Outlook 2000: One Way Sharing of Info using Net Folder

[Mark Hinch]

Folks:

I'm having an odd sort of one-way net folder experience in
trying to share a calendar. I see hints of this in other
netnews articles, but never a clear resolution. I'm hoping
this is a well-known problem/fix.

Here is the configuration:

PC 1 (aka BOSS)
windows 2000
outlook 2000
mail: pop3 from UNIX box -- no exchange server account
for this machine
net folders loaded via Microsoft Office Setup
ASSISTANT has a "Contacts" entry on this machine that
is coded as "Always Send RTF"

PC 2 (aka ASSISTANT)
windows 2000
outlook 2000
mail: from exchange server
net folders loaded
BOSS address is derived from ???, but probably from some
kind of Exchange address book. RTF status is unknown.

Now, here is the symptom:
- normal mail can be echanged between BOSS and ASSISTANT
- setup/invitations/... all apparently work correctly
- a BOSS calendar is created on ASSISTANT PC. It is initially
empty and remains empty (days later).
- BOSS calendar (and updates) cannot be seen on ASSISTANT PC
- if ASSISTANT makes calendar entry, it IS propogated to BOSS PC
- ethereal on BOSS PC shows mail going from BOSS PC to ASSISTANT PC
when an update is made

I infer that ASSISTANT PC is receiving the net folder mail from
BOSS PC, but is not acting on it. Conversly, BOSS PC is receiving
mail from ASSISTANT PC and IS working on it. (Because of the later,
I assume that ASSISTANT is sending stuff to BOSS in RTF.)

In the back of my mind I wonder if having one PC on Exchange and
the other on not is causing a problem. But I'm not really familiar
enough with Exchange to know how it might be in the middle of
all this.

BTW - before you ask, the owner of BOSS PC (me) is quite insistent
on continuing to get his mail via UNIX and is unwilling to move to
Exchange.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Folks:

I'm having an odd sort of one-way net folder experience in
trying to share a calendar. I see hints of this in other
netnews articles, but never a clear resolution. I'm hoping
this is a well-known problem/fix.

Here is the configuration:

PC 1 (aka BOSS)
windows 2000
outlook 2000
mail: pop3 from UNIX box -- no exchange server account
for this machine
net folders loaded via Microsoft Office Setup
ASSISTANT has a "Contacts" entry on this machine that
is coded as "Always Send RTF"

PC 2 (aka ASSISTANT)
windows 2000
outlook 2000
mail: from exchange server
net folders loaded
BOSS address is derived from ???, but probably from some
kind of Exchange address book. RTF status is unknown.

Now, here is the symptom:
- normal mail can be echanged between BOSS and ASSISTANT
- setup/invitations/... all apparently work correctly
- a BOSS calendar is created on ASSISTANT PC. It is initially
empty and remains empty (days later).
- BOSS calendar (and updates) cannot be seen on ASSISTANT PC
- if ASSISTANT makes calendar entry, it IS propogated to BOSS PC
- ethereal on BOSS PC shows mail going from BOSS PC to ASSISTANT PC
when an update is made

I infer that ASSISTANT PC is receiving the net folder mail from
BOSS PC, but is not acting on it. Conversly, BOSS PC is receiving
mail from ASSISTANT PC and IS working on it. (Because of the later,
I assume that ASSISTANT is sending stuff to BOSS in RTF.)

In the back of my mind I wonder if having one PC on Exchange and
the other on not is causing a problem. But I'm not really familiar
enough with Exchange to know how it might be in the middle of
all this.

BTW - before you ask, the owner of BOSS PC (me) is quite insistent
on continuing to get his mail via UNIX and is unwilling to move to
Exchange.

May I ask why? This seems silly to me. If he uses Exchange, he gets access
to all his folders, can share them, can use delegates, doesn't need the
buggy & unreliable NetFolders (note that support for it was pulled in OL2002
and won't be back), can use public folders, Out of Office, Outlook Web
Access, blahblahblahblah.

 

[Mark Hinch]

This may be sacreligious in this group, and
especially to an MVP, but I prefer to
receive mail via unix because I can do lots of
different kinds of pre/post-processing on the mail.
Spamassassin allows me to eliminate ~95+% of the spam
I get with very few false positives, procmail
allows me to sort and redirect mail without ever
looking at it, self-written shell scripts
allow me to do out-of-office replies
that are customized to where it comes from
(i.e., internal email gets one response, known customers
get another, spam gets ignored, ...), just to name a
couple of the things I currently do.

But I really do not want to start that
semi-religious discussion!

Is there any halfway solution here? Can I share a calendar
via Exchange without running my email through Exchange?

