I have been working on a multi-part article for Technet magazine that explains how Communicator works with OCS and other components to provide various voice, conferencing and presence features. The first of these series of articