Microsoft Online Services Team Blog : Mac

Mac Sign-In Application Released, Available for Download

paulenglis — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:42:00 GMT

The Mac Sign-In application has been released and is now available for download from the Microsoft Download Center.

The Sign-In Application provides a convenient way for users with computers using the Apple Macintosh operating system to access their e-mail and data on the Microsoft Online Services platform. The Mac Sign-In application was announced with the October Service Update as part of the expanded Mac support for the Business Productivity Online Suite, and the application was made available as part of a preview program for early adoption and testing.

More information about the expanded support for Mac can be found in the Microsoft Online Services Macintosh Support Service Description, which also can be downloaded from the Microsoft Download Center.

Mac Single Sign-On Application Usability - Different Default Browsers

Ryan J. Phillips — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:18:00 GMT

The Mac Sign-In Application provides Mac users with similar capabilities as that of their Windows counterparts. The Mac Sign-In Application, in addition to being a launch pad for the Business Productivity Online Suite, provides the ability to collect and submit user credentidals signing in to Microsoft Online Services, such as:

Exchange Online e-mail

Entourage 2004/2008/2008 EWS
Outlook Web Access (Browser Based Email)

Live Meeting
My Company Portal

The My Company Portal link in the application has a requirement to use Safari 4.0 or higher in order to successfully log the user into an organization's SharePoint Online site collections without prompting for credentials.

If the user's machyine is configured to use FireFox as their default browser and they click the My Company Portal link, they will be taken to the Login.aspx page. They can click the Go Directly to the Company Portal button, however they must enter their Microsoft Online Services credentials when prompted:

If the user instead has Safari 4.0 or higher configured as the default browser, the user will be automatically directed to the MyCompany Portal with the user's credentials silently passed under the covers when requested, and the user is automatically signed into the MyCompany Portal without being prompted for credentials:

Use Your Mac with Microsoft Online Services

JimGlynn — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:43:00 GMT

POST UPDATED 12/9/2009

Because many of you have asked to use your Macs with Microsoft Online Services, we’ve been developing a Mac Sign-In application to provide Mac users with the same “single-sign-in” functionality provided to our PC users.

After installing and signing-in to this application, you can send and receive Exchange Online e-mail and access SharePoint Online sites from your Mac without having to sign-in multiple times. This application will also configure Entourage to connect to your Exchange Online mailbox.

The Mac Sign-In application has been released and is now available on the Microsoft Download Center at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=a3f34420-bb96-47ce-9844-4eab1eb9026d.

Because the application is now released, the Mac Sign-In preview program is now closed. I will award prizes and send notices in January. Many thanks to all who participated. We identified and fixed several good bugs and we received great feedback about what other features you'd like the Sign In application to support.

The Microsoft Online Services Team

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Service Update: October 2009 Release Availability, Features Announced

paulenglis — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:36:00 GMT

The Microsoft Online Services Service Update for October 2009 is currently being deployed into production data centers and is scheduled to be available to all customers before the end of October. Updates to the deployment status will be posted to the comments section of this blog post.

Upgrades and Enhancements
The following features and capabilities are included in this Service Update:

Bulk Activation of Users
PowerShell commandlets will be added to streamline the activation process, enabling administrators to easily automate the activation of a set of users. Most commonly, these commandlets will be used to activate a set of users that have been migrated from an Active Directory forest to Microsoft Online Services via the Directory Synchronization Tool. Previously, administrators were required to activate users one-by-one with the User Administration tools in the Microsoft Online Services Administration Center.

Commandlets added in this Service Update are:

· Enable-MSOnlineUser

· Get-MSOnlineSubscription

· Set-MSOnlineUserPassword

A new version of the Microsoft Online Services Transporter Tool supporting these commandlets will be available for download at the Microsoft Download Center upon completion of the deployment of the October Service Update into production data centers for all regions. Please watch this Team Blog for the availability of the updated Transporter Tool.

POP Mail Clients
Supported e-mail clients for Exchange Online are being expanded to include POP-based clients. Previously, Exchange Online supported only Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and 2007.

To enable POP e-mail client support for your organization, administrators should contact Microsoft Online Services Technical Support to open a Service Request.

