Category Archives: Office 365

Educational Purpose – Free Office 365 – UAE – Microsoft Gulf

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Microsoft has announced the free availability of Office 365 and Office 365 ProPlus to students, faculty and staff all across the world – at no charge, starting today, February 23, 2015. Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus for Education is a communication and collaboration platform available in the cloud, currently used by over 110 million students, faculty and staff worldwide.

Eligible students, Microsoft notes, will be able to sign up for Office 365 ProPlus and install Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Access on up to 5 PCs or Macs and mobile devices including Android, iPad and Windows tablets. In addition, they’ll also have access to OneDrive and Office Online.

From now on, students can check their eligibility for free Office from their school. Teachers can do the same by clicking here.

Good move from Microsoft Gulf 🙂

Read Emirates 24/7 article

Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 – Mail flow

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Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, mail flow occurs through the transport pipeline. The transport pipeline is a collection of services, connections, components, and queues that work together to route all messages to the categorizer in the Transport service on a Mailbox server inside the organization.

The transport pipeline consists of the following services:

  • Front End Transport service   This service runs on all Client Access servers and acts as a stateless proxy for all inbound and outbound external SMTP traffic for the Exchange 2013 organization. The Front End Transport service doesn’t inspect message content, but it can filter messages based on connections, domains, senders, and recipients. The Front End Transport service only communicates with the Transport service on a Mailbox server, and doesn’t queue any messages locally.
  • Transport service   This service runs on all Mailbox servers and is virtually identical to the Hub Transport server role in previous versions of Exchange. The Transport service handles all SMTP mail flow for the organization, performs message categorization, and performs message content inspection. Unlike previous versions of Exchange, the Transport service never communicates directly with mailbox databases. That task is now handled by the Mailbox Transport service. The Transport service routes messages between the Mailbox Transport service, the Transport service, and the Front End Transport service.
  • Mailbox Transport service   This service runs on all Mailbox servers and consists of two separate services: the Mailbox Transport Submission service and Mailbox Transport Delivery service. The Mailbox Transport Delivery service receives SMTP messages from the Transport service on the local Mailbox server or on other Mailbox servers, and connects to the local mailbox database using an Exchange remote procedure call (RPC) to deliver the message. The Mailbox Transport Submission service connects to the local mailbox database using RPC to retrieve messages, and submits the messages over SMTP to the Transport service on the local Mailbox server, or on other Mailbox servers. The Mailbox Transport Submission service has access to the same routing topology information as the Transport service. Like the Front End Transport service, the Mailbox Transport service also doesn’t queue any messages locally.

Messages from outside the organization enter the transport pipeline through a Receive connector in the Front End Transport service on a Client Access server and are then routed to the Transport service on a Mailbox server.

Messages inside the organization enter the Transport service on a Mailbox server in one of the following ways:

  • Through a Receive connector.
  • From the Pickup directory or the Replay directory.
  • From the Mailbox Transport service.
  • Through agent submission.

The following figure shows the relationships among the components in the Exchange 2013 transport pipeline.

Transport pipeline overview diagram

Every message that’s sent or received in an Exchange 2013 organization must be categorized in the Transport service on a Mailbox server before it can be routed and delivered. After a message has been categorized, it’s put in a delivery queue for delivery to the destination mailbox database, the destination database availability group (DAG), Active Directory site, or Active Directory forest, or to the destination domain outside the organization.

The Transport service on a Mailbox server consists of the following components and processes:

    • SMTP Receive   When messages are received by the Transport service, message content inspection is performed, transport rules are applied, and anti-spam and anti-malware inspection is performed if they are enabled. The SMTP session has a series of events that work together in a specific order to validate the contents of a message before it’s accepted. After a message has passed completely through SMTP Receive and isn’t rejected by receive events, or by an anti-spam and anti-malware agent, it’s put in the Submission queue.
    • Submission   Submission is the process of putting messages into the Submission queue. The categorizer picks up one message at a time for categorization. Submission happens in three ways:
      • Through an SMTP Receive connector.
      • Through the Pickup directory or the Replay directory. These directories exist on the Mailbox server. Correctly formatted message files that are copied into the Pickup directory or the Replay directory are put directly into the Submission queue.
      • Through a transport agent.
    • Categorizer   The categorizer picks up one message at a time from the Submission queue. The categorizer completes the following steps:
      • Recipient resolution, which includes top-level addressing, expansion, and bifurcation.
      • Routing resolution.
      • Content conversion.

