Disabling LDAP use

[Steve Basile]

I'm having trouble figuring out why Entourage keeps re-adding an LDAP server
to the account preferences. I just cleared out BigFoot and it was added back
a few days later.

Is there a place I can disabling this auto-adding of an LDAP server. Finding
a way to have Entourage ignore the presence of BigFoot would be another way
to speed up the email sending experience.

Thanks in advance.

Steve
[email protected]

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

I'm having trouble figuring out why Entourage keeps re-adding an LDAP server
to the account preferences. I just cleared out BigFoot and it was added back
a few days later.

Is there a place I can disabling this auto-adding of an LDAP server. Finding
a way to have Entourage ignore the presence of BigFoot would be another way
to speed up the email sending experience.

You cleared it out of where? (Not "preferences", it's not there.) And which
version of Entourage do you have - it's a little different in the different
versions. In Entourage 2004, go to Tools/Accounts/Directory Service. Select
BigFoot (which would have been imported from an earlier Entourage X or 2001
database when you upgraded to 2004), and click the Delete button in the
little Accounts window toolbar. Then, to be safe (since you're seeing funny
business), quit Entourage, and relaunch it. Is it gone?

If not, it would be because you have faulty permissions on some files or
folders. But Account settings like these are in the Database file, not the
Preferences files, and if permissions were wrong in the Database file you
wouldn't be saving any new messages, etc. either. You're not seeing that,
are you?

Just to be safe, I suppose, quit Entourage and all Office apps. In the
Finder, go to ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/ folder, where ~/ means your
[username] (Home) folder. Do Get Info (cmd-I, or control click on the file)
on the com.microsoft.Entourage.prefs.plist file you see there (or, if you're
in Entourage X, the Entourage Preferences and Entourage Settings (10)
files). Check that you are the owner and permissions are Read & Write, or
fix them. Same with the Entourage Preferences file.




--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[Steve Basile]

Thanks for the tips, Paul.

Currently using Entourage 2004. I went into Tools>>Accounts>>Directory
service and cleared out BigFoot a few days ago. It is here where it also
reappeared a couple days after that.

Today, with BigFoot still gone, I tossed Entourage prefs, rebuilt the
message database, reinstalled Entourage, re-updated it, and repaired OS X
disk permissions.

We'll see if all that keeps BigFoot from being added back to the directory
service.

When I was earlier inquiring about preferences I was referring to somewhere
Entourage may have a preference to auto-add directory services if any are
detected. Is it true no such pref exists? If so then I'm hoping all the
above steps eradicated it for good.

I need to add this is not the first time I've seen Entourage use directory
services that seem to have appeared from nowhere. In the previous case on a
totally separate OS X system Yahoo was setup as a directory service.

Steve B.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

LDAPs need to be set up. In Entourage 2004 there are no default LDAP
servers, but there were in earlier versions. as far as I recall, Entourage
2001 (classic) had 4 of them, and Entourage X still had 1 or maybe more. So
in those versions, if you started a new empty database, you'd get them back.
Not by trashing prefs, though.

In Entourage 2004, you got BigFoot by virtue of having imported everything,
including "Accounts" (it was a checked checkbox, like the other items) when
you first upgraded to 2004. You won't find it at all in a new identity.

So if it "came back" after you deleted it, that would imply that either you
purposely replaced your identity by a back-up you had made previously, or,
for some reason your Identity folder with its Database file did not save
changes. That could only happen if you have serious permissions problems on
that file or folder (including perhaps larger containing folders such as the
whole MUD folder). It is _very_ rare for there to be permissions problem on
folders within your user folder, which should all always be Read & Write
(unless maybe you have FileVault on?). On the other had "Repair Disk
Permissions" does not fix any files or folders in the user folder - you
would have to fix them manually. Furthermore, the simple way of selecting
your entire user folder, setting it to Read & Write and then clicking the
button "Apply to enclosed items" actually works only in Tiger: in Panther it
does nothing. You'd have to select the actual Database file in your Main
Identity folder and do it there. But it's so unlikely that this file was
ever set to Read Only, that I don't know what to say. If it were Read Only,
all recent messages would also have disappeared, and you never noticed that
happening, I think.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

From: Steve Basile <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2005 13:49:30 -0700
Conversation: Disabling LDAP use
Subject: Re: Disabling LDAP use

Thanks for the tips, Paul.

Currently using Entourage 2004. I went into Tools>>Accounts>>Directory
service and cleared out BigFoot a few days ago. It is here where it also
reappeared a couple days after that.

Today, with BigFoot still gone, I tossed Entourage prefs, rebuilt the
message database, reinstalled Entourage, re-updated it, and repaired OS X
disk permissions.

We'll see if all that keeps BigFoot from being added back to the directory
service.

