TechContrarian

Following the release of Office Communications Server 2007 Sasa Juratovic posted a PowerShell script  to retrieve user IM conversations form the archiving database.  (http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2008/01/14/69.aspx)
With the release of Office Communications Server 2007 R2 there were changes in the archiving database schema allowing the text/html content type for storage of user instant messages.  This schema change caused the previous script to only report the first message in a conversation when reporting against an OCS R2 archiving database.  An updated script that will account for this additional content type that works for retrieving instant messages from both the OCS 2007 and OCS 2007 R2 archiving database schemas has been posted.
The updated script can be found at: http://communicationsserverteam.com/files/555/download.aspx
–Nick Smith
MCS Senior Consultant

As we all know, in the world of computers we have a binary system. Either something works (1) or it does not (0). And as all of us really know, there is another state, that we all loath, “works sometimes” (1.5).
Recently I ran into a problem with my Office Communicator 2007 Phone Edition (OCPE aka Tanjay) running on Communicator Phone Edition R2, build 3.5.6907.31 with exact such a problem:
While everything else seemed to work without problems, the call logs (missed calls, incoming calls, outgoing calls, waiting voice messages) were only working sometimes. At random points of time – between 20 minutes and not at all – they were updated, however not instantly as they are supposed to (instantly means here, that it can take up to 3 minutes, because this is the poll interval).
We took the usual troubleshooting step, the Office Communicator 2007 Phone Edition (OCPE) logs and the server [...]

The 32 bit version of the PreCallDiagnostic tool is complete and is now live on the Microsoft Download Center.  Customers can now access the download here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=f16ab4c2-353f-4c9b-b353-22a656c03c9b.  The 64 bit version of PCD shipped as part of the OCS 2007 R2 Resource Kit with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 RTM.  The 32 bit version has been pulled out and repackaged on its own in order to help our customers on 32 bit machines. 
For those of you unfamiliar with the PreCallDiagnostic Tool:
The PreCallDiagTool is an application that reports expected audio quality as it relates to the network effect. The tool should be installed on any desktop or laptop PC that suffers from inconsistent network connection quality. The PreCallDiagTool can provide a quick check of the current network conditions and also preserve a history of quality data to let users profile their network performance over time or other conditions. The tool [...]

We have released a document that we believe many of you have wanted to see for quiet some time. One document that covers the certificate requirements for Office Communications Server 2007 R2.
The OCS 2007 R2 Deploying Certificates.doc can be downloaded as part of the server documentation download page, url here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=e9f86f96-aa09-4dca-9088-f64b4f01c703
 
Here is the Summary for the document:
In this document, you will learn about the properties and attributes of certificates when working with Office Communications Server 2007 and Office Communications Server 2007 R2. This document contains a walkthrough of most of the common, and some optional, tasks that you need to perform to realize the full value of the system. All roles that require certificates for deployment and operation are discussed. The properties are presented along with information to describe what they are and how they are used. This document shows you how to request the right certificate with [...]

When a user is an agent of a Response Group, he will receives voice calls via the Response Group Service. Because calls are not originally targeted at this user in particular, no missed call notification will be generated. This behavior has been designed for two reasons:
- If parallel routing is used, an agent, even willing to accept calls, may get a lot of such notifications, such making the “missed call notification” feature less useful.
- It may be confusing for informal agents to receive such missed call notifications as their main activity is not to answer RGS calls.
Note that conversation entries will be available for RGS calls.
Stéphane Cavin

The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 team is happy to announce release of the Web Scheduler as a web download. The Web Scheduler provides a basic scheduling experience. Some of the main features of the Web Scheduler are:

Authentication using Windows credentials
Schedule a Live Meeting or a Conference Call
Verify Names of Enterprise Invitees
Specify Meeting Access Type (Open/Closed/Anonymous), Time, Location, and Message to invitees
View List of Scheduled Conferences
Modify/Delete Scheduled Conferences
For Scheduled Live Meetings, choose between Computer Audio or any third party Audio Conferencing Provider
The Web Scheduler currently does not support scheduling a conference using the “assigned conference ID” (a.k.a. Reservationless Conference ID).  Support for this feature is available in the Conferencing Add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook. Conferencing Add-in for Microsoft Office Outlook continues to be the supported client for scheduling Office Communications Server 2007 R2  conferences and offers a more robust and complete experience than the Web Scheduler. Support for the Web [...]

More than 8 months in the making, we’re pleased to announce that Group Chat QFE1 is released as has the Group Chat SDK.  This is a strategically important release, as it provides key features and performance enhancements that elevate OCS Group Chat to an enterprise grade product.  This is the culmination of many late nights, tens of thousands of lines of code, several hundred bug fixes, dozens of DCRs, and lots of fire drills.
Key updates include:
. Scale Improvements
. Group Chat now supports up to 60,000 concurrent users
. Server Resiliency
. Support for High Availability and Disaster Recovery
. Server Side SDK
. Managed APIs to programmatically access all End User and Amin functionality
. More integrated client experience
. Co-existence with Communicator, including ability to use Group Chat as primary IM client
. User colors
. Support for custom end user colors
. Client Extensibility [Add-in]
. Ability to stitch business logic into the [...]

Looking for information on OCS or UC? The @DrRez Twitter team (http://twitter.com/DrRez) pulled this blog and forum list together and will grow and maintain it over time. If you know of a good blog that focuses on OCS or UC technologies, please leave us a pointer in the comments. They are presented in alphabetical order. We hope that this post will be helpful as you look to see what the community is doing with the technology.
<Edit: Wednesday Aug 12, see bottom of post>

(e)Mail Insecurity
a new message has arrived
A Single Point of Contact
Aaron Tiensivu’s Blog
Active Directory Blog
AllTop Screen for Unified Communications
Am I Done?
Anderson Patricio’s Blog
Ars Technica
Bill & Greg’s Most Excellent Adventure
Brettjo :: Microsoft Exchange Messaging
Byron Spurlock’s Blog – LCS, OCS, & VOIP Insight
Chief Architect’s Corner
Chris and Robin’s Technology blog
Chris Mayo’s Blog – Unified Communications Development
Communications [...]

In this post we will explain why it’s important to not ring the user’s additional number for Response Group calls, and how that is accomplished.
The main goal of the Response Group Service is to route calls to individuals. Enabling simultaneous ringing means that a user has set his forwarding settings to ring an additional phone number. Doing so means there is a chance that the call can end up on a voice mail system (for example, the voice mail of the user’s cell phone). It would not make sense to have calls routed from a Response Group to someone’s voice mail. This is the reason why simultaneous ringing is not applied for Response Group calls.
Disabling simultaneous ringing is achieved by setting a special header in the SIP INVITE sent by the service to OCS. OCS will then interpret this header and not apply the forwarding settings of the user. [...]

Federation is an important goal for the Office Communications Server team and we are excited to announce several changes to public IM federation between Office Communications Server and public IM networks, effective July 1, 2009:
· The Live Communications Sever Public IM Connectivity (LCS PIC) license will be renamed Office Communications Server Public IM Connectivity (OCS PIC) license.
· Customers with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Standard CAL or Office Communications Server 2007/Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 Standard CAL with Software Assurance will no longer require an additional license to federate with Windows Live.  (A license will still be required for federation with AOL & Yahoo!.)
· With Windows Live federation, customers are able to add Windows Live contacts to their Office Communicator contact list, view presence and send and receive instant messages.
We will continue to work with our partners to enable more options that allow you to communicate seamlessly with customers, [...]