@g.jacobse said:

@NetworkNerd
Exchange 2003

Give this a try:

The registry modification steps listed below should be the same regardless of whether the computer is running XP, Vista, or 7. The registry modification MUST be done while logged in as the user who needs to use Outlook Anywhere.

*Outlook 2003
No registry modification is needed.

Outlook 2007

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following subkey: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\RPC.
3. If the RPC key does not exist, you will need to create a new key within the Outlook folder.
4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
5. Type DefConnectOpts, and then press ENTER.
6. Right-click DefConnectOpts, and then click Modify.
7. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
8. Exit Registry Editor.

Outlook 2010

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click the following subkey: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Outlook\RPC.
3. If the RPC key does not exist, you will need to create a new key within the Outlook folder.
4. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
5. Type DefConnectOpts, and then press ENTER.
6. Right-click DefConnectOpts, and then click Modify.
7. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
8. Exit Registry Editor.

For a New Mail Profile...
The following steps must be performed with Outlook closed.

1. In Control Panel, click Mail.
2. Click Show Profiles.
3. Add a new profile, and name it whatever you want.
4. Once the Add New E-mail Account Wizard launches, choose the option to manually configure server settings or additional server types.
5. Next, choose Microsoft Exchange as the E-mail Service. This may show up differently in different versions of Outlook, but select the option that mentions Microsoft Exchange.
6. Enter mail.yourdomain.com (or whatever the public-facing DNS record for your mail server is) as the Microsoft Exchange server, and make sure the box labeled "Use Cached Exchange Mode" is checked.
7. The User Name should be the full name of the user you are setting up.
8. Click the More Settings button.
9. Click the Connection tab.
10. On the Connection tab, check the checkbox for Outlook Anywhere.
11. Then, click the Exchange Proxy Settings button.
12. Enter the public address of your mail server (DNS A-record or ip of your mail server) as the server name.
13. Enter msstd:publicdnsoriphere as the proxy server address.
14. Make sure the option for fast networks is not checked but the option for slow networks is checked. This will allow computers at our main site to connect to the Exchange server as they normally would but use Outlook Anywhere when off site.
15. Change the authentication type to Basic Authentication.
16. Click Ok and then Ok again to return to the Microsoft Exchange Settings screen.
17. Click the Next button followed by Finish. If prompted for credentials, enter them in the form domain\username, and then enter your Windows password.

For an existing Mail Profile...
The following steps must be performed with Outlook closed.

1. In Control Panel, click Mail.
2. Click Show Profiles.
3. Choose the profile you want to edit and click Properties.
4. Click the E-mail Accounts button.
5. Select the e-mail account in question, and click Change.
6. This should open the Microsoft Exchange Settings menu.
7. Click the More Settings button.
8. Click the Connection tab.
9. On the Connection tab, check the checkbox for Outlook Anywhere.
10. Then, click the Exchange Proxy Settings button.
11. Enter the public address of your mail server (DNS A-record or ip of your mail server) as the server name.
12. Enter msstd:publicdnsoriphere as the proxy server address.
13. Make sure the option for fast networks is not checked but the option for slow networks is checked. This will allow computers at our main site to connect to the Exchange server as they normally would but use Outlook Anywhere when off site.
14. Change the authentication type to Basic Authentication.
15. Click Ok and then Ok again to return to the Microsoft Exchange Settings screen.
16. Click the Next button followed by Finish. If prompted for credentials, enter them in the form domain\username, and then enter your Windows password.

Now, if all of this still does not work, try opening a VPN connection from the site where the machine is to the site where the mail server is, opening Outlook, logging in, letting the mailbox pull down from the server for the first time, and closing the VPN and logging back into Outlook. It should work after that.

Which version of Exchange are we talking about? I remember getting this to work with Exchange 2003 and 2010.

@Reid-Cooper said:

That is a cool idea. It would be neat to work somewhere with a forum like this for internal discussions. I could see that being very useful to a business.

I think most places use Yammer or Sharepoint for this kind of thing. Although, I can tell you that Epicor (popular ERP system) recently has integrated a social piece to their product.

@ajstringham said:

@Reid-Cooper said:

They did a wonderful job with these. Underwater like that is not easy at all.

Lighting underwater can be especially tricky. I'd be curious to know what camera filters and settings they used. Oh, someone make sure @NetworkNerd shows this to his wife!

I'll be sure to let her know. Thanks.

In my weekly Veeam digest, Gostev linked to this article about a new backup mode that will be available in Veeam Backup and Replication v8. I found it pretty interesting: http://www.virtualtothecore.com/en/new-backup-mode-veeam-backup-replication-v8/.

@technobabble said:

@TechieChick said:

Have you taken a look at GFI Max?