When I was earlier inquiring about preferences I was referring to somewhere
Entourage may have a preference to auto-add directory services if any are
detected. Is it true no such pref exists? If so then I'm hoping all the
above steps eradicated it for good.

I need to add this is not the first time I've seen Entourage use directory
services that seem to have appeared from nowhere. In the previous case on a
totally separate OS X system Yahoo was setup as a directory service.

Steve B.

You cleared it out of where? (Not "preferences", it's not there.) And which
version of Entourage do you have - it's a little different in the different
versions. In Entourage 2004, go to Tools/Accounts/Directory Service. Select
BigFoot (which would have been imported from an earlier Entourage X or 2001
database when you upgraded to 2004), and click the Delete button in the
little Accounts window toolbar. Then, to be safe (since you're seeing funny
business), quit Entourage, and relaunch it. Is it gone?

If not, it would be because you have faulty permissions on some files or
folders. But Account settings like these are in the Database file, not the
Preferences files, and if permissions were wrong in the Database file you
wouldn't be saving any new messages, etc. either. You're not seeing that,
are you?

Just to be safe, I suppose, quit Entourage and all Office apps. In the
Finder, go to ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/ folder, where ~/ means your
[username] (Home) folder. Do Get Info (cmd-I, or control click on the file)
on the com.microsoft.Entourage.prefs.plist file you see there (or, if you're
in Entourage X, the Entourage Preferences and Entourage Settings (10)
files). Check that you are the owner and permissions are Read & Write, or
fix them. Same with the Entourage Preferences file.

 

[Nick Collingridge]

I have to concur with Steve Basile in that I have also experienced a
situation where LDAP lookups started to happen, seemingly spontaneously and
certainly without any user intervention. This was on my wife's system after
applying the latest service pack, and was with an identity that had been
first created with v.X, many moons ago. When I looked into the Directory
Service accounts I discovered a number of these accounts, NONE of which
either I or she had created. When I deleted them the lookups stopped. So I
do think there is something weird going on, possibly linked to old
Identities that have been upgraded over the years with new version of
Office. I would add that there are no other problems with this installation
of Entourage (Ent 11.2.1, OS X 10.4.3).

LDAPs need to be set up. In Entourage 2004 there are no default LDAP
servers, but there were in earlier versions. as far as I recall, Entourage
2001 (classic) had 4 of them, and Entourage X still had 1 or maybe more. So
in those versions, if you started a new empty database, you'd get them back.
Not by trashing prefs, though.

In Entourage 2004, you got BigFoot by virtue of having imported everything,
including "Accounts" (it was a checked checkbox, like the other items) when
you first upgraded to 2004. You won't find it at all in a new identity.

So if it "came back" after you deleted it, that would imply that either you
purposely replaced your identity by a back-up you had made previously, or,
for some reason your Identity folder with its Database file did not save
changes. That could only happen if you have serious permissions problems on
that file or folder (including perhaps larger containing folders such as the
whole MUD folder). It is _very_ rare for there to be permissions problem on
folders within your user folder, which should all always be Read & Write
(unless maybe you have FileVault on?). On the other had "Repair Disk
Permissions" does not fix any files or folders in the user folder - you
would have to fix them manually. Furthermore, the simple way of selecting
your entire user folder, setting it to Read & Write and then clicking the
button "Apply to enclosed items" actually works only in Tiger: in Panther it
does nothing. You'd have to select the actual Database file in your Main
Identity folder and do it there. But it's so unlikely that this file was
ever set to Read Only, that I don't know what to say. If it were Read Only,
all recent messages would also have disappeared, and you never noticed that
happening, I think.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

From: Steve Basile <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2005 13:49:30 -0700
Conversation: Disabling LDAP use
Subject: Re: Disabling LDAP use

Thanks for the tips, Paul.

Currently using Entourage 2004. I went into Tools>>Accounts>>Directory
service and cleared out BigFoot a few days ago. It is here where it also
reappeared a couple days after that.

Today, with BigFoot still gone, I tossed Entourage prefs, rebuilt the
message database, reinstalled Entourage, re-updated it, and repaired OS X
disk permissions.

We'll see if all that keeps BigFoot from being added back to the directory
service.

When I was earlier inquiring about preferences I was referring to somewhere
Entourage may have a preference to auto-add directory services if any are
detected. Is it true no such pref exists? If so then I'm hoping all the
above steps eradicated it for good.

I need to add this is not the first time I've seen Entourage use directory
services that seem to have appeared from nowhere. In the previous case on a
totally separate OS X system Yahoo was setup as a directory service.

Steve B.

