Need HELP setting up Notes for mobile use

[mcse924]

Hi,

I need to set up a few users to use Notes while on the road.

1) They want to be able to log into their laptops LOCALLY (not connected by wire or wireless), like while in a airport or on the plane, and read and/or reply to emails

2) Once they get back into the office, the Notes client should replicate their local mail DB with the one on the server, and send off any replies they created while off the network

3) ALL of this should be done without the user having to do much but log into Notes. That is, complete automation if possible.

FYI, the users can access Notes while on the road via Citix dial up connection, so we DO NOT want or need to replicate databases while on the road / off the network.

My difficulty/confusion is in how to properly create a LOCAL copy of the users notes mail db, setup the connection documents (ISLAND?) for accessing the LOCAL Notes mail db, and setting up the OFFICE connection document to automatically send out replies when back on the network.

ALL assistance is much appreciated.






Carpe diem, procrastination is the thief of time...

 

[mcse924]

Sorry! Forgot to mention our "specs" in my first message.
We just upgraded to Notes 6 - server and client. We use Windows 2000 SP3 all around. Laptops are IBM T22, P3 1GHZ with 256mb RAM. Thanks again for any assistance!

Carpe diem, procrastination is the thief of time...

 

[tonty]

I can tell you what we do at our site (5.0.11) and hopefully it will be at least similar on R6.

On your user's laptop, whilst connected to Notes on your network, File, Replication, New Replica, select server local and put the .nsf file in a directory that exists on the C: drive (We use C:\notes\data\mail). I would suggest selecting Create: Immediately as it seems to be more reliable and you can watch it with your own eyes.
You will also need to create a local copy of your Directory Catalogue so your users can address internal mails quickly. Open the Directory Catalogue on your server and create a local copy in the same way as above (This HAS to be created in C:\notes\data or whatever your home notes directory is).
Make sure your user's Island location document (Mail tab) has mail file location set to local and mailfile set to the full path of your local replica.
A couple of preferences you may have to check File, Preferences, User preferences, Basics tab and check the Prompt for location box so that your users get to choose if they are disconnected or plugged into the network, and also under the mail and news tab add the filename of your locally created Directory Catalogue after names.nsf (separate by a comma) in the local address books field.
When your users connect to their local version of Notes and send mails, they will be prompted to send outstanding mails when they close, they should reply No. When they get into the office and open up mail choosing location Network they will be prompted again and they should, of course, reply Yes.

I have made a lot of assumptions here (Not least that R6 is very similar to R5) and have probably left out some really important stuff by accident, but hopefully this will get you on the way.

 

[ohinz]

Well. It is the best way with two location documents. But it works also with one location.
(If you are using lan...)
Replicate the mail file to the local hard disk.
Replicate the DirCat (or the NAB).
Set the location preferences -> mail to "local" and recipient name type ahead to "local only".

And they can work offline. (Works on my computer...)
But I need a connection document for my home server. Otherwise Notes lost the information about the connections.

But with both ways I had problems because Notes seems to cache the Directories (DirCat or NAB) and didn't find changes... (e. g. if you change a forward-address, Notes found only the older ones).

Ole

 

[mcse924]

tonty,

I guess I left out some other petinent info. The users' DATA directory resides within their home directory on the file server, NOT on their hard drives.

When on the network, the deskop Notes icon is configured as such (right click, properties):

Target: C:\win32app\notes\notes.exe
Start In: p:\notes\data

where p:\notes\data is home of notes.ini, created upon the first time the user logs in Notes.

Should I copy the DATA directory from the P: drive to c:\win32app\notes, then create the replica? What about the notes.ini, won't it still point to p:\notes\data? Would I have to edit it so it points to c:\win32app\notes\data?

help!


Carpe diem, procrastination is the thief of time...

 

[tonty]

What you suggest will certainly work in theory, however, there are a few issues that may arise.

Notes often takes the hump if there are multiple copies of an ID file (clearing the password digest on the person document should take care of that).
Also, if there is more than one copy of the user's personal address book, Notes has a habit of opening one version when accessed via the bookmark and using another when addressing mails, so new contacts don't appear on the address picker when creating a new mail.

For a long term solution I would reccommend keeping your current installation procedure for your desktop users, and creating another for laptop users whereby their notes data is created on their hard drive, all the relevant replicas are created locally (mail database, directory catalogue, etc.) and all user preferences are set appropriately. This is the method we use regardless of whether laptop users plan to use local mail or not.

If you do decide to take this route, it is well worth enabling replication on the network location document to run automatically at regular intervals. Otherwise I guarantee you will get people dialling up and attempting a replication of six months worth of email over a 56Kb dialup... and it will be your fault!?!


Regards,
Tony.

 

[ohinz]

Hi

If they have local replicas of the databases on their network home share, it could help, to synchronize the file-systems (if they are using win2000 or xp).
But they should not use a laptop and a desktop computer with the same home share.
The better way is, to replicate the databases on the local hard drive and use the notes replication.
(I think, there is no need to put the databases on a network drive because the backup of the databases will be made with the backup of the server...)

Ole