Friday, October 31, 2008

security guys hate you, or maybe not after OCS R2

In OCS "R1" it's you need to get the security guys to open port 50.000 - 59.000 in the firewall.

You don't need that in OCS R2, see Jeff's blog: http://blogs.pointbridge.com/Blogs/schertz_jeff/Pages/Post.aspx?_ID=42

Another welcome change to the A/V Edge configuration requirements is that the RTP TCP/UDP inbound port range of 50000 to 59000 is no longer required with R2, but is optionally supported. The client A/V communications can be limited to just the STUN UDP 3478 and TCP 443 ports, greatly simplifying the external firewall configuration. So if a current deployment already has the firewall configured for the previous 50000-59000 port range, then OCS R2 still supports using them, but new deployments can benefit from these changes off the bat.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Export GalContacts.DB to CSV RegKey

I was testing new normalizing rules in Company_Phone_Number_Normalization_Rules.txt but to be sure when the Communicator get's the right GalContact.db, I found this information.

You don't need to see GalContact.db in notepad, you can export it to CSV :)

Create the following reg key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Communicator
Dword: DumpContactsToCsvFile
Value= 1

sign out and back in again
You can find the Contacts.csv file directly from MOC, select Tools -> View Received Files.

Remeber to set DumpContactsToCsvFile back to 0 or delete it.

Monday, October 27, 2008

Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Technologies for 2009

Unified Communications is number 5 on that list

Unified Communications. During the next five years, the number of different communications vendors with which a typical organization works with will be reduced by at least 50 percent. This change is driven by increases in the capability of application servers and the general shift of communications applications to common off-the-shelf server and operating systems. As this occurs, formerly distinct markets, each with distinct vendors, converge, resulting in massive consolidation in the communications industry. Organizations must build careful, detailed plans for when each category of communications function is replaced or converged, coupling this step with the prior completion of appropriate administrative team convergence. Unified communications can be used to streamline existing business processes improving operational efficiencies in the near term and supporting more aggressive transformational efforts longer term.

October 2008 Communicator Update

October 2008 Communicator Update
Description of the update for Communicator 2007: October 24, 2008
This update fixes the following issues:
958659 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958659/) When you use telephony mode=4, you can only manually set the URI information in Communicator 2007
957793 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/957793/) A Communicator 2007 client is unusually slow at startup
956734 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956734/) The presence status of Communicator 2007 changes to "Away" for all Terminal Server users when one user locks the desktop on a Windows Server 2008-based computer

get all info here http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2008/10/27/311.aspx

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Corp. users are ready to use Communicator as their primary phone

I have been working on “Exchange chat” LCS and OCS since 2003 and on phone integration since 2005.

In all this time I have met a lot of different people with different backgrounds, IT and IPT managers and a lot of different users.

One thing I notes is that when you talk with them about Unified Communication and in my case OCS, you meet all kind of different opinions on the matter if the company’s users are ready to use Communicator as their primary phone.

First of all you meet “Company’s / people” that are ready and just want it, then it’s just go ahead.

But you also meet IT /IPT manager that has forced their users to use some kind of soft phone from any IPT vendor, that decision is not that popular, and I understand, why take a picture of a phone and copy-paste in to the PC as software, without or minimum integrations to other software on the PC.

They aren’t ready do the same mistake one more time by giving the users a new “soft phone”, they are “Action paralyzed” and cannot/ or is scarred to take a new decision.

IT / IPT manager are also saying that there users aren’t ready for unified communication, my question is when will they be ready, if they never get the opportunity to use it in their daily work.

The decision makers are looking for a solution for their advanced phone users that normally are in some kind of front desk, saying that OCS doesn’t meet those users needs, but why is 5-10% of very heavy/advanced phone users take precedence for the last 90-95% of users.
You can combined solutions that can take care of the 5-10% and the last 90-95%.I think that OCS R2 and Response group & Attendant console and delegation will convince some of them.


There are users that aren’t ready for Communicator as their primary phone, for those users there are solutions, as an example Nortel CS1000 with features like Dual-forking and Remote Call Control, or the new “Tanjay” feature in OCS R2 where you have “RRC like” function.
By giving users this choice on what is there preferred device, they will over time experience that OCS is the right way to communicate, because communications isn’t just voice in old legacy phone.


Finally there is the Mobile phone user, living on/in their mobile phone, by forwarding all call to the Mobile number, let’s hope that OCS R2 take care of that, with the mobility and single-number reach, and also show “in a call” when using the mobile phone, because the presence information is the most important feature in any Unified Communication solution and you must have presence on any device in the company.


This is not the truth but just my opinion :)

OCS R2 Video

Overview
The press release on OCS R2 http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/oct08/10-14OCSR2PR.mspx

From VoiceCon: http://www.voicecon.eu/videos/playvideo/index.php?vid=VCA-2008-1224061737

Detailed Features

Here one on "RCC like functions" on Tanjay
http://mschnlnine.vo.llnwd.net/d1/edge/9/6/9/1/ocshuatashima_edge.wmv

This one is on Group chat like "ICQ on steroids" :)
http://mschnlnine.vo.llnwd.net/d1/edge/6/9/9/1/ocsashimabob_edge.wmv

Interview Eric Swift en demo Jamie Stark
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYNElFm7OsY

Screen dumps from OCS R2
http://blogs.technet.com/ucedsg/archive/2008/10/16/ocs-2007-release-2-details-announced-today.aspx

New Attendant Console in OCS R2
http://mschnlnine.vo.llnwd.net/d1/edge/1/5/9/1/ocsjamie_edge.wmv

Can't wait to get my hands on the software.