You cleared it out of where? (Not "preferences", it's not there.) And which
version of Entourage do you have - it's a little different in the different
versions. In Entourage 2004, go to Tools/Accounts/Directory Service. Select
BigFoot (which would have been imported from an earlier Entourage X or 2001
database when you upgraded to 2004), and click the Delete button in the
little Accounts window toolbar. Then, to be safe (since you're seeing funny
business), quit Entourage, and relaunch it. Is it gone?

If not, it would be because you have faulty permissions on some files or
folders. But Account settings like these are in the Database file, not the
Preferences files, and if permissions were wrong in the Database file you
wouldn't be saving any new messages, etc. either. You're not seeing that,
are you?

Just to be safe, I suppose, quit Entourage and all Office apps. In the
Finder, go to ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/ folder, where ~/ means your
[username] (Home) folder. Do Get Info (cmd-I, or control click on the file)
on the com.microsoft.Entourage.prefs.plist file you see there (or, if you're
in Entourage X, the Entourage Preferences and Entourage Settings (10)
files). Check that you are the owner and permissions are Read & Write, or
fix them. Same with the Entourage Preferences file.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

It's not weird at all. It's exactly as I said - you imported from Entourage
X (as you agree) - and Entourage X did have these LDAP servers by default.
That's because even earlier (back when Entourage 2001 first came out in
2000, or maybe OE 5 further back) they still existed and sometimes worked:
you could look up someone's name and there was a semi-reasonable chance
(well, maybe) that their email address could be found there. As the internet
expanded exponentially, this became an impossible feat for these services to
achieve, and nobody bothered to list their email addresses there either,
still later people started concealing email addresses to prevent spam. So
these services withered and died. Unfortunately Microsoft was not quick
enough to remove them from the default installation of Entourage X - but at
last did so with Entourage 2004. But - if you imported Accounts along with
everything else - from an Entourage X or 2001 identity into your new install
of 2004 - you'd get the LDAP accounts along with your personal POP and IMAP
accounts if you hadn't previously deleted them from your Entourage X
identity So there they are.

As you say (and thank you for that), once you deleted them, they went away.
That's not weird at all. What was weird was the previous report (which I'm
pretty sure must have been inaccurate) that they reappeared _after_ being
deleted. That's not only weird, but impossible - unless someone kept
replacing their identity folder by old backups or just maybe (but extremely
unlikely) had serious permissions problems on the MUD or 2004 Identities
folder or Database file.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

From: Nick Collingridge <nickNOSPAM@NOSPAMzappsupportDOTcoDOTuk>
Organization: Customer of PlusNet plc (http://www.plus.net)
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage
Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 11:24:02 +0000
Conversation: Disabling LDAP use
Subject: Re: Disabling LDAP use

I have to concur with Steve Basile in that I have also experienced a
situation where LDAP lookups started to happen, seemingly spontaneously and
certainly without any user intervention. This was on my wife's system after
applying the latest service pack, and was with an identity that had been
first created with v.X, many moons ago. When I looked into the Directory
Service accounts I discovered a number of these accounts, NONE of which
either I or she had created. When I deleted them the lookups stopped. So I
do think there is something weird going on, possibly linked to old
Identities that have been upgraded over the years with new version of
Office. I would add that there are no other problems with this installation
of Entourage (Ent 11.2.1, OS X 10.4.3).

LDAPs need to be set up. In Entourage 2004 there are no default LDAP
servers, but there were in earlier versions. as far as I recall, Entourage
2001 (classic) had 4 of them, and Entourage X still had 1 or maybe more. So
in those versions, if you started a new empty database, you'd get them back.
Not by trashing prefs, though.

In Entourage 2004, you got BigFoot by virtue of having imported everything,
including "Accounts" (it was a checked checkbox, like the other items) when
you first upgraded to 2004. You won't find it at all in a new identity.

So if it "came back" after you deleted it, that would imply that either you
purposely replaced your identity by a back-up you had made previously, or,
for some reason your Identity folder with its Database file did not save
changes. That could only happen if you have serious permissions problems on
that file or folder (including perhaps larger containing folders such as the
whole MUD folder). It is _very_ rare for there to be permissions problem on
folders within your user folder, which should all always be Read & Write
(unless maybe you have FileVault on?). On the other had "Repair Disk
Permissions" does not fix any files or folders in the user folder - you
would have to fix them manually. Furthermore, the simple way of selecting
your entire user folder, setting it to Read & Write and then clicking the
button "Apply to enclosed items" actually works only in Tiger: in Panther it
does nothing. You'd have to select the actual Database file in your Main
Identity folder and do it there. But it's so unlikely that this file was
ever set to Read Only, that I don't know what to say. If it were Read Only,
all recent messages would also have disappeared, and you never noticed that
happening, I think.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

From: Steve Basile <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.entourage
Date: Fri, 18 Nov 2005 13:49:30 -0700
Conversation: Disabling LDAP use
Subject: Re: Disabling LDAP use

Thanks for the tips, Paul.

