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Unified Communications

TANDBERG's PrecisionHD USB camera is now shipping

September 1, 2009

Skype for Asterisk Launches

September 1, 2009

At TMC's ITEXPO, Digium and Skype announced the official launch of Skype for Asterisk, which was launched as a closed beta back in September 2008. Well, now anyone can now download Skype for Asterisk and make & receive low-cost calls leveraging Skype.

According to Digium, "Now businesses can take advantage of Skype's low-cost calling to landlines and mobile phones and free calling to more than 400 million registered Skype users around the world. Skype for Asterisk allows businesses to access the world's largest community of people communicating over the Internet, natively encrypts all voice calls and lets companies manage their Skype user accounts via Skype's Web-based Business Control Panel. Businesses already using an Asterisk-based phone system can add Skype as another complementary form of communications by downloading Skype for Asterisk, without additional costly hardware.

To Appear Offline or Not to Appear Offline, that is the Presence Question

August 19, 2009

Presence is a valuable tool used in a variety of consumer and business applications, including Microsoft OCS 2007, Skype, AOL's AIM, Windows Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, and more. Businesses which used to ban IM applications (block it on the firewall, Group Policy, etc.) are starting to see the productivity value in IM and have implemented IM solutions in the enterprise. With the convergence of voice, video, and chat in applications such as Microsoft's Office Communicator, rich presence functionality enables your fellow co-workers to know if you are on the phone, in Do Not Disturb mode, away, working at home, on vacation, etc.

Knowing your co-workers presence certainly improves how, when and if you interact with them.

Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Web Scheduler

August 15, 2009

Are you running 64-bit Windows and can't get the OCS 2007 R2 Outlook add-in to work? Bummed you can't use the add-in to schedule meetings? As a workaround, those running Office 2010 (64-bit version) on a 64-bit machine have to manually paste the OCS conferencing number and ID into their Calendar, which is a bit tedious. You also miss out on the nice calendar presence information.

Well, Microsoft is still working on the 64-bit version of the Outlook add-in, which will be available when Office 2010 RTMs, however they just released 'Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Web Scheduler', which you can use to schedule meetings in the meantime until they release the 64-bit Outlook add-in.

Microsoft Releases Two New UC OCS 2007 Training Tools

August 13, 2009

Microsoft released a new UC How To training application leveraging Microsoft Silverlightâ„¢ 2 to help users and administrators learn how to use Office Communications Server 2007 R2. The Microsoft Unified Communications "How-To" training tool provides step-by-step instructions for common UC tasks, such as find and add contacts, create groups in contact list, initiate a voice or video call, create a chat room, search chat history, and much more. It also goes into "etiquette" in instant messaging and etiquette in managing your presence status. I really liked this aspect of this training tool, since it is often difficult for IT/MIS folks to document etiquette procedures and get users to actually listen.

Office Communications Server Team Blog's Top 118 UC & OCS Blogs

August 12, 2009

FREETALK Everyman Skype Headset Review

August 6, 2009


The FREETALK Everyman is a foldable super wideband audio "Skype certified" USB headset designed by Skype themselves. Why this isn't called the Skype Everyman headset is beyond me. I guess perhaps why want to market this headset as doing much more than Skype calls. They sent me one for review today so I thought I'd write up my impressions.

When I opened it out of the box I noticed the large speakers and the flexible rotation for additional comfort when wearing it.


Microsoft OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat Hotfix KB 969819 + Group Chat Software Development Kit (SDK)

August 3, 2009

Microsoft just released another hotfix KB update for Microsoft OCS 2007 R2. Called KB 969819, this addresses some issues with OCS 2007 R2 Group Chat that are described in the Knowledge Base articles 969819, 969818, and 969817.

