Outlook 2007 Networking Question

AMD'er · Feb 11, 2008

Ok here is my question...this young lady has a small business...she has about 4 computers network. She is running outlook 2007 on the computer in the front of her building and back in her main office. No she doesn't have any dedicated mail server up...

She wants to be able to check her email on both machines which is already taken care of...but she wants the contacts to be sync'ed. In other words if she adds a contact to the computer up front, she wants to have that contact updated in outlook in the back office..

I have been researching and you CAN'T share the .pst file. Has anyone tried this type of setup..?

Thanks in advance

=ACID RAIN= · Feb 11, 2008

I think you can share pst files, but you can only open it on one machine at a time. I'm not 100% on 2007, but I think I did this on 2003. Basically you set a custom data file to the location of the one on the other machine (shared out folder of course). Ideally this would be on a file server with a backup, but you can do workstation to workstation like this, I'm pretty sure.

cw823 · Feb 11, 2008

I assume there is no DC involved?

AMD'er · Feb 11, 2008

DC? If I think DC is what I think it is...then No DC involved...its just a typical home network with no server anywhere...I thought about having one .pst file in one location and sharing that one location. If computer A is running outlook then computer B doesn't need to be in outlook. Her main concern is that if she is helping customers in the front of the studio and she adds them at that computer she wants to have the contact update for the main computer in her back office.

I've read that sharing .pst files is not a good idea but I may try it. I'm not sure but Outlook Express is the only one with a Data file. Correct me if I'm wrong...

cw823 · Feb 11, 2008

AMD'er said:
DC? If I think DC is what I think it is...then No DC involved...its just a typical home network with no server anywhere...I thought about having one .pst file in one location and sharing that one location. If computer A is running outlook then computer B doesn't need to be in outlook. Her main concern is that if she is helping customers in the front of the studio and she adds them at that computer she wants to have the contact update for the main computer in her back office.

I've read that sharing .pst files is not a good idea but I may try it. I'm not sure but Outlook Express is the only one with a Data file. Correct me if I'm wrong...

Sharing PST files is not a good idea if both users will be in it at the same time. That would be a problem, or at least that is my experience.

If you had a DC, it'd be easy to just setup another account and share the contacts....but that's a no go. I'll think about it, if I come up with anything, I'll post.

gangaskan · Feb 11, 2008

what about setting up foldershare on each machine?

edit: not file sharing btw, the program foldershare.

Snugglebear · Feb 11, 2008

You could probably setup a script to export a vCard, attach it to an email, and bounce it to the other machines. It would still be cheaper over the long haul to add a server, though. Rube Goldberg scripts tend to be something you neither want to develop nor support.

gangaskan · Feb 11, 2008

the cheap and effective way is to folder share it IMO

trust me, i did it on my laptop, i didnt like it tho mainly because it took wayyy to long to download the PST onto the laptop via the interents, however, with it being on a LAN i dont see it an issue.

i used to foldershare my thunderbird at work, i loved that

AMD'er · Feb 12, 2008

cw823 said:
Sharing PST files is not a good idea if both users will be in it at the same time. That would be a problem, or at least that is my experience.

If you had a DC, it'd be easy to just setup another account and share the contacts....but that's a no go. I'll think about it, if I come up with anything, I'll post.

I thought about that...She is the only one that would be signed into the email but I think she would make the mistake and leave the front computer signed into the email account and then go to the back computer and open it up....I would prefer that she allow us to do a server for her but don't know if she wants to got that route...

cw823 · Feb 12, 2008

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/share.htm

Has a few things that sounds like they would work for what you need.....

AMD'er · Feb 12, 2008

cw823 said:
http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/share.htm

Has a few things that sounds like they would work for what you need.....

Thanks, that was the first site I went to. Alot of that information pretains to Outlook 2000. She is running 07. I may have to just try to share the .pst and remind her to close out each email if she switches locations in the studio..I personally wish she would just run an Exchange Server and be done with it...

El<(')>Maxi · Feb 12, 2008

AMD'er said:
don't know if she wants to got that route...

Why not ask? I'd just present the options and let her make the decision :beer:

AMD'er · Feb 12, 2008

El<(')>Maxi said:
Why not ask? I'd just present the options and let her make the decision

I have asked...but she needs a main computer right now that we have to build that is going to set her back a pretty penny. She has years/gigs of photos that she has lost once and she needs a huge raid setup...so her concern now is just for the main computer. she lost lots of money clients the first time her computer went down..

so the email issue is not a huge concern she just want to see if she can make it work the way she wants to.

dark_15 · Feb 13, 2008

An offsite backup may also be a good thing as well. Take a look at maybe setting up mozy to synchronize and backup her data.

www.mozy.com

coin · Feb 14, 2008

one thing I am puzzled about is where is her mail coming form, if she doesn't have a mail server where is her mail coming from. Is it not possible to get her mail through a web page?

gangaskan · Feb 14, 2008

coin said:
one thing I am puzzled about is where is her mail coming form, if she doesn't have a mail server where is her mail coming from. Is it not possible to get her mail through a web page?

if i had any guess, its a ISP mail account

=ACID RAIN= · Feb 14, 2008

Either way server is external.

hkgonra · Feb 14, 2008

Just a suggestion but it is a cheap one, get her setup on google apps at your domain. It is free and she can either use the web interface or outlook.
Using the web interface would have all her contacts with her no matter where she was logging in from.

coin · Feb 15, 2008

if it is an ISP account or an external server she should be able to access it via a web page then the contacts issue just goes away, however some ISP's web mail access sites are er crap to say the least, I know mine is.

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