Mark Garcia - Unified Communications product specialist

Interactive smartboard for $55? Yes, it can be done.

2008-09-23T21:57:17Z

I thought this was pretty amazing to watch with some very simple items you can have an amazing smartboard for any surface. I love gadgets so I am taking this project on. I figured it may be an interesting way to kick off a demo of OCS/Exchange with schools when I am onsite. :) Here is a great link on how to set this up for your school here . They are selling whiteboard IR pens here already and if you want to make your own IR pen go here . Some cool free whiteboard software for download here...(read more)

How does faxing work with Exchange unified messaging?

2008-09-08T20:10:46Z

I had this question from a university in the rocky mountain range. With Exchange Server 2007 unified messaging, the UM server can directly detect a fax tone using the T.38 FOIP (Fax Over IP) standard and route inbound faxes to an extension. It does not provide the ability to send faxes outbound. For outbound faxing, it is required to use a 3rd party Fax software product. How can I configure the fax extension? The fax extension can either be a dedicated fax mailbox, the same extension...(read more)

What type of bandwidth does OCS web conferencing use?

2008-09-05T20:08:35Z

I had this question from a large school district down in Florida and the answer is it depends on what aspects of the OCS conference you are using. Here is a bandwidth breakout of the conference scenarios: Application Sharing bandwidth: Peak Bandwidth Measured in Application Sharing changes as available bandwidth changes. Desktop Sharing and Remote Control bandwidth Almost the exact same bandwidth requirements as Application Sharing. VOIP audio conferencing bandwidth 50Kbps to 80Kbps...(read more)

Is there a way to speed up the Exchange Management Shell launch?

2008-08-27T04:54:00Z

Have you noticed it takes quite a long time to open up the Exchange command shell? I timed it and it takes anywhere from 20 to 30 seconds to launch. I found a way to knock this down to 2-3 seconds. This script updates the GAC with some of the Exchange assemblies and makes Command Shell respond well. 1) Paste the following in notepad and save it as Update-shell.ps1 (or whatever name you want): Set-Alias ngen @( dir (join-path ${env:\windir} "Microsoft.NET\Framework64") ngen.exe -recurse | sort -descending...(read more)

How do you separate OCS administration between pools in the same domain?

2008-08-27T04:32:39Z

I had this question today from a large University in the Midwest and after some digging I found the answer to this is yes: Here are the steps to do this: 1) Create two Universal security admin groups in ADUC such as OCSserverPool1group and OCSserverPool2group 2) Add various pool administrators to the correct group 2) Create two OUs in ADUC such as Pool1Servers and Pool2servers 3) Move all Pool1 OCS servers to Pool1servers OU and all Pool2 OCS servers to Pool2servers OU 4) Log onto OCS server you...(read more)

Is there way to get the Office Communicator inside of Outlook?

2008-08-15T22:18:00Z

I had a few SameTime/Notes schools who were switching to Exchange 2007 and OCS 2007 ask me if there was a way to embed Office Communicator client inside of Outlook? The answer is yes. There sample add-on available here along with source. Here is what it looks like: Is there a Vista gadget for Exchange or Communicator? Yes, click here . Here is what the OC gadget looks like: Here is the Exchange Web Services gadget where you can load calendar, inbox, tasks in a gadget. It will also pop up a side window...(read more)

How can I quickly validate my ActiveSync, SMTP, Autodiscover, Outlook Anywhere infrastructure from the Internet?

2008-07-11T05:56:00Z

I just came across this very nice testing tool called the "Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer" that was created and hosted by Microsoft for customers and schools to use to validate your ActiveSync, SMTP, Autodiscover, Outlook Anywhere configurations all from single Internet web site. I needed this type of tool many times back in my consulting days. The site is www.testexchangeconnectivity.com . It is very handy for troubleshooting or validating your infrastructure when you get a call from...(read more)

Can I install OCS into an Active Directory Forest deployed as a Single Label Domain?