Please note: Service Requests for POP enablement will be accepted upon completion of the deployment of the October Service Update into production data centers for all regions. Please watch this for deployment updates. Additionally, POP e-mail access cannot be enabled for Deskless Worker accounts.

Support for 30,000 Users

The Microsoft Online Services Administration Center will support as many as 30,000 users, improving management and administration for larger organizations. Previously, Microsoft Online Services supported up to 10,000 users.

Please note that SharePoint Online will retain previously established limits (e.g., 20 site collections per company, 50 gigabytes (GB) per site, and 1 terabyte (TB) per company).

Enhanced Support for Mac OS
The Service Update includes several enhancements that will provide a more efficient communication and collaboration experience for organizations with Mac users.

A new Sign-In Client for the Mac OS provides a single sign-in experience and auto-configuration of Office for Mac applications and the Safari browser for use with Microsoft Online Services.

Other Mac features in this Service Update include:

· Support for Entourage 2008 Exchange Web Services (EWS), including Global Address List (GAL), Calendar Free/Busy Lookup, and Out-of-Office notifications

· Global Address List support for Entourage 2004 and 2008 when using the Sign-In Client for Mac

· SharePoint Online support for Document Connection for Mac to improve the collaboration experience for users

· Improved Firefox and Safari support for My Company Portal

The Sign-In Client for Mac will be available for download at the Microsoft Download Center in early November. Please watch this Team Blog for the availability of the Sign-In Client for Mac.

Timeline
Deployment of the October Service Update into production data centers has started, with deployment to all regions anticipated to be complete before the end of October.

The deployment schedule is subject to change. Updates to the deployment schedule will be announced via the comments section of this blog post.

Connecting your Mac to Microsoft Online Services International Release

kevw@microsoft.com — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 22:10:00 GMT

For our international release, please use the following Exchange server addresses depending on where you bought Microsoft Online Services.

North America - https://red001.mail.microsoftonline.com

Europe - https://red002.mail.emea.microsoftonline.com

Asia - https://red003.mail.apac.microsoftonline.com

What you'll need:
Mac OS X 10.5
Entourage 2008 12.1.2
Safari 3.1.2

The user need to change their password in the company portal page before attempting to set up Entourage.

File->New->Account. Make sure you have already changed your given password using the Sign In application on a PC or the web portal first if this is a brand new account.

In the pop up box, hit the button in the lower left hand corner that says “Configure Account Manually”.

Email address is the email address you use to sign in with the Sign In application.

Account ID is the name that you get when you use the Sign In application. This should be the same as your EMail address.

Exchange server is the OWA address + “/exchange/” + user email address. For bob@contoso.com, in the US datacenter, it would be red001.mail.microsoftonline.com/exchange/bob@contoso.com.

You can find out which datacenter you're in by going to your OWA.

Make sure you check the box right below it "This DAV service requires a secvure connection".

NOTES:

There is no Free Busy information because we don't deploy public folders, and no GAL lookups since we don’t expose our LDAP servers publicly. We are working on these issues, but we do not have a time frame as of now.

We have gotten a few questions about getting some sort of work around for GAL lookups using Entourage with Microsoft Online Services. While a couple of Mac users within our team have written a GAL lookup add on for Entourage, we cannot officially release it as a Microsoft product due to various reasons.

However, there are a couple of Apple Scripts on the internet similar to our internal solution that will enable GAL lookups for Entourage connected to Microsoft Online Services

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/exchange/exchangelookups.html

http://www.xutils.com/owagalsearch/

Mac/Entourage: Connect OS X 10.5 and Entourage 2008 12.1.2 to Microsoft Online Services

kevw@microsoft.com — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:59:00 GMT

For our international release, please use the following Exchange server addresses depending on where you bought Microsoft Online Services.

North America - https://red001.mail.microsoftonline.com

Europe - https://red002.mail.emea.microsoftonline.com

Asia - https://red003.mail.apac.microsoftonline.com

This is an update to our previous post about Mac connectivity to our service. The setup is similiar, and somewhat easier.

What you need:
Mac OS X 10.5
Entourage 2008 12.1.2
Safari 3.1.2

For Beta, the the password changes will still have to be done in the Sign In Application.
When the service is officially released, the user will be able to change their password on the user company portals from a web browser.