      Additionally, mail flow rules that are defined by the organization are applied. After messages have been categorized, they’re put into a delivery queue that’s based on the destination of the message. Messages are queued by the destination mailbox database, DAG, Active Directory site, Active Directory forest or external domain.

    • SMTP Send   How messages are routed from the Transport service depends on the location of the message recipients relative to the Mailbox server where categorization occurred. The message could be routed to the Mailbox Transport service on the same Mailbox server, the Mailbox Transport service on a different Mailbox server that’s part of the same DAG, the Transport service on a Mailbox server in a different DAG, Active Directory site, or Active Directory forest, or to the Front End Transport service on a Client Access server for delivery to the Internet.

Message Size Limits..Click here to know more

Configure Mail Flow and Client Access…Click here to know more

Microsoft Exchange Connectivity Analyzer Tool – Client

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The Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer Tool is a downloadable client program that is used to identify connectivity issues that occur between email clients and a server that is running Microsoft Exchange Server. The tool can also be used to identify connectivity issues between email clients and Office 365. The tool can be used both by email users, to identify common problems, and by IT Administrators, to troubleshoot issues that are affecting their Exchange Server deployments.

The Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer Tool simulates several client logon and mail flow scenarios. When a test fails, many of the errors message provide troubleshooting tips to help the user or IT Administrator to resolve the problem.

This tool is a companion tool to the Remote Connectivity Analyzer website. Whereas the Remote Connectivity Analyzer website enables IT Administrators to pinpoint connectivity issues by simulating connectivity from a location outside the customer environment, the Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer Tool lets both email users and IT administrators run the same tests within the user’s environment.

You must be running one of the following operating systems:

  • Windows 8
  • Windows 7
  • Windows Server 2008
  • 64-bit edition of Windows Vista

Download the client tool (Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer (Beta) here.

Connectivity check as follows

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Select one of the option below to continue to next screen

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Enter the credential you want to check for connectivity issues

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Enjoy!!

What’s new with Microsoft Remote Connectivity Analyzer? A lot!

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They have done it again.. now with a lot of option

Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer (beta), a portable version of the Remote Connectivity Analyzer website, and a short 49 second video that introduces the Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer.

Read more…click here

Microsoft Connectivity Analyzer Pre-Requisites

  1. The tool supports the following operating systems: 64bit Windows 7, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008+
  2. Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 is required.
  3. Browsers requirements:

The installation will work on all modern browsers. However…

Good work folks!!!

Nokia Lumia 920 – The Phone that sets the standard

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  • 8.7 megapixels Camera sensor (main camera resolution)
  • Nokia PureView Camera
  • 4.5 ” Display size
  • Snapdragon™ S4 Processor name
  • 10 h Talk time (3G)
  • 400 h Standby time (3G)
  • 67 h Maximum music playback time

Operating system and software

The Nokia Lumia 920 runs the Windows Phone 8 operating system. As with other Lumia devices, the 920 includes Nokia-exclusive apps, like Nokia City Lens, an augmented reality software that gives dynamic information about users’ surroundings. Click here for Specifications.

Inductive charging

The phone can be recharged either physically or inductively using the Qi technology. Rather than requiring the use of a physical connection to the phone, this requires the phone to be placed upon a charging pad which, unlike a physical connector, hinders use of the phone while charging. The charging pad requires a separate power supply.

Processors, memory, and storage

The Lumia 920 has a 1.5 GHz dual-core Qualcomm Krait, and a Qualcomm Adreno 225 GPU, and has 1 GB of system RAM

Nokia Lumia 920 comes with an internal storage capacity of 32 GB. Although Windows Phone 8 supports storage expansion using microSD cards, Lumia 920 does not support them.

Screen

The Lumia 920 has a 4.5-inch curved glass display running at WXGA (1280 × 768) resolution with an aspect ratio of 15:9 using enhanced IPS screen technology which Nokia calls “PureMotion HD+”. It has less than 9 ms average transition times, where conventional IPS LCDs have an average of 23 ms, which reduces motion blur.

