number, if there is no answer on the cell phone.
Why do I go through all this effort to get missed calls to my OCS number?
This:
I did edit this message to say "name" instead of the actual name of the person called. Ditto for the phone number involved.
If the person that left the voicemail spoke clearly and wasn't in a noisy environment, Exchange 2010 generates a decent text transcription. Many times, I don't have to listen to the actual voice message.
End result: I avoid having to remember 3 different set of voice mail PINs. I avoid having to remember to check the office voice mail system. If I am in a meeting and can't take a call, I can read the voicemail message inside Outlook without ducking out to check voicemail on my cell phone.
Please be aware that most cellular providers will charge you minutes for forwarded calls, which is the reason I have it setup to only forward the call if there is no answer or the phone line is busy.
As of 06/02/09, the phone codes to do this on the Verizon network are:
Conditional forwarding (only on "no answer" of cell phone):
*71 plus 10 digit phone number
*73 cancels
Unconditional forwarding (all calls forwarded):
*72 plus ten digit phone number
*73 cancels
Busy transfer:
*90 plus ten digit phone number
*900 cancels
As an example, if I wanted to conditionally forward my calls to 616-555-1234, I would enter in *716165551234 into my cell phone and hit [Send].
If you are not on a "home" Verizon tower/network, these codes will most likely not work. Not all phone numbers seem to work, and I do believe you need to have the 'Call Forwarding' option as part of your cell phone plan.
I am sure many other providers have the same type of functionality, but Verizon is the only provider that has a tower near my house.
Thanks go out to Britt Baubie for the Verizon information.
Most of the time, I'm out of the office, but I still want people that call the office to reach me as long as I have cell signal. Many times while inside buildings or datacenters, cell signal is poor or you aren't allowed to bring your cell phone inside. Usually, if I don't have cell signal, I'll have some kind of Internet data connection, so this is a great example of using OCS for reach-ability while at a customer site. Of course, this assumes you have permission to connect into their network.
Where am I going with this? Unified Communications/Messaging. I know you probably hear that buzz word quite a bit, but this is a good example.
I forward my office phone to my OCS phone number.
I forward my work phone number to my OCS phone number, if there is no answer on the cell phone.
Why do I go through all this effort to get missed calls to my OCS number?
This:
I did edit this message to say "name" instead of the actual name of the person called. Ditto for the phone number involved.
If the person that left the voicemail spoke clearly and wasn't in a noisy environment, Exchange 2010 generates a decent text transcription. Many times, I don't have to listen to the actual voice message.
End result: I avoid having to remember 3 different set of voice mail PINs. I avoid having to remember to check the office voice mail system. If I am in a meeting and can't take a call, I can read the voicemail message inside Outlook without ducking out to check voicemail on my cell phone.
Please be aware that most cellular providers will charge you minutes for forwarded calls, which is the reason I have it setup to only forward the call if there is no answer or the phone line is busy.
As of 06/02/09, the phone codes to do this on the Verizon network are:
Conditional forwarding (only on "no answer" of cell phone):
*71 plus 10 digit phone number
*73 cancels
Unconditional forwarding (all calls forwarded):
*72 plus ten digit phone number
*73 cancels
Busy transfer:
*90 plus ten digit phone number
*900 cancels
As an example, if I wanted to conditionally forward my calls to 616-555-1234, I would enter in *716165551234 into my cell phone and hit [Send].
If you are not on a "home" Verizon tower/network, these codes will most likely not work. Not all phone numbers seem to work, and I do believe you need to have the 'Call Forwarding' option as part of your cell phone plan.
I am sure many other providers have the same type of functionality, but Verizon is the only provider that has a tower near my house.
Thanks go out to Britt Baubie for the Verizon information.
ATI/AMD Catalyst 9.3 seems to be the end of the line for updated drivers for many DX9 chipsets.
Preconfigured Exchange 2010 beta VHD for use with Hyper-V
Wednesday, May 20. 2009
Microsoft Vine - If you want an invite, leave a comment.
Looking for download links for the Office Communicator Mobile? Just go to www.getcomo.com!
Tuesday, May 19. 2009
Office Communicator 2007 R2 - version 3.5.6907.22 - May 2009 cumulative update - fixes AutoUpdate bug and Exchange 2010 compatibility
Although the description inside KB 971083 is fairly sparse, the update fixes an AutoUpdate bug and adds in proper Exchange 2010 inter-op fixes. Previously, if Exchange 2010 was handling the AutoComplete duties for your organization, you would receive a dreaded "Exchange Integration Error" after logging into Office Communicator. This update fixes that error.
The very unfortunate part about the previous update, to 3.5.6907.9, is that it breaks the client auto update functionality.
On a good note, you can work around this issue by placing a direct block with a URL redirect to the location of the updated communicator.msp from 3.5.6907.22.
If you want to force stragglers using Office Communicator 2007 R1 to upgrade to the new R2 version, you can place the CommunicatorVolume.MSI somewhere within the Updates directory on the Front End Server and set that URL as the static "Block with URL" to the R2 install media. Since it is using the built in authentication (at worst, offsite non-domain joined clients will have to enter in their Active Directory credentials), you don't have to worry about unauthorized users downloading the client because the URL is only given after they have logged into the Office Communicator client. No client authentication - no download allowed.
If you are curious how I have my client version filter setup, here is a screenshot:
All those individual version numbers are unnecessary for Office Communicator 2007 R1. You can use a * for the last number (QFE) if you want to catch all MOC 2007 R1 versions. For the curious, I did this originally to test out the blocking functionality with all the known 2007 R1 versions. Typically, most environments have either 2.0.6362.0 or 2.0.6362.129.