KB 969819 package fixes the following issues:
  • 972951  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972951/ ) A compliance server reports incomplete or inaccurate information about user JOIN and PART events in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Server
  • 972944  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972944/ ) You may experience performance issues in a channel server in Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Channel Server
  • 973384  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973384/ ) The Group Chat service does not work after you restart a computer that is running Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Server
  • 973385  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973385/ ) Users in a secured organizational unit (OU) named "Blocking Inheritance" cannot use the Group Chat Admin Tool
  • 973386  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973386/ ) A compliance XML output file is not generated by a compliance server in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Server
KB 969818 package fixes the following issues:
  • 973321  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973321/ ) Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Group Chat Client prevents Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 from logging off
  • 973337  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973337/ ) A peer-to-peer file transfer fails between two Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat clients
  • 972945  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972945/ ) The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Client does not support user colors
  • 973316  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973316/ ) Error message when you try to make a connection in an Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat client for the first time: "The domain_name domain is not available"
  • 972947  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972947/ ) An update is available for Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat clients to improve the performance for chat rooms
  • 973318  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973318/ ) The message in the input panel does not match the message that you sent in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Client
KB 969817 doesn't appear to be on Microsoft's site, but I'm sure it fixes something.

Lastly, they also just added a new SDK download for Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat Software Development Kit (SDK). It includes documentation and sample applications developed with the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Group Chat platform.



Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Hotfix KB 968802, KB 970275, and more

July 29, 2009

Almost missed some major KB updates & hotfixes to OCS 2007 R2 that Microsoft just put online yesterday.

Fixes are many, especially in OCS 2007 R2 Hotfix KB 966802. It includes the following fixes:
  • Update for Application Host
    967832  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967832/ ) Description of the update package for Communications Server 2007 R2 Application Host: April 2009
  • Update for Application Sharing Server
    971296  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971296/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Application Sharing Server: July 2009
  • Update for Administration Tools
    971289  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971289/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Administration Tools: July 2009
  • Update for Audio/Video Conferencing
    971793  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971793/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Audio/Video Conferencing Server: July 2009
  • Update for Core Components
    971299  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971299/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Core Components: July 2009
  • Update for Communicator Web Access
    969824  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969824/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Communicator Web Access: July 2009
  • Update for Conferencing Attendant
    968922  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968922/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Conferencing Attendant: July 2009
  • Update for Conferencing Announcement Service
    969823  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969823/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Conferencing Announcement Service: July 2009
  • Update for Monitoring Server
    971298  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971298/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Monitoring Server: July 2009
  • Update for Mediation Server
    969835  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969835/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Mediation Server: July 2009
  • Update for Outside Voice Control
    967835  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967835/ ) Description of the update package for Communications Server 2007 R2, Outside Voice Control: April 2009
  • Update for Response Group Service
    967829  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967829/ ) Description of the update package for Communications Server 2007 R2, Response Group Service: April 2009
  • • Update for Standard/Enterprise edition Server
    969821  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969821/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2: July, 2009
  • Update for Standard/Enterprise edition Server Back End
    969834  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/969834/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2 database: July, 2009
  • Update for Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core Redist 64-bit
    970679  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970679/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Unified Communications Managed API 2.0 Core Redist 64-bit: July 2009
  • Update for Web Conferencing Server
    971297  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971297/ ) Description of the update package for Office Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Conferencing Server: July 2009
  • Update for Web Components Server
    967830  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967830/ ) Description of the update package for Communications Server 2007 R2, Web Components: April 2009
Another KB update (KB 970275) released yesterday was "Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Attendant Hotfix KB 970275"

This update package fixes the following issue:
  • 972402  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/972402/ ) Office Communicator 2007 R2 runs concurrently with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Attendant
Lastly, Microsoft yesterday released the latest version of the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Capacity Planning Tool






Cool Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer

July 29, 2009

James Stine has released a cool utility called "Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer". It's a great online tool for performing testing, troubleshooting, and diagnostics on OCS 2007 deployments. James said, "Following on the heels of success of the Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer (created by Shawn McGrath and Brad Hughes), Premal Gandhi, Matthew Fresoli and I have been busy designing and writing a complimentary tool: The Office Communications Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer."

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