Camera

The Lumia 920 has Nokia’s PureView technology on the rear camera, which Nokia claims to be the best currently available on any smartphone, capturing “five to 10 times more light than competitor devices” via a “floating lens technology that surpasses the optical image stabilization system of most digital SLRs.

Click here for accessories list.

 

Exchange Server “2013” Preview is out

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Exchange 2013 preview release will subject to change when it reaches to RTM. Installing Exchange 2013 Preview is not for production environment.

Exchange 2013 preview is for simplicity of scale, hardware utilization, and failure isolation. With Exchange 2013 Preview, they reduced the number of server roles to two:

  1. the Client Access server role
  2. the Mailbox server role.

The Mailbox server includes all the traditional server components found in Exchange 2010

  • the Client Access protocols
  • Hub Transport service
  • Mailbox databases, and Unified Messaging.

The Mailbox server handles all activity for a given mailbox. The Client Access server provides authentication, redirection, and proxy services.

The Client Access server itself doesn’t do any data rendering. It is a thin and stateless server. There is never anything queued or stored on the Client Access server.

The Client Access server offers all the usual client access protocols: HTTP, POP and IMAP, and SMTP.

Managed Store works with the Microsoft Exchange Replication service to manage mailbox databases, which continues to use Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) as the database engine. Exchange 2013 Preview includes significant changes to the mailbox database schema that provide many optimizations over previous versions of Exchange. In addition to these changes, the Microsoft Exchange Replication service is responsible for all service availability related to Mailbox servers. The architectural changes enable faster database failover and better physical disk failure handling.

The Managed Store is also integrated with the FAST search engine (the same search engine used by SharePoint 2013 Preview) to provide more robust indexing and searching.

No more Exchange Management Console (EMC) Administration is now performed using the new web-based Exchange Administration Center and the Exchange Management Shell (3.0)

All certificate management is performed on the Client Access server. The Mailbox server has a self-signed certificate installed by default. The Client Access server automatically trusts the self-signed certificate on the Exchange 2013 Preview Mailbox server, so clients will not receive warnings about a self-signed certificate not being trusted provided that the Exchange 2013 Preview Client Access server has a non-self-signed certificate from either a Windows certificate authority (CA) or a trusted third party.

Exchange 2013 Preview offers greater integration with SharePoint 2013 Preview and Lync 2013 Preview. Benefits of this enhanced integration include:

  • Users collaborate more effectively by using site mailboxes.
  • Lync Server 2013 Preview can archive content in Exchange 2013 Preview and use Exchange 2013 Preview as a contact store.
  • Discovery Managers can perform In-Place eDiscovery and Hold searches across SharePoint 2013 Preview, Exchange 2013 Preview, and Lync 2013 Preview data.
  • Oauth authentication allows partner applications to authenticate as a service or impersonate users where required.

Public folders in Exchange 2013 Preview now take advantage of the existing high availability and storage technologies of the mailbox store. The public folder architecture uses specially designed mailboxes to store both the hierarchy and the public folder content. This new design also means that there is no longer a public folder database. Public folder replication now uses the continuous replication model. High availability for the hierarchy and content mailboxes is provided by the DAG. With this design, we’re moving away from a multi-master replication model to a single-master replication model.

Exchange 2013 Preview continues to make use of the database availability group (DAG) platform introduced in Exchange 2010 for both high availability and site resilience. Exchange 2013 Preview also includes enhancements to the DAG platform that improve manageability and reduce costs. These features include:

  • Managed availability.
  • Managed Store.
  • Automatic configuration and management of DAG networks.
  • Management via the Exchange Administration Center.
  • Enhancements to DAG-related cmdlets to introduce new scenarios.

PRE-REQUISITES

INSTALLATION TYPE

  • Install Exchange 2013 Using the Setup Wizard, Click here
  • Install Exchange 2013 in Unattended Mode, Click here

Sky Drive – All you need to know!!!

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If you have a Windows Live account (or an old Hotmail account), then you have 25GB of free storage on SkyDrive. If you don’t have one, go and grap it. SkyDrive is a great way to store lots of files in the cloud for easy access remotely. Windows 7  and now defenetely on windows 8 will let you map your SkyDrive folders as network drives, making access even simpler.

