Hide Notes Users in Addressbook

[Bluecrack]

Is there a way to hide a Lotus Notes mailbox from the Address
Book so that other users cannot see that user's mailbox?

We have several reasons for doing this:
1. We have a few mailboxes we want to setup to send us mail from linux boxes.
2. We want to hide mailboxes of people that leave the company until they are completely backed up and the person's manager has verified all email from the mailbox can be archived and deleted from the server.

Thanks for any help.
Bluecrack

 

[BFOJ]

To hide an address:

1) While in the Address Book, right-mouse on account(s)
2) Select Document Properties
3) Select Security tab (looks like a key)
4) Deselect "All readers and above"

Email Administrators can still see the account in the Address Book, but normal users cannot.

 

[Bluecrack]

We tried that before but then nobody can send email to that account and the user can't seem to login.

 

[pmonett]

If a user is not publicly available in the NAB, then the server will have issues with mail delivery and logon.
I think it would be a better move to control the mailboxes of people leaving directly.
Make the owner Editor of his mail and remove deletion rights. Add the manager to the ACL of his mail.
In that way, the person leaving will be able to send and receive mail, log on to Notes and do his work, and will not be able to remove anything before the manager has had time to check it.

 

[Bluecrack]

pmonett,

Thanks for the response. That makes sense for people leaving. In case you hadn't seen the other posts, we are moving from Exchange 2000 to Lotus Notes 6. One of the things we have setup in Exchange is a group of hidden mailboxes we use for IT tasks (i.e. spam filtering, AV notices, etc.) These mailboxes are all hidden from the address book. We need to find a way to hide them from the Lotus Notes address book when we move them but still be able to send email to/from them and login to them. Any ideas on how we could do that?

Thanks,
Bluecrack

 

[ohinz]

What about a second NAB on the server?
Only with the rights for the server and the Admins (and/or users in that Addressbook)...

Ole

 

[pmonett]

I am not an administrator, only a developer.
You must bear in mind that the NAB is not just another Notes database, it is the core of the server's functionality.
In a normal database, it would not be a problem to have some documents with restricted access. Keyword lists or normal document lists are quite often managed in that manner without a hitch.
But the server NAB is not a normal database, and one must exert wary caution when going about modifying its design.
I do not know how cascaded NABs work, other than knowing they exist. I suspect that ohinz's suggestion will not work, but I cannot give a reason other than pure suspicion.

Yet there is a question that bothers me. Why hide the mailboxes existence ? Is it not enough to just restrict access to the appropriate users ?
What is the function of mailbox invisibility in Outlook ?
I have never used Outlook extensively and I have never been involved in administering an Outlook mail system. Could someone give me a primer on these questions ?

 

[AllanBowker]

We do not hide ours but we do put a $ sign in front of the name to send admin mailboxes to the bottom of the alphabetical list in the NAB.

eg:
Gregory, Jim
Whitehouse, Sarah
Wilshire, Yvonne
Yapp, Joanne
$Administrators
$Test Mailbox
$Virus Alerts

 

[AmazingDominik]

Hi,

Correct me if I am wrong, but I guess you do not want to hide the mailboxes but only the names in the address lists when people browse the NAB for example when they compose a new memo.

In that case I would try the following:

You will need to add a field to the person and mail-in database documents that you can set. For example: "Hide".

Then modify the selection formula ONLY for the hidden view in the NAB that is used to populate the Address selection dialogboxes to exclude the documents where this field is set.

If you also want to make these entries invisable when people open the NAB themselves then you will need to modify all the views that are viewable. I would not recommend this because it will make the management of your Domino environment difficult.

Last but not least: do not create users for databases that need to receive e-mail for IT purposes. Use mail-in databases only.





Kind regards,

Dominik Malfait
dominik@amazingit.com

http://www.amazingit.com