2008-07-08T04:00:00Z

I just had a school that deployed a single label domain in Active Directory (e.g no .com or .edu for their domain namespace) ask me this question. I searched around but I couldn't find anything in the OCS supportability document. The answer from the OCS product team is: "According to KB 300684 most Internet registrars do not support this and Microsoft is blocking deployment of SLD with Windows Server 2008. We have not tested this scenario for these reasons and therefore will not support it if a customer...(read more)

So what is Microsoft Live@edu and Exchange Labs exactly?

2008-07-03T01:44:00Z

Just a quick note that I am changing my role into a pure Unified Communcations Technology Solution Professional in U.S. Education starting this week. I will also be helping customers with Live@edu and Exchange labs implementations, etc. Schools are asking me what is Live@edu, who is it geared towards, and what is Exchange labs?. Below is my 10,000 foot answer: What is Microsoft Live@edu ?: Live@edu is a free Microsoft cloud services offering to K12 and higher education students, alumni, and parents...(read more)

Windows Mobile 6 and GPS already here

2008-06-12T23:42:00Z

The new upcoming iPhone 2.0 has GPS with Google maps support only. Should I get excited now? I guess so but just so you know certain Windows Mobile phones have had built-in GPS support for sometime now. You can search for a list here at pdadb.net which has a nice list of Windows Mobile phones with a GPS icon. I knew my XV6900 phone had built-in A-GPS support when I bought it. I decided to try it out ahead of time with an unreleased version of Windows Mobile 6.1 ROM and upcoming GPS and RevA support....(read more)

Preliminary Guidelines for Running Exchange Server 2007 on Hyper-V

2008-06-12T22:49:00Z

The Exchange product team is going to announce our preliminary strategy for Hyper-V and Exchange Server 2007 tomorrow at Tech-Ed. I posted my quick interpretation of what is coming. Here are some quick notes you can reference: 60-days post RTM of Hyper-V we will provide detailed support statement of support for Exchange Server 2007 hosted on Hyper-V Disk Performance from Exchange 2007 on Hyper-V was shown to be almost the same You can scale up from 1 to 4 virtual processor for Exchange 2007 on Hyper-V...(read more)

What are my Office Communicator client options?

2008-05-21T22:36:00Z

Here is another common question I get from schools. What options do I have to connect to Office Communications Server 2007 from a client perspective? Office Communicator Client 2007 The first client option is the Office Communicator Client that is available for your PC. Supported OSes for the Office Communicator Client: · Windows Vista® operating system, 3 32-bit editions · Windows XP SP2 Professional Edition · Windows® 2000 SP4 Professional Edition (requires Windows Media Player® 9 and Microsoft...(read more)

Why run Exchange Server 2007 on Windows Server 2008 vs Windows Server 2003?

2008-05-21T17:29:00Z

I seem to be getting this question a lot from schools as to what is the value of running Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008. I have compiled a list from sources and I also have added my own personal thoughts: Higher reliability With self healing NTFS and other reliability enhancements in Windows Server 2008, it just makes sense to put your mission critical email system on this server OS to increase your Exchange 2007 uptime. Multi-subnet clustering and other clustering enhancements If you want...(read more)

My Hyper-V RC0 install experience

2008-04-30T06:43:00Z

For my new role, I needed to build out a Hyper-V server in order to demo MOSS, Exchange 2007 and OCS for education customers. I am new to Hyper-V so I documented a few things I have learned along the way. Sample Hyper-V demo server The first thing I needed was to purchase a decent Hyper-V server. I assembled an 8GB RAM and Quad core server. Here is a sample of what I built out for around $1400: CPU INTEL|C2Q Q6600 2.40G 775 8M R 2 - HD 150G|WD 10K 16M SATA WD1500ADFD CPUCOOLER|TT BL ORB II CL-P0257...(read more)

I love the new HTC Vogue XV6900 phone...

2008-04-25T02:36:00Z

I have been using our mobile phones since the beta days and I have to say this Windows Mobile 6 Professional (PPC) phone is certainly one of the best I have owned. I wasn't sure about the white to start but I like it now and I can always 'skin' it later. It weights only 3.8 oz so it is very small. It is certainly smaller than the iPhone. It also has the new HTC TouchFlo capabilities that is really slick so I can flick through 4 screens and people have modified that to accommodate as many as screens...(read more)