I still have much to learn about the power of GFI Max...I didnt' know about the helpdesk part.

Whoa - I didn't know that either.

Which model of Unifi APs? I know some have to have a special Unifi PoE switch, but I was thinking some of the newer ones supported 802.3af or 802.3at.

Check this out: http://www.amazon.com/Ubiquiti-802-3AF-POE-Unit-Indoor/dp/B005VSY0KM. Someone mentions ProCurve in the review area.

@ajstringham said:

I don't know how you'd do it with Veeam, but with Unitrends you do a full backup of the VM as a physical machine, do a Bare Metal restore on a newly sized VHD, then a file level restore, then, in this case, a SQL restore. I know, however, that Veeam is 100% virtual. That's just my 2 cents. You could always get a UEB Free and do this one machine this one time. It'll give you a good taste of Unitrends too.

I'm thinking I can do it in VMWare without any assistance from Veeam. Or at least that was my understanding that I could.

I should also add that performance for this VM has been acceptable to the Engineering team. I'm just interested in claiming more of the unused space than anything.

And we're running ESXi 5.5U1.

I have 3 ESXi hosts with all local storage, and each is OBR10. On one host in particular, storage space is at a premium. In my early days with VMWare I setup thick provisioning on a particular VM and provisioned WAY too much space for it in the beginning. This happens to be the Solidworks ePDM server we use in our environment. It does run SQL, but even so, there is probably 300 - 400 GB of free space to be freed by either changing to thin provisioning or just shrinking the size of the vHD. The only way I know to do this is by cloning the VM and changing the provisioning or just sticking with thick provisioning and not allocating so much space this time.

How painful is this to do? I have not done it but have seen some articles online about it and just wanted to ask for others to share their experiences in the matter.

I use Broadvox / NBS for one PBX and NexVortex for another. Both have been easy to work with in my opinion. I can tell you that NexVortex does something unique in that they give you unlimited call paths. I cannot remember what your volume is, but it was interesting to me to see that in a provider. There's a $40 per month plan that is not advertised on their site. Talk to Brendan O'Rourke in the Spiceworks community if you go that route as he is a partner.

@ajstringham said:

@Katie said:

@ajstringham said:

My question to you is: when the Macs can still print, I'm assuming they are mapped to the printer by IP, whereas your Windows machines are shared through the server? Can you confirm this?

The Macs are NOT printing through IP - I had them connecting through Bonjour. (unless it was changed by someone else)

Not super familiar with Bonjour. Does that mean they are accessing the share?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour

@ajstringham said:

My question to you is: when the Macs can still print, I'm assuming they are mapped to the printer by IP, whereas your Windows machines are shared through the server? Can you confirm this?

I was going to suggest moving one of the workstations to connect to the printer via ip and not via the server to see what happens. That sounds like you are on par, but we shall see.

@FiyaFly
Are there still documents in the print queue on client machines when this happens? And they are all going through the same print server, right (i.e. no one printing directly to the printer by ip)?

I'm guessing the fact that with the server piece you get PWA is one of the main attractions over just using Project Pro through O365 in conjunction with files on Sharepoint?

@JaredBusch said:

@NetworkNerd said:

Key in on the word "should" there. Sometimes Sonicwalls do not play nice with SIP. It depends on the model as to whether QoS is even available if I remember correctly.

Missed the fact that it is a sonicwall. simply hate them because they cause so many problems with SIP. Prior to SIP use being so common, they were a great platform that I would recommend.

I remember having to turn on SIP inspection (or SIP transformations as they call it) on one Sonicwall in particular to avoid one-way audio. And I think there was a community post made by @DonutDetroyer about having to do that with a Fonality system as well.

@JaredBusch said:

@coliver said:

Good point, just thought it would be something to be made aware of.

Also, calculating calls on 100kb per call means you have at most 10 active calls * 100 kbps = 1 mbps with QoS on your router, there should not be any problems.

Key in on the word "should" there. Sometimes Sonicwalls do not play nice with SIP. It depends on the model as to whether QoS is even available if I remember correctly.

If it helps, I have a fax machine used from a HP Officejet printer hooked up to a Grandstream HandyTone 701 adapter registered to a cloud-hosted Elastix PBX, and faxes work well on their 50/5 cable connection.

But I agree with Chad about the 2 Mbps upload being a potential bottleneck.

Technically you could get an analog telephone adapter and hook the fax machine up to your PBX (register as a SIP extension) or just port the number to your SIP provider. It can work well if you have enough bandwidth, but as A.J. suggested, it may be best to look at eFax here if you can.

I think one about dealing with vendors and engaging them inside and outside of social media might be interesting too.