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Outlook 2000/2003 + Roaming Profile 3
- Thread starter LouisNgan
- Start date
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Guys,
I'm setting this up this weekend. I really need some help. We have a couple of win2003 servers and 40 xp clients. Users need to be able to roam with outlook. I've been reading many articles saying that outlook doesn't roam with the user as the 'local settings' folder doesn't roam.
Does this definately work? Are any there any special requirements? Is it just a simple matter of setting roaming users as normal and outlook files will be available. I am not very experienced in this stuff but need to learn it somehow. I've just about managed to setup Active Directory. In the end I went with a .local domain instead of a .com domain, why? because I read it on forums. Can anyone confirm why this is considered the best way?
Your help is greatly appreciated.
T
I'm setting this up this weekend. I really need some help. We have a couple of win2003 servers and 40 xp clients. Users need to be able to roam with outlook. I've been reading many articles saying that outlook doesn't roam with the user as the 'local settings' folder doesn't roam.
Does this definately work? Are any there any special requirements? Is it just a simple matter of setting roaming users as normal and outlook files will be available. I am not very experienced in this stuff but need to learn it somehow. I've just about managed to setup Active Directory. In the end I went with a .local domain instead of a .com domain, why? because I read it on forums. Can anyone confirm why this is considered the best way?
Your help is greatly appreciated.
T
Do you have an Exchange server?
My company currently don't have a Exchange server. So, to achieve the goal that users can access their Outlook data from any workstation, I stored all users' PST file in the file server. When user open Outlook from a new location/workstation, roaming profile direct Outlook to connect to the PST file in the file server automatically. I hope this help.
- HKNinja
MCP, A+
My company currently don't have a Exchange server. So, to achieve the goal that users can access their Outlook data from any workstation, I stored all users' PST file in the file server. When user open Outlook from a new location/workstation, roaming profile direct Outlook to connect to the PST file in the file server automatically. I hope this help.
- HKNinja
MCP, A+
HKNinja,
I don't have an exchange server. Our email is hosted for us. We just pull mail off of a POP3 Server.
A couple of other things:
1.) To set this up do I just need to make a roaming profile.
2.)Do you have to separately store all users PST files on a file server or is there a way of doing this automatically when creating the user.
3.) Everytime a user logs on a different machine do settings such as his email username/password follow?
Thanks Again
I don't have an exchange server. Our email is hosted for us. We just pull mail off of a POP3 Server.
A couple of other things:
1.) To set this up do I just need to make a roaming profile.
2.)Do you have to separately store all users PST files on a file server or is there a way of doing this automatically when creating the user.
3.) Everytime a user logs on a different machine do settings such as his email username/password follow?
Thanks Again
The way we have it set up is this:
We dont have an exchange server, just a normal pop3/smtp server where users get their mail.
We have all users pst & pab files saved onto a server, with each user using roaming xp profiles. I guess these could be saved within the roaming profile but I figured this would increase logon/logoff times ?
Their "outlook profile" follows them when they logon to different pc's, along with username / password etc.
Very simple / easy to setup.
Mike,
We dont have an exchange server, just a normal pop3/smtp server where users get their mail.
We have all users pst & pab files saved onto a server, with each user using roaming xp profiles. I guess these could be saved within the roaming profile but I figured this would increase logon/logoff times ?
Their "outlook profile" follows them when they logon to different pc's, along with username / password etc.
Very simple / easy to setup.
Mike,
Hey Mike,
Thanks for the reply. We have the same setup. I can see a solution for this. I am very grateful. No-where on thr microsoft website is this documented.
The confusing part for me I guess is:
"We have all users pst & pab files saved onto a server, with each user using roaming xp profiles"
The roaming profiles part is no problem. Storing all users pst and pab files is the problem. Do I have to myself log on with each user and re-direct those files to the server. i.e. log on with user1 and redirect files to <servername>/homedir/user1. then log on with user2 and redirect to <servername>/homed/user2 within each users login. Also how do you redirect these files within outlook.
Sorry to be so confusing.
Thanks for the reply. We have the same setup. I can see a solution for this. I am very grateful. No-where on thr microsoft website is this documented.
The confusing part for me I guess is:
"We have all users pst & pab files saved onto a server, with each user using roaming xp profiles"
The roaming profiles part is no problem. Storing all users pst and pab files is the problem. Do I have to myself log on with each user and re-direct those files to the server. i.e. log on with user1 and redirect files to <servername>/homedir/user1. then log on with user2 and redirect to <servername>/homed/user2 within each users login. Also how do you redirect these files within outlook.
Sorry to be so confusing.
Mike,
Been doing a little more research today. On the Office 2003 resource kit, you can download .adm files. These can be imported into group policy. You can then use these policy templates to adjust where outlook stores it pst files i.e. by redirecting to users homedrive.
