I have tried to post my Outlook free/busy times to an FTP server. My
data gets posted there, however, nothing happens when I try to
retrieve it from another account that I have. I have done some
research on this and am now more confused than before. Apparently
Microsoft discontinued their own free/busy service, but they say that
you can still use your own server. That shouldn't change anything for
what I am trying to do, but it is not working and I am not sure if
this change may have something to do with that.
Here are my settings:
Under Calendar Options -> Free/busy options, the option to use the MS
service is now grayed out. I have put my server info under "publish at
my location". On the other account, I have entered the same location
as my search location, yet it does not work.
This is the information from Microsoft that I have used:
Outlook 2003 - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;827775)
"Click free/busy options. Click three times to close all dialog boxes."
How the hell is that supposed to work? What am I supposed to enter? Or
do they seriously just want me to open a window and then close it
again without entering any information?
Maybe I am just not getting this straight, but I have also referred to
the following Microsoft Support pages - to no avail:
Outlook w/ Office SP 1 -
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;842166
Outlook 2002 - http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;291621
The last support page mentions that Outlook supports the %Name% and
%Server% substitutions, but I don't know what that means. Am I
supposed to just use a generic path and not the one that goes directly
to the .vfb file on the server when I retrieve it? |
Request for Question Clarification by
aht-ga
on
23 Oct 2004 00:24 PDT
jimwest-ga:
Can you perhaps give me an example of the text that you have entered
into both the "publish at my location:" field and the search location
field? To keep you from stating any personally-identifying information
here, replace anything you feel necessary but ensure that you copy
over the exact format and general contents of the two fields.
Thanks,
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher
|
Clarification of Question by
jimwest-ga
on
25 Oct 2004 13:24 PDT
On Account 1, I entered the following under publish at my location:
ftp://server.domain.com/firstname lastname.vfb
On Account 2, I entered the following for the search location:
ftp://server.domain.com/firstname lastname.vfb
With real data entered, the path is the exactly the same on both
accounts, one is supposed to publish to that location, the other is
supposed to search it.
server.domain.com refers to my ftp server path. For this trial, I had
anonymous ftp set up. I know that I need to change this path when I
disable anonymous ftp.
firstname lastname refers to my Outlook account (i.e. as it appears
next to my Outlook Mailbox. There is a space between the first name
and the last name as shown above.
Please let me know if you need any further clarification.
Thanks.
|
Request for Question Clarification by
aht-ga
on
25 Oct 2004 13:36 PDT
More than likely, the space between the firstname lastname is the
culprit; spaces are considered separators in URLs. Since your two
accounts are not on the same Exchange server (because if they were,
you wouldn't be needing to use the free/busy server approach!), then
messages between the two accounts are using SMTP. In this case, you
should be using the SMTP name, ie. the 'name@domain.tld' approach. For
example, if your name is John Doe, and your e-mail address is
'johndoe@domain.tld', then you would save the free/busy times at:
ftp://domain.tld/johndoe.vfb
Try this please, and let me know if it resolves your problem before I
post any Answer.
Regards,
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher
|
Clarification of Question by
jimwest-ga
on
01 Nov 2004 10:15 PST
aht,
I have tried your suggestions and it is still not working. I have also
tried (because I thought it may be an FTP issue) to copy and paste the
.vfb file from the FTP server to my hard drive. Then, I changed the
search location to my hard drive path and that didn't work either. Do
you have any other suggestions?
|
Request for Question Clarification by
aht-ga
on
03 Nov 2004 14:47 PST
jimwest-ga:
I finally had the chance to play around with this a bit more. Using
two PCs in a workgroup, each running Outlook (with separate e-mail
accounts) and each configured to post Free/Busy information to a file
stored in a shared folder on one of the PCs (ie. PC 1 'hosts' the
Free/Busy information for e-mail accounts 1 and 2, both Outlooks are
set to publish free/busy information to two separate files in that
shared folder), I am able to have Outlook look at the correct
Free/Busy information by telling it to search for free/busy
information at \\PC1\SHARED\%NAME%.vfb where %NAME% is automatically
replaced with the name portion of the contact's e-mail address at the
time of the search. For example, let's say the two e-mail addresses
are, respectively, user1@work.tld, and user2@home.tld. Since both
Outlooks are configured to post their free/busy time on
\\PC1\SHARED\%NAME%.vfb and to look for free/busy info on
\\PC1\SHARED\%NAME%.vfb, when I look in \\PC1\SHARED I see that there
are two vfb files: user1.vfb and user2.vfb, each corresponding to the
free/busy info of the respective account. When I create a meeting
request on one Outlook and add the other user as an attendee, their
free/busy time comes up as expected.
So, can you do this same test on your PCs, to see if it works for you?
Regards,
aht-ga
Google Answers Researcher
|
Clarification of Question by
jimwest-ga
on
12 Nov 2004 11:33 PST
I have tried what aht suggested, but it is still not working. The
result is the same: the file is posted, but I can't get access to it.
(I guess I am having the same problem as laurex group.) Any further
ideas?
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