-Mark

 

[Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]]

Nothing sacriligious at all about discussing best practices. Many other
platforms have options not available within the Microsoft world and many of
us use them in addition to or in place of Microsoft solutions. I use
multiple platforms and try to be as informed as possible about all of them.
I am just an advanced user of Microsoft Outlook, hence my MVP status. I am
learning the Mac (albeit Microsoft Office for the Mac, especially Entourage)
as well as Linux (dipping my toes into Mandrake).

Just because we have the addendum of MVP to our posting signatures does not
mean that we have blinders on. I don't think an honest MVP would ever say
that Microsoft has the best solution for every problem for every
application.


--
Milly Staples [MVP - Outlook]

Post all replies to the group to keep the discussion intact. Due to
the (insert latest virus name here) virus, all mail sent to my personal
account will be deleted without reading.

After searching google.groups.com and finding no answer, Mark Hinch asked:

| This may be sacreligious in this group, and
| especially to an MVP, but I prefer to
| receive mail via unix because I can do lots of
| different kinds of pre/post-processing on the mail.
| Spamassassin allows me to eliminate ~95+% of the spam
| I get with very few false positives, procmail
| allows me to sort and redirect mail without ever
| looking at it, self-written shell scripts
| allow me to do out-of-office replies
| that are customized to where it comes from
| (i.e., internal email gets one response, known customers
| get another, spam gets ignored, ...), just to name a
| couple of the things I currently do.
|
| But I really do not want to start that
| semi-religious discussion!
|
| Is there any halfway solution here? Can I share a calendar
| via Exchange without running my email through Exchange?
|
| -Mark
|
| Lanwench [MVP - Exchange] wrote:
|| Mark Hinch wrote:
||
||| Folks:
|||
||| I'm having an odd sort of one-way net folder experience in
||| trying to share a calendar. I see hints of this in other
||| netnews articles, but never a clear resolution. I'm hoping
||| this is a well-known problem/fix.
|||
||| Here is the configuration:
|||
||| PC 1 (aka BOSS)
||| windows 2000
||| outlook 2000
||| mail: pop3 from UNIX box -- no exchange server account
||| for this machine
||| net folders loaded via Microsoft Office Setup
||| ASSISTANT has a "Contacts" entry on this machine that
||| is coded as "Always Send RTF"
|||
||| PC 2 (aka ASSISTANT)
||| windows 2000
||| outlook 2000
||| mail: from exchange server
||| net folders loaded
||| BOSS address is derived from ???, but probably from some
||| kind of Exchange address book. RTF status is unknown.
|||
||| Now, here is the symptom:
||| - normal mail can be echanged between BOSS and ASSISTANT
||| - setup/invitations/... all apparently work correctly
||| - a BOSS calendar is created on ASSISTANT PC. It is initially
||| empty and remains empty (days later).
||| - BOSS calendar (and updates) cannot be seen on ASSISTANT PC
||| - if ASSISTANT makes calendar entry, it IS propogated to BOSS PC
||| - ethereal on BOSS PC shows mail going from BOSS PC to ASSISTANT PC
||| when an update is made
|||
||| I infer that ASSISTANT PC is receiving the net folder mail from
||| BOSS PC, but is not acting on it. Conversly, BOSS PC is receiving
||| mail from ASSISTANT PC and IS working on it. (Because of the later,
||| I assume that ASSISTANT is sending stuff to BOSS in RTF.)
|||
||| In the back of my mind I wonder if having one PC on Exchange and
||| the other on not is causing a problem. But I'm not really familiar
||| enough with Exchange to know how it might be in the middle of
||| all this.
|||
||| BTW - before you ask, the owner of BOSS PC (me) is quite insistent
||| on continuing to get his mail via UNIX and is unwilling to move to
||| Exchange.
||
||
|| May I ask why? This seems silly to me. If he uses Exchange, he gets
|| access to all his folders, can share them, can use delegates,
|| doesn't need the buggy & unreliable NetFolders (note that support
|| for it was pulled in OL2002 and won't be back), can use public
|| folders, Out of Office, Outlook Web Access, blahblahblahblah.
||
||| Thanks in advance.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I agree with Milly, and of course had no intention to cause offense or start
a flamewar....just felt it was good 'due diligence' for me to ask what your
reasons are.

Note that a lot of people use *nix/spamassassin in conjunction with Exchange
or other mail servers - you can set up your spamassasin box to accept all
inbound mail for your domain and then relay mail to the Exchange server, so
your filtering is done before it even gets to the mailboxes.

That said, of course it's your choice. I just think that if you want easy
collaboration and already have Exchange, it's better to use the native
functionality *of* Exchange. There isn't really a simple way otherwise, esp
given that NetFolders, buggy little thing that it was, isn't supported
anymore. You can see http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/share.htm for some
other options. .