Tag Archives: BPOS

BPOS: calendar meetings and send on behalf of permissions

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I just noticed something.

We have a mailbox which we use with multiple people. But this mailbox is also used for sending out mail from software and servers (via SMTP authentication).

In order to use the mailing from software, we had to give the mailbox permissions to send out mail (send as or send on behalf of).

Now we had the following issue, the mailbox mentioned above (the system mailbox) had send on behalf permissions on the mailbox of user-A. Whenever user-A received a meeting request it also ended up in the system mailbox.

How weird is that?
As we read through the BPOS manual we see this:

Send on Behalf Of Access

Send on Behalf Of access is similar to Send As access except that when the delegate user sends mail for the mailbox owner, the From field of the message will read "Sent on behalf of mailbox owner by delegate user."

The Send on Behalf Of parameter sets delegate access for the specified mailboxes, and enables the default Microsoft Outlook settings for delegates, including default folder permissions and meeting request behavior.

So the system mailbox becomes a delegate of the user-A mailbox. And this means:

By default, when you add a delegate, the delegate has full access to your Calendar and Tasks folders. The delegate can also respond to meeting requests on your behalf.

So.. setting just the send as permission was more then enough.

BPOS: configure SMTP relay

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If you want your servers or your software to mail and you are on hosted exchange (BPOS), you have to do some extra work to get it to work.

Prerequisites:
An IIS Server with the SMTP Feature
A BPOS account (this will be used to authenticate against Exchange Online and to send the email)

As I am using IIS7, I need to make sure I install the IIS6 Management Compatibility. I need this for managing my SMTP Server.

IIS6 management Compatibility

  • Start the “Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 Manager.
  • Right click the “SMTP Virtual Server” and select properties
  • Select the tab Access and click the “Authentication” button, make sure Anonymous Authentication is selected
  • Click the relay button (still on the access tab) and select the option you want:
    a. only the list below > specify the server IP’s which can use this server as mail server
    b. All except the list below > all servers configured with this IIS server can send mail, except the one you specify
  • Select the tab “Delivery”

We will be configuring the 4 buttons you see, Outbound Security, Outbound Connections and Advanced

Delivery Tab SMTP Virtual Server

  • Outbound Security
    Here you enter the credentials of your bpos user, make sure you also activate “TLS Encryption”
     
    Outbound Security Settings
  • Outbound Connections
    In this screen you have to change the TCP Port to 587 (message submission port).

    Outbound Connections

  • Advanced
    This is where you enter the BPOS (Microsoft Online) SMTP Server as a smart host. For me this would be smtp.mail.emea.microsoftonline.com. Depending on your country this server address would be:
    North American Data Center: Smtp.mail.microsoftonline.com
    European Data Center: Smtp.mail.emea.microsoftonline.com
    Asia Pacific Data Center:  Smtp.mail.apac.microsoftonline.com

    You can optionally enter a masquerade domain.

    Advanced Delivery

    • Just to be sure: restart the SMTP Service and IIS.

    Note
    I received the error 550 5.7.1. Client does not have permissions to send as this sender. It turned out that I used the following format for the  from address username@ourdomain.nl (this was exactly the same as the user I specified in the outbound security tab). When I changed the from address to username@ourdomain.emea.microsoftonline.com it started working.
    This is because my @ourdomain.nl isn’t authoritative (still on external relay)

BPOS: Excluding Users from Directory Synchronization

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In BPOS you can use the Directory Synchronization Tool to synchronize your on-premise AD users to Microsoft Online (BPOS).
You might not know that you can exclude users from synchronizing to your online environment. For this to work you have to create a xml file with the users GUID specified inside.

The xml file has to be in the following format:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<DirectorySyncFilters>
<ExcludedDN>CN={9030057d-d403-4590-8c3b-a643fc36df3d}</ExcludedDN>
<ExcludedDN>CN={792f1e02-4528-48ba-a2bf-695b3916fc05}</ExcludedDN>
……..(for every user, 1 excludeDN node)
</DirectorySyncFilters>

When you have a lot of users that you don’t want to sync, creating this XML file can be a pain in the ***.
With the following powershell, this xml file will be created for you.

Add-Content "C:\test.xml" ‘<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>’
Add-Content "C:\test.xml" ‘<DirectorySyncFilters>’
$users =  get-aduser –SearchBase "OU=SomeOU,DC=contoso,DC=com" -filter *
foreach ($user in $users) {
$String =  "<!–"+$user.Name+"–> <ExcludedDN>CN={"+ $user.objectGUID +"}</ExcludedDN>"
Add-Content "C:\test.xml" $String
}
Add-Content "C:\test.xml" ‘</DirectorySyncFilters>’

Crosspost: Office 365 plans

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This is a crosspost from office365rocks, a blog formally known as bposrocks. Maintained by Wortell’s CEO mr. D. Burlage.