How to map SkyDrive to your computer?

Windows 7 will let you map your SkyDrive to your local machine. How to do it? Here is the step

  • Sign in to your Windows Live account.
  • Get your ID from the address bar (Below showing how to get it)
    • Click on the “Files” as shown below

    • Look at the address bar and you will find your “CID” number just copy that number
  • Now go to your Windows 7 computer
  • Open My Computer, then select “Map network drive” near the top bar.
  • Select the drive letter you want, then type the following  under the “Folder bar”
  • \\docs.live.net@SSL\ and then copy your CID number here \
  • Check mark “Reconnect at logon”
  • Click Finish
  • Once you click finish, system will automatically attempt to log on to your SkyDrive.
  • Next system will show you to enter SkyDrive credential.
  • Enter the username and password and clik PK

Thats it..your SkyDrive is now mapped to your local machine.

Here you can rename the folder (If in case the language is not proper in you SkyDrive). What ever you do at the local “mapped” Skydrive, it will reflect in your SkyDrive as well.

Apps for SkyDrive?

Allmost all the device now support SkyDrive and it is free apps..you just name it..Windows, Mac, Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad…Click here to download it

Read the article from Mike Torres, and Omar Shahine, group program managers for SkyDrive.

Enjoy!!!

 

 

 

Import contacts into Outlook from Excel

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Exporting from Excel

  1. If row 1 of your spreadsheet contains column descriptions, such as “Name,” “E-mail Address,” and so on, skip to step 3. If it does not, add one that does by right-clicking the 1 to the left of the first row, and then clicking Insert.
  2. In the new blank cells at the top of each column, type a description for that column, such as “Name,” “E-mail Address,” “Company,” “Phone Number,” and so on.
  3. On the File menu, click Save As.
  4. Choose a folder to save to from the Save in drop-down list, type a name for the file, such as “Contacts,” in the File name box, and in the Save as type drop-down list, click CSV (Comma delimited).
  5. Make a note of the folder location, and then click SAVE.

Importing into Outlook (older versions)

  1. If you are importing into an existing Contacts folder, skip to step 3. To create a new folder in Outlook, click Folder List on the View menu, unless the Folder List is open already.
  2. Right-click the Contacts folder, and then click New Folder, type a name for the new folder, and then click OK.
  3. On the File menu, click Import and Export, click Next, click Comma Separated Values (Windows), and then click Next.
  4. If the file that is displayed is not the correct file, click Browse, browse to the folder noted in step 3, and then double-click the file to select it.
  5. If you are importing into a new folder, the Options settings is irrelevant because there are no duplicates. If not, choose the most logical selection. Click Allow duplicates if you are not sure, and then click Next.
  6. Click the Contacts folder, or other contacts-type folder that you have created, to import into, and then click Next.
  7. If you are not sure that the column names in the first row of the spreadsheet will map correctly to the Outlook fields, click Map custom fields to verify them.

    NOTE: If Map custom fields is unavailable, you have chosen a non-contact-type folder to import into. Click Back, and then choose the correct folder. If you are satisfied with the mapping, click OK to close the Map Custom Fields dialog box, and then click Finish.

Importing into Outlook 2010

  1. If you are importing into an existing Contacts folder, skip to step 4.
  2. Create a new folder in Outlook 2010
  3. Right-click the Contacts folder, click New Folder, type a name for the new folder, and then click OK.
  4. Click the File tab in the Ribbon, and then click Open on the menu.
  5. Click on Import tab. The Import and Export Wizard opens.
  6. If the file that is displayed is not the correct file, click Browse , browse to the folder that is mentioned in step 3, and then double-click the file to select it.
  7. If you are importing into a new folder, the Options settings are irrelevant because there are no duplicates. If you are not importing to a new folder, choose the most logical selection. Click Allow duplicates if you are not sure, and then click Next .
  8. Click the Contacts folder or another contacts-type folder that you have created, and then click Next.
  9. If you are not sure that the column names in the first row of the spreadsheet will map correctly to the Outlook fields, click Map custom fields to verify them.