This I am hoping will avoid having to configure each user individually. I really want to do things properly the first time around.
Another thing that came to light when setting up my Active Directory Domain. I read that you should set up domains with as .local instead of .com. Do you know why this is?
Thanks for your responses so far.
Cheers
T
Been doing a little more research today. On the Office 2003 resource kit, you can download .adm files. These can be imported into group policy. You can then use these policy templates to adjust where outlook stores it pst files i.e. by redirecting to users homedrive.
This I am hoping will avoid having to configure each user individually. I really want to do things properly the first time around.
Another thing that came to light when setting up my Active Directory Domain. I read that you should set up domains with as .local instead of .com. Do you know why this is?
Thanks for your responses so far.
Cheers
T
reasoning for using .local as opposed to .com is for dns purposes.
Say for example your company's registered internet domain is outlook2003.com with a web address of If you created an AD domain and wanted to use outlook2003, and used outlook2003.com. If any client pc's wanted to look at your internal dns server would have difficulties in resolving the address.
There are also various security issues on having the same domain name, for both internal and external domains. Best to use .local or create a DNS namespace based on outlook2003.com eg uk.outlook2003.com, which is what we use here...
Clear as mud ?
Mike,
Say for example your company's registered internet domain is outlook2003.com with a web address of If you created an AD domain and wanted to use outlook2003, and used outlook2003.com. If any client pc's wanted to look at your internal dns server would have difficulties in resolving the address.
There are also various security issues on having the same domain name, for both internal and external domains. Best to use .local or create a DNS namespace based on outlook2003.com eg uk.outlook2003.com, which is what we use here...
Clear as mud ?
Mike,
Hey Mike,
Thanks for your responses. I'm gonna give it a go on the weekend. Hopefully (fingers crossed) it will work. If worst comes to worst i'll do what you did. I will still create roaming users, but on each version of outlook installed manually redirect the store folder to a network location.
Thanks for your help.
Thanks for your responses. I'm gonna give it a go on the weekend. Hopefully (fingers crossed) it will work. If worst comes to worst i'll do what you did. I will still create roaming users, but on each version of outlook installed manually redirect the store folder to a network location.
Thanks for your help.
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tonyrussell
IS-IT--Management
You should be able to create a default user profile by copying a standard profile to the netlogon folder on the server. When you first log in as the user the default profile will be copied from the netlogon folder. This could save hours of (very boring) configuration time.
I haven't tested it but if you configure the standard profile to use say \\server\outlook\%username%\outlook.pst this should create the pst file on the server with a different folder for each user. When you roam with your profile you will always see your Outlook folders as long as you have a connection to the server.
E-mail signatures and the like will roam as well because they are stored within the profile folders.
I haven't tested it but if you configure the standard profile to use say \\server\outlook\%username%\outlook.pst this should create the pst file on the server with a different folder for each user. When you roam with your profile you will always see your Outlook folders as long as you have a connection to the server.
E-mail signatures and the like will roam as well because they are stored within the profile folders.
Hi Tony,
Thanks for the reply. I was thinking of just creating a new user through active directory and pointing the home directory to \\server\homedir\%username%. Then duplicating this user whenever creating a new one and changing login name.
Then deploying office to all the machines. Once done download the office reskit and import the .adm template for outlook 2003. This should allow me to use a group policy one the machines that have outlook installed. the group policy will direct the outlook files on all machines to \\server\homedir\%username%
This is what i figured will work. If you disagree please let me know.
Many Thanks
T
Thanks for the reply. I was thinking of just creating a new user through active directory and pointing the home directory to \\server\homedir\%username%. Then duplicating this user whenever creating a new one and changing login name.
Then deploying office to all the machines. Once done download the office reskit and import the .adm template for outlook 2003. This should allow me to use a group policy one the machines that have outlook installed. the group policy will direct the outlook files on all machines to \\server\homedir\%username%
This is what i figured will work. If you disagree please let me know.
Many Thanks
T
Hey Tony,
To be completely honest with you your email has only made sense to me now. Thanks for the valuable tip. I didn't know much usre profiles until this experience and have a load more than I could have ever imagined. I didn't even know what the netlogon folder was and what it did. I am still in early learning stages. Please excuse me if my last reply made out ignore your advice.
Thanks for your excellent help
Cheers
T
To be completely honest with you your email has only made sense to me now. Thanks for the valuable tip. I didn't know much usre profiles until this experience and have a load more than I could have ever imagined. I didn't even know what the netlogon folder was and what it did. I am still in early learning stages. Please excuse me if my last reply made out ignore your advice.
Thanks for your excellent help
Cheers
T
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