I think this post is super interesting, that’s why I am crossposting it. It discusses the plans Microsoft will offer.

Plans

  • K(iosk) 1: Compares to the current BPOS Deskless Worker offering. K1 basically is targeted at people who currently don’t have access to these services but need access to a portal and mail functionality.
  • K(iosk) 2: Enhances the K1 offering with the ability to read, create and edit documents online via the Office Web Apps.
  • E(nterprise) 1: Compares to the current BPOS offering and grants usage rights to standard functionality of all products expect Office Professional Plus. This offering will be available for $10 of€9 per user per month.
  • E(nterprise) 2: The E2 offering will consist of the same offering as E1. Next to this users with this offering are able to view, create and change documents online via the Office Web Apps.
  • E(nterprise) 3: Grants access to the all E2 functionality, but enhanced the offering with the Enterprise functionality to Exchange and SharePoint. E3 also gives usage rights to Office Professional Plus installed locally.
  • E(nterprise) 4: Enhances the experience with the ability to connect traditional telephony to the environment.

You can read more about @ the source.
Edit: If found some other sheets (original source)
Also a nice PowerPoint presentation here (Office 365 Partner Overview Deck)

Office 365 for Small Businesses and Professionals

Plan E(nterprise)

Plan K(iosk)

Office365 Links

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The Press release:
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2010/oct10/10-19Office365.mspx

The Fact Sheet:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/office/docs/office365FS.docx

The Website:
http://office365.microsoft.com/en-US/online-services.aspx

The Beta Signup subscription Page :
http://office365.microsoft.com/en-US/office365-beta.aspx
(you guessed it, beta is full at the moment :-( )

Service descriptions (interesting):
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=6c6ecc6c-64f5-490a-bca3-8835c9a4a2ea

Office365 Transition Center (bookmark it):
http://www.microsoft.com/online/transition-center.aspx

Office 365: next edition of BPOS

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Announcement of office 365 (codename “Union”), Microsoft’s Next Generation Productivity Services. This product will arrive next year

Office 365 wil come in 2 sizes: Office 365 for small businesses and Office 365 for Enterprises.

Office 365 for small businesses
A small business can be up and running with Office 365 in just 15 minutes. It will give them Office Web Apps, Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Lync Online and an external website for just $6 or 5.25 euros per user, per month

Office 365 for enterprises
This version will start at $2 or €1.75 per user, per month for basic e-mail, the so called KIOSK version, the will include:

  • 500 MB email storage per mailbox
  • POP3 access for mobile connectivity
  • Outlook Web App for email access on a PC
  • Ability to view SharePoint sites to stay informed
  • Office Web Apps (with certain plans)
  • Single IT management console to easily add users and administer between plans

The full enterprise version will have:

  • Large 25 GB mailboxes and the ability to send attachments up to 25 MB
  • Financially-backed, guaranteed 99.9% uptime Service Level Agreement
  • 24/7, IT-level support over the phone, the web or email
  • Single sign on capabilities with Active Directory deployment
  • Latest version of Office Professional Plus – connecting users to communication and collaboration services
  • Office Web Apps for viewing, sharing and minor editing of documents directly from a browser
  • Industry-leading, always-up-to-date anti-virus and anti-spam solutions
    Integrated IM and presence, online meetings with audio and video conferencing and multiparty data sharing
  • Team sites to share, manage and search for information and resources

Existing BPOS Customers will receive the same services with some new enhancements for the same price as they pay today ($10, €9 per user per month).

  • Single sign on (!!!)
  • New Outlook Web App
  • Email archiving, retention and cross mailbox search
  • View documents using Office Web Apps
  • Increased SharePoint storage
  • My Sites and other new team sites
  • Site search capabilities

Office 365 for enterprises also includes the option to get Microsoft Office Professional Plus desktop software on a pay-as-you-go basis, for the first time ever. For $24 or 22.75 euros per user, per month, organizations can get Office Professional Plus along with e-mail, voicemail, enterprise social networking, instant messaging, Web portals, extranets, voiceconferencing and videoconferencing, webconferencing, 24×7 phone support, on-premises licenses, and more.

I think this product could be “it”. Especially when you consider there will be a 1 user license, all those owner managed businesses will benefit from this cloud service. With this release Microsoft definitely embraces the cloud as the Next Platform.