Calendar Items Disappear From Microsoft Outlook 2003

Starting with Microsoft Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 and Microsoft Outlook 2003 Service Pack 2 (you need both for this to be true) you may notice a strange - and maybe upsetting - behaviour of calendar appointments: they vanish randomly. The good news is that that the behavior is somewhat normal, but the bad news is that appintments do vanish.

Well, I've been working on truly understanding the situation, and - at this point - feel it is something users must be informed of, and learn how to work with. On the bottom of this article I'll describe the steps you should follow to duplicate this situation, as it may be critical to your business.

Basically, Outlook handles meeting requests differently now, and - for the most part - you will be faced with having to ACCEPT or DECLINE more appointments. Simply DELETING the notices from you inbox will also mean you will NOT have the appointment on your calendar, regardless of AUTO-ACCEPT features.

The work around to this entire issue is to Invite Attendees as Resources (New Appointment > To > Scheduling Tab > Add Others > Add From Address Book > add people to the Resources box). This will send the appointment without an opportunity to accept / decline.

To duplicate this issue:

1. Go to your personal calendar in Outlook 2003.
2. Create a new appointment, and invite someone else in the office.
3. Make sure that the other person has Auto Accept enabled. Also, for test purposes, choose a time that will not conflict with anything on the invitees calendar.
4. Send the appointment.
5. At this point the other user will see the appointment on their calendar, but will also have an ACCEPT notice in their inbox.
6. If you DELETE the inbox message, you will also delete this appointment.

Hope this information helps, you can read the details about the programming changes directly from Microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/899919/en-us

Additionally, there was a bug in Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 (pre SP2) that had the same symptoms, and is corrected by hotfix 894470, but it does not apply to XCH SP2.

Why Should You Wait to Purchase a SmartPhone?

Currently there are 84 Windows Mobile 2005 SmartPhones on the market. Projections indicate that there will be a 36% increase in SmartPhone sales this year. Moreover, some experts believe that devices like Palm and BlackBerry will loose value and will be replaced by Windows Mobile. However, there is a catch...

The Microsoft Security and Features Pack, already available from Microsoft, is a ROM update for SmartPhones - an update that enables the devices to fully utilize technologies like Live Push and Remote Wipe. It was released in March 2006, but currently none of the phones produced include it. To make matters more interesting, because of the type of update the MSFP is, it may not be possible to receive it on phones available today.

Projections indicate that by April there should be plenty of choices available... our position is wait until then.

Even better, Computer Doctors of Maine, Inc. is building partnerships with several wireless providers, so keep checking our blogs for more info. When the technology is fully ready, contact us and we'll help you purchase the best device for your needs, and get it working with Exchange 2003 SP2.

Top 10 Reasons for Exchange 2003 SP2

I was debating writing an article about the reasons for upgrading to Microsoft Exchange Service Pack 2 – and then I found a great one from Microsoft. Well, here are the top 10 reasons to upgrade. You can learn more by clicking on the original source link on the bottom of this page.

1. Keep up to date with Direct Push Technology.
   It's easy for mobile workers to keep on top of issues with improved Exchange ActiveSync technology that automatically pushes Exchange Server data to mobile devices over HTTP and HTTPS. With SP2, synchronization has been extended to include more Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 properties, including Tasks.
   
2. Help protect your mobile devices through policy enforcement.
   With easily enforceable device policies such as remote wipe, local wipe, and PIN lock, you can more securely enable mobile access to Exchange Server.
   
3. Boost your defenses with Microsoft Exchange Server Intelligent Message Filter and Sender ID.
   SP2 raises the bar in the antispam war. The latest Exchange Server Intelligent Message Filter incorporates checks against phishing scams and domain spoofing tactics.
   
4. Support larger mailboxes with the raised storage limit in Standard Edition.
   Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition can now accommodate your users' demands for larger mailboxes. In SP2, storage limits have increased to 75 gigabytes (GB).
   
5. Simplify public folder administration.
   If your company uses public folders, SP2 brings a number of improvements to make them easier to manage and maintain, such as new wizards for easier administration, folder deletion logging and added replication controls.
   
6. Get your e-mail faster when on the go.
   Additional data compression through GZIP reduces synchronization bandwidth and latency giving you a faster experience when sending and receiving messages over mobile devices.
   
7. Access contact information wirelessly.
   Looking up global address list information stored on Exchange Server makes it easier to conduct business when out of the office.
   
8. Gain more mobile e-mail security options.
   Support for Secure/Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) message encryption and certificate-based authentication of mobile e-mail gives you more options for more securely handling your mobile e-mail.
   
9. Migrate with peace of mind with fully supported tools to move from GroupWise.
   Get the Migration Wizard and Connector for Novell GroupWise 6.x, included in SP2, now fully supported for co-existence and migration support from GroupWise 6.x to Exchange Server 2003.
   
10. Extend server consolidation with optimized cached mode.
    Administrators now have the ability to force clients into cached mode to help increase the number of active users per server. Also new with SP2, the offline address book has been reformatted to improve cached mode performance. These improvements extend opportunities for site and server consolidation.
    

This article came from Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/sp2/topten.mspx

Welcome to Computer Doctors of Maine, Inc.

Thanks for visiting. In addition to posting content on our website, and via the e-mail newsletter, our company has decided to use a very informal blog to inform our customers, and potential customers, of new things happening in the small business networking industry. It is hard to keep up with the latest, and here we will help you look at things that may be relevant to your business.