Outlook Contact Sharing

[TheGameIs21]

Are there any affordable alternatives to setting up server or getting ACT to share contacts and calanders over a small LAN? I am doing work for a 5 person law office and they don't like sending the contact list out over the internet to update the contacts for the users. Act is $800 for 5 users and Exchange server is $1300 for 5 users.

Any advise is greatly appreciated.

 

[Allanv]

if u are using NT4 setup a post office and use ms outlook for sending internal emails then share the contacts and calemder that way (right click the calender and select share trhis folder "you will need the office disk") if you only have win2k the post office dont come with it but if u using win98 then it do come with it, you will need to install ms mail in all outlook clients.

there is some files for win2k to add the post office feature into it and i have the files for it @ work but its yer lucky day cus i am going into work for a while today to install a SCSI drive and then i am off for a week but i will upload those files to my website and tell you how to get them if required or if you need more info them PM me or email me

oh and its FREE

you heard me FREE FREE i tell ya thats what i did for work and its good

 

[AKA]

Allanv,

Well im certaintly interested in your setup. Ive setup using ACT but its too expensive for small businesses. Will be checking back on this post.
Thanks in advance for the help Allanv.

 

[Allanv]

i have setup 8 lans this way for different customers as you can imagine its free as long as they have the basic requirments

i find it better to talk by email its quicker for me to reply

allanv@email.com

or icq PM me for the number

 

[Allanv]

Right i got bored so i will talk you through it here goes: Email me if u dont understand anything:

1st you need to setup a microsoft postoffice if using win98 or NT4 its in the comtrol panel, d/click it and select create a new postoffice it will ask you some questions and make you set a admin password. Once this is done you are able to add users, so add however many you need. Exit the post office "make sure you know where the WGP0000 or summat like thatfolder is located and go there and share it. Full permisions. By default NT4 shares the folder anyway, just share the folder leave the contents alone.

next go to any computer with MS Outlook on it and open it up and then goto tools services and select "add" then MS mail / if you cant see services you will need to reconfigure outlook by reinstalling to support "lan and workgroup" you might have seen it when setting it up. then once this is done you have to select properies for ms ms mail and tell it where the WGP0000 folder it and what your login name is , dont bother putting a password in just yet "login details means the user of that computer you need to tell it the post box name that you gave it in the setting up of the postoffice" (still with me?)

once you have done this then exit and log off outlook and then open it, it should ask you to enter your password - if it dont then just email me and i will try to talk you through it.

once you have done this on all machines try to send and internal mail with outlook and when you press the "to: " button you should see a list off all users in there that you are able to send to.

right now go to a machine that you want to share the contact list of calander with and login to the postoffice, right now select the folder you want to share "contacts, clients etc " then goto file / sharing / share this folder, it also might have share contacts or what ever the name of the folder is ok (still with me? )

now when you select sharing it will ask you some questions "you want to share this folder select next, next it will ask you to add users to share with click add and select all the users you want to add to the list or you want to share with then go next, then it askes you what permissions to give the users you share with " ! " i always select editor so that they may alter and add items in to the calender or contact lists."

now from here on all users will recieve an email that says subscription to blablas contact list or calander open it and select accept on all machines then after some time maybe 10 mins or so you will start to get the contects of the folder you just accepted. it do take a while to come through....... also i did find with only 1 company that the folder or PST file would become corupt on the machine that was sharing but all i would do is stop sharing from there and goto another machine and start another share and goto all machines and delete the old shares you will not loose info......... if you require further info or u are using win2k and need the postoffice files email me

i think i havent forgot anything