Currently using Entourage 2004. I went into Tools>>Accounts>>Directory
service and cleared out BigFoot a few days ago. It is here where it also
reappeared a couple days after that.

Today, with BigFoot still gone, I tossed Entourage prefs, rebuilt the
message database, reinstalled Entourage, re-updated it, and repaired OS X
disk permissions.

We'll see if all that keeps BigFoot from being added back to the directory
service.

When I was earlier inquiring about preferences I was referring to somewhere
Entourage may have a preference to auto-add directory services if any are
detected. Is it true no such pref exists? If so then I'm hoping all the
above steps eradicated it for good.

I need to add this is not the first time I've seen Entourage use directory
services that seem to have appeared from nowhere. In the previous case on a
totally separate OS X system Yahoo was setup as a directory service.

Steve B.


You cleared it out of where? (Not "preferences", it's not there.) And which
version of Entourage do you have - it's a little different in the different
versions. In Entourage 2004, go to Tools/Accounts/Directory Service. Select
BigFoot (which would have been imported from an earlier Entourage X or 2001
database when you upgraded to 2004), and click the Delete button in the
little Accounts window toolbar. Then, to be safe (since you're seeing funny
business), quit Entourage, and relaunch it. Is it gone?

If not, it would be because you have faulty permissions on some files or
folders. But Account settings like these are in the Database file, not the
Preferences files, and if permissions were wrong in the Database file you
wouldn't be saving any new messages, etc. either. You're not seeing that,
are you?

Just to be safe, I suppose, quit Entourage and all Office apps. In the
Finder, go to ~/Library/Preferences/Microsoft/ folder, where ~/ means your
[username] (Home) folder. Do Get Info (cmd-I, or control click on the
file)
on the com.microsoft.Entourage.prefs.plist file you see there (or, if
you're
in Entourage X, the Entourage Preferences and Entourage Settings (10)
files). Check that you are the owner and permissions are Read & Write, or
fix them. Same with the Entourage Preferences file.

 

[Steve Basile]

Paul,

One idea...

It's possible the BigFoot directory service was deleted then reappeared
after the database was rebuilt. In other words the rebuilding process added
back the directory service instead of leaving it deleted.

Steve

 

[Chris Ridd]

It's not weird at all. It's exactly as I said - you imported from Entourage
X (as you agree) - and Entourage X did have these LDAP servers by default.

In my case, I have a single directory server configured, and Entourage 2004
configured *not* to check it automatically (Preferences>Compose>General).
Despite this, sometimes when I start up Entourage I spy the Progress window
saying it is trying to contact the directory server. (The DNS name it
displays is correct.)

I've never been fast enough to capture what it is trying to do with tcpdump
:-(

Do you have any ideas what it might be trying to do?

Cheers,

Chris

 

[Nick Collingridge]

OK - maybe not weird, but it's clearly not sensible behaviour for Entourage
to bring these accounts through from identities upgraded from previous
versions. And I stick to the validity of using the word weird prior to your
posting which finally explained what is happening.

The one thing that I do still think is rather odd is the fact that these
previously dormant accounts suddenly started leaping into action following
the application of the SP2 updates - although maybe you have an explanation
for this as well?

FWIW, I personally think that the upgrading process for identities from
previous versions should not have brought the LDAP services through in a way
that caused them to suddenly start doing something when they didn't
before...

 

[Nathan Herring [MSFT]]

I think it would be non-sensible behavior to choose to arbitrarily remove
accounts while importing an identity. It's significantly harder to ensure
that you really, _really_ didn't want something, and it's worse for us to
leave something there that you don't want that you can clean up than for us
to delete something that you did want, even if you could easily put it back.

These LDAP accounts were dormant because our LDAP code required you to go to
a specific menu option to even use them. If you never went there, you
wouldn't even notice that the servers hadn't been in use for years, though
they were in common use at the time when they were part of the defaults for
earlier versions of Entourage.

The updates in 11.2.x and later integrate LDAP further into the main
contact-handling code of Entourage to take advantage of new(ish) Exchange
implementations of VLV for use in LDAP browsing. We inspect your LDAP
accounts and auto-determine whether they're Exchange, but if we cannot
connect, we'll give an error.

Thus, the previously-dormant accounts are now being used, and it's now
obvious that they don't work. It's straightforward to remove them, and I
suggest you do so.

-nh

 

[Nathan Herring [MSFT]]

Rebuilding or compacting the database will not re-introduce these old
default servers. You probably switched to a different identity or
imported/upgraded a different identity which had not had those default
servers removed.

-nh