How To Setup Exchange 2007 Account Automatically in Entourage 2008 Thru Autodiscover

amir — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 18:42:21 GMT

Entourage 2008 with SP1 can use Autodiscover Service available on Exchange 2007 Server to configure your Exchange account automatically. In this post I will talk about this new feature from Entourage user perspective. I have also recorded a screencast to actually show you how you can do it in Entourage 2008. Please keep in mind that this feature is not available in earlier versions of Entourage (2004 and earlier) & Exchange (2003 & earlier).

What’s Autodiscover Service?
Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 includes a new Microsoft Exchange service named the Autodiscover service. The Autodiscover service configures client computers for Exchange mailbox access that are running Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 or Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac. The Autodiscover service can also configure supported mobile devices (Windows Mobile or iPhone). The Autodiscover service provides access to Microsoft Exchange features for Outlook 2007 or Entourage 2008 clients that are connected to your Microsoft Exchange messaging environment. The Autodiscover service must be deployed and configured correctly for Outlook or Entourage clients to automatically connect to Microsoft Exchange features, such as the Availability service (used for Free/Busy info pull-up), OOF Assistant and Delegate management. Additionally, these Exchange features must be configured correctly to provide their respective functionality for Outlook & Entourage clients. You can go here for more info.

Now a couple of important points:

1. Entourage Version – Check to see which version of Entourage you are using. You should be using the latest released version (build), currently its 12.1.5 (081119). In order to check for that, launch Entourage, go to ‘Entourage’ menu on top left hand corner and then click on ‘About Entourage’, the top potion of resulting window should look like this:

If your version (build) does not match, you need to install all available updates for Office 2008 for Mac. You can do that by going to ‘Help’ menu and clicking on ‘Check for Updates’. ‘Microsoft AutoUpdate’ application will launch and you can then click on ‘Check for Updates’ button there to have it look for all available updates. It will check for released updates, will come back and report to you about them and you can then install them one by one. You can also download and install all updates from Mactopia.

2. Exchange Version – Check to see which version of Exchange Server is hosting your mailbox. You can do so by logging into your mailbox thru OWA or ‘Outlook Web Access’ (explained in screencast video). Generally organizations publish a website for this purpose, like Microsoft has published this website for its employees to log into their mailboxes thru OWA. You should have one as well, if you don’t know its address or URL, you should talk to your Exchange Server Administrator or IT Help Desk/Support in your organization.

The very first mention of Exchange Server version can be found on the main login page for OWA, it looks like this if it’s not published thru Microsoft ISA Firewall Server (see ‘Microsoft Exchange’ & ‘2007’ in the screenshot below):

Screencast video also talks about this in the beginning, where OWA has been published thru Microsoft ISA Firewall Server thus the login page looks a bit different. Let’s watch the screencast now.

Make sure you have Microsoft Silverlight installed on your machine.
This screencast video is recorded in HD (Resolution: 1280x720) with 16:9 Aspect Ratio.
Please watch it in ‘Full Screen’ mode for better experience.
To go 'Full Screen', just double click on the video.
To exit 'Full Screen' mode, double click on video again or press 'Esc' button on your keyboard.

Note: If you meet the requirements listed above and automatic Exchange account configuration still does not work for you, then it could be because your Exchange Server Administrator has not published Autodiscover Service properly. You should then contact your administrator to verify that. You can provide this link to get him started on that.

DST 2007 Changes & Entourage 2004 for Mac

amir — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 23:05:00 GMT

I know a lot of users out there use Entourage 2004 as an Exchange Client and are thus concerned about upcoming DST Changes in March 2007. They want to know how Entourage will handle that change and what do they or their Exchange Server Administrators need to do. Here are some important points I wanted to share in this regard.

1. Earlier in 2006 Apple made changes in its Mac OS X (in 10.4.6 Update, look under 'Other' section) so that Mac OS X is aware of new DST 2007 changes.

2. Entourage 2004 at that time wasn't updated/aware of those changes, thus users were seeing the issue as described in KB: 924606

3. Microsoft released Office 2004 for Mac 11.3.3 Update (see KB: 930402) recently to resolve that issue, so now Entourage 2004 is aware of DST 2007 changes, and thus you don't see the issue in KB: 924606.

4. If you are a consumer level user, who uses Entourage with POP/IMAP/SMTP type of accounts, you are good, issue is taken care of for you, BUT if you will exchange meetings with another user who uses an application to handle meetings which is not up to date or aware of DST 2007 changes then you or that user may still see 'meeting times not correct or off by an hour' issue.

5. This same issue will also be experienced by Entourage users who connect to mailboxes on an Exchange server, IF the Exchange server and other users (Entourage and Outlook for Windows) are not updated to be aware of DST 2007 Changes. They can test this right now to confirm this behavior with an Entourage user who has installed 11.3.3 Update and working with other Outlook users who are not updated.

6. Thus we advise customers to follow the same strategy which is outlined here, i.e. when they upgrade their other clients using Outlook for Windows (which happens after server upgrade), they can then upgrade Entourage clients as well, i.e. install 11.3.3 Update.

7. Another important point to keep in mind is that Entourage clients updated with 11.3.3 Update will work fine today but issues will come up only when they interact with clients which are not updated with DST 2007 changes. Thus in order to make sure that everyone works fine, the updates need to happen in suggested manner, i.e. severs first and then clients.

8. The 11.3.3 Update will make sure that Entourage handles all new meetings which span during the new DST time period properly. For meeting invites sent out prior to the 11.3.3 Update and in the new DST window, Entourage will not send meeting updates to announce the adjusted times. As long as the Outlook attendees apply the upcoming patch and Entourage users are up to date, this should not be an issue. They will all have their events adjusted consistently. For attendees using an application unaware of the new DST rules, the meeting times will be off for these events. Entourage product group will not be releasing any client side Update Tool either like you will have for Outlook for Windows. If you are concerned about this specific issue as this may impact your Entourage users working with other internal and external users, we advise to test and use the Time Zone Update Tools (when they become available). The Exchange server side version specifically would be better in my view. Using that Exchange Server Administrators can then take care of the issue with existing meetings in Entourage users' calendars.

Inside Entourage by Amir : Macintosh

How To Setup Exchange 2007 Account Automatically in Entourage 2008 Thru Autodiscover

DST 2007 Changes & Entourage 2004 for Mac