Managing Internet FreeBusy Information

Managing Internet Free/Busy Information

With the Microsoft Office Internet Free/Busy Service, users can publish their free/busy times to a shared Internet location or an Exchange server. Members of the service can view each other’s free/busy information and can help to control which members have access to their information.

To turn on the Microsoft Office Internet Free/Busy Service

1. In Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, on the Tools menu, click Options.

2. Click Calendar Options, and then click Free/Busy Options.

3. Select Publish and search using Microsoft Office Internet Free/Busy Service.

To publish their information, users enter their preferences in the Free/Busy Options dialog box, such as how many months’ worth of information to publish, how often to update the information, and whether to publish the data to the free/busy service or to a specific location.

When users join the Microsoft Office Internet Free/Busy Service, they can select which other members can view their free/busy information. Members can also send invitations to other users to view their data. The free/busy service relies on Passport to help provide secure transactions between Outlook and the Internet.

As an administrator, if you are concerned about users accessing free/busy information over the Internet, you can help to prevent your users from having access to the free/busy service by changing a setting in the Custom Installation Wizard or Custom Maintenance Wizard, or by setting a policy.

To change the free/busy service setting through the Custom Installation Wizard or Custom Maintenance Wizard

1. Open the Change Office User Settings page.

2. Expand the Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 node down to Calendar Options, and then click Free/Busy Options to display the settings.

3. Double-click the setting for Disable the Microsoft Office Internet Free/Busy Service, and then select the Apply Change button to configure the option.

To disable or enable the Microsoft Office Internet Free/Busy Service by using the Group Policy snap-in, set the following policy in the Office11.adm administrative template:

Microsoft Office Outlook 2003\Instant Messaging Integration\Display Free/Busy item in Name menu

For more information about using policies to help control user options, see “Using Group Policy to Deploy Office” in Chapter 5, “Installing Office 2003.”