4.11 Working offline or online

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Even in today's world of high-speed Internet connections available at home and in hotels and other public locations that permit VPN access to the office, there are still times when a slow dial-up connection is the only possible link. Taken together, the combination of OAB and OST allows a user to work offline quite comfortably and take maximum advantage of the slow link when it is available.

However, there is a downside to offline working, since you lose some functionality, including:

  • There is no access to free and busy information when scheduling meetings.

  • You cannot create new public folders.

  • You cannot set permissions on folders, including granting access to your Inbox and calendar.

  • The group calendar feature (Outlook 2002) is not available.

  • You cannot create new mailbox rules.

  • You cannot create an out of office notification.

  • The information available in the OAB may be restricted if you opt not to download full details.

These restrictions do not matter to some users, especially those who concentrate on email.

As explained earlier, Outlook synchronizes messages that you create offline and sends them when you connect to the server. You can also synchronize to download new messages and update other folders, and then disconnect to work offline. However, some users, including me, like to work online briefly to quickly review new messages and process urgent messages. To optimize bandwidth use, I follow some simple rules:

  • Include the message size field in the folder view so that messages with large attachments can be quickly located. Make a decision whether these messages are urgent, and move any that can wait to a folder that is not synchronized. You can then process these messages the next time you have access to a high-speed connection.

  • Turn off the reading pane. Outlook must download a complete copy of a message before the client can display the message in the pane and this soaks up precious bandwidth. The Auto Preview facility offers almost the same feature at the cost of just 254 bytes per message (Auto Preview only displays the first couple of lines from a message), so use it instead of the preview pane.

  • Always download a full copy of the OAB before starting on a road trip to ensure that any messages you create and send offline have valid addresses.

  • Treat any new Outlook feature with suspicion until you know it works without demanding too much bandwidth.

These simple steps save bandwidth and reduce the time you spend on dial-up connections.



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Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Administrators Pocket Consultant
ISBN: 0735619786
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 188

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