File->New->Account. Make sure you have already changed your given password using the Sign In application on a PC or the web portal first if this is a brand new account.

In the pop up box, hit the button in the lower left hand corner that says “Configure Account Manually”.

Email address is the email address you use to sign in with the Sign In application.

Account ID is the name that you get when you use the Sign In application. This should be the same as your EMail address.

Exchange server is the OWA address + “/exchange/” + user email address. For bob@contoso.com, it would be contoso.mail.microsoftonline.com/exchange/bob@contoso.com

Make sure you check the box right below it "This DAV service requires a secvure connection".

NOTES:

There is no Free Busy information because we don't deploy public folders, and no GAL lookups since we don’t expose our LDAP servers publicly.

However, there are a couple of Apple Scripts on the internet similar to our internal solution that will enable GAL lookups for Entourage connected to Microsoft Online Services

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/exchange/exchangelookups.html

http://www.xutils.com/owagalsearch/

Note: The above information is provided as-is and is NOT supported by the Microsoft Online Support Team at this time.

Mac/Entourage: Global Address List (GAL) Access for Entourage 2008

kevw@microsoft.com — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 18:44:00 GMT

We have gotten a few questions about getting some sort of workaround for GAL lookups using Entourage with Microsoft Online Services. While a couple of Mac users within our team have written a GAL lookup add on for Entourage, we cannot officially release it as a Microsoft product due to various reasons.

However, there are a couple of Apple Scripts on the internet similar to our internal solution that will enable GAL lookups for Entourage connected to Microsoft Online Services

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/exchange/exchangelookups.html

http://www.xutils.com/owagalsearch/

Note: The above information is provided as-is and is NOT supported by the Microsoft Online Services Support Team.

Mac/Entourage: Connect a Mac using Entourage 2008 to Microsoft Online Services

kevw@microsoft.com — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 04:57:00 GMT

Hi All,

We have heard a few requests as to how to connect a Mac to our service.
For Beta, the the password changes will still have to be done in the Sign In tool.
When the service is officially released, the user will be able to change their password on the user company portals from a web browser.

This only works in Entourage 2008.
Note: There is no Free Busy information because we don't deploy public folders, and no GAL lookups since we don’t expose our LDAP servers publicly.

File->New->Account. Make sure you have already changed your given password using the Sign In tool on a PC first if this is a brand new account.

In the pop up box, hit the button in the lower left hand corner that says “Configure Account Manually”.

Email address is the email address you use to sign in with the Sign In tool.

Account ID is the name that you get when you use the Sign In tool to start LiveMeeting (on the upper left hand corner). Usually, the “@” is replaced by “_”. If your user name is "bob@contoso.com", it would probably be changed to something like "bob_contoso.com".

Domain is the very first part of the OWA address after the "https://", in the beta, that would be red001.

Exchange server is the OWA address + “/exchange/” + user email address. For bob@contoso.com on beta it would be https://red001.mail.microsoftonline.com/exchange/bob@contoso.com.

UPDATE:

However, there are a couple of Apple Scripts on the internet similar to our internal solution that will enable GAL lookups for Entourage connected to Microsoft Online Services

http://www.entourage.mvps.org/exchange/exchangelookups.html

http://www.xutils.com/owagalsearch/

Note: The above information is provided as-is and is NOT supported by the Microsoft Online Support Team at this time.

Mac/iPhone: Connect the iPhone to Microsoft Online Services

kevw@microsoft.com — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:41:00 GMT

The new iPhone 3G that came out last week final enabled Exchange ActiveSync support. As a result, you can now connect your iPhone 3G or the older iPhone with the new 2.0 firmware to connect to Microsoft Online Services.

Simply goto Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars->Add Account->Microsoft Exchange.

Email: enter your email address
Username: enter your email address
Enter your password and description for the mailbox.
Click Next

Accept the verify certificate pop ups.

You will now see a new screen with an extra blank entry for Server. Enter the OWA address. In beta, this is "red001.mail.microsoftonline.com".

Select the information you want to synchronize, and click on Save.

Note: The above information is provided as-is and is BEST EFFORT supported by the Microsoft Online Support Team