I placed the CommunicatorVolume.msi inside \\ocs-pool-fe\Updates\OC\ , so the resulting URL used for the R1 clients looks like this:
https://owc.contoso.com/AutoUpdate/Ext/Files/OC/CommunicatorVolume.msi
You might notice there is a specific block in there for version 3.5.6907.9. This is on purpose, because of the bug in 3.5.6907.9. Although it isn't as seamless as the automated update, it gets the job done by pointing users to:
https://owc.contoso.com/AutoUpdate/Ext/Files/OC/x32/fre/1033/communicator.msp
With those rules setup, we have Office Communicator 2007 R1 clients, of various patch levels, forced to upgrade to 3.5.6907.0, with an auto update to 3.5.6907.22. We also have the broken 3.5.6907.9 clients updating to the proper 3.5.6907.22 so that future auto updates will complete successfully without this workaround. Overall, this will help greatly with our Exchange 2010 rollout.
The very unfortunate part about the previous update, to 3.5.6907.9, is that it breaks the client auto update functionality.
On a good note, you can work around this issue by placing a direct block with a URL redirect to the location of the updated communicator.msp from 3.5.6907.22.
If you want to force stragglers using Office Communicator 2007 R1 to upgrade to the new R2 version, you can place the CommunicatorVolume.MSI somewhere within the Updates directory on the Front End Server and set that URL as the static "Block with URL" to the R2 install media. Since it is using the built in authentication (at worst, offsite non-domain joined clients will have to enter in their Active Directory credentials), you don't have to worry about unauthorized users downloading the client because the URL is only given after they have logged into the Office Communicator client. No client authentication - no download allowed.
If you are curious how I have my client version filter setup, here is a screenshot:
All those individual version numbers are unnecessary for Office Communicator 2007 R1. You can use a * for the last number (QFE) if you want to catch all MOC 2007 R1 versions. For the curious, I did this originally to test out the blocking functionality with all the known 2007 R1 versions. Typically, most environments have either 2.0.6362.0 or 2.0.6362.129.
I placed the CommunicatorVolume.msi inside \\ocs-pool-fe\Updates\OC\ , so the resulting URL used for the R1 clients looks like this:
https://owc.contoso.com/AutoUpdate/Ext/Files/OC/CommunicatorVolume.msi
You might notice there is a specific block in there for version 3.5.6907.9. This is on purpose, because of the bug in 3.5.6907.9. Although it isn't as seamless as the automated update, it gets the job done by pointing users to:
https://owc.contoso.com/AutoUpdate/Ext/Files/OC/x32/fre/1033/communicator.msp
With those rules setup, we have Office Communicator 2007 R1 clients, of various patch levels, forced to upgrade to 3.5.6907.0, with an auto update to 3.5.6907.22. We also have the broken 3.5.6907.9 clients updating to the proper 3.5.6907.22 so that future auto updates will complete successfully without this workaround. Overall, this will help greatly with our Exchange 2010 rollout.
Monday, May 18. 2009
Windows 7 and Thinkpads - Wireless on and off switch with Intel My WiFi
There have been cases where the wireless chipset on Thinkpads have been disabled even though the hardware switch for wireless had been switched on. Before v12.4 of Intel's wireless drivers, there really wasn't a consistent way to re-enable the wireless radio inside the operating system.
If you only install the updated drivers for the Intel wireless chipset, you won't get the 'On/Off' functionality.
You need to install the 'MyWifi' aka 'Software mode Wireless AP' even if you don't plan on using that feature.
A nice side effect of the new My Wifi option is that there is a Wireless On/Off available from your taskbar.
If you are having trouble enabling the Bluetooth radio even though the hardware switch is 'On', you can use the workaround I detailed here.
A nice side note: The newer versions of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager and Intel Turbo Memory Panel seem to have support for Windows 7 out of the box. You no longer have to 'fool' the installers by saying that you are running Windows Vista.
I still get the CPU pegged from time to time from the Intel Application Pinning service, which is fixed with a simple service restart. It is as if the service is stuck inside a kernel mode loop. I still haven't been able to get the Turbo Ram (non-user pinning mode) to stay consistently enabled across reboots. I always end up with a 1.37GB partition that doesn't have a drive letter and isn't enabled for ReadyBoost, from what I can tell.
If you only install the updated drivers for the Intel wireless chipset, you won't get the 'On/Off' functionality.
You need to install the 'MyWifi' aka 'Software mode Wireless AP' even if you don't plan on using that feature.
A nice side effect of the new My Wifi option is that there is a Wireless On/Off available from your taskbar.
If you are having trouble enabling the Bluetooth radio even though the hardware switch is 'On', you can use the workaround I detailed here.
A nice side note: The newer versions of the Intel Matrix Storage Manager and Intel Turbo Memory Panel seem to have support for Windows 7 out of the box. You no longer have to 'fool' the installers by saying that you are running Windows Vista.
I still get the CPU pegged from time to time from the Intel Application Pinning service, which is fixed with a simple service restart. It is as if the service is stuck inside a kernel mode loop. I still haven't been able to get the Turbo Ram (non-user pinning mode) to stay consistently enabled across reboots. I always end up with a 1.37GB partition that doesn't have a drive letter and isn't enabled for ReadyBoost, from what I can tell.
Paint.NET 3.5 Alpha available - fastest version yet
Search this blog
Links
FriendFeed
Calendar
|
July '09 | |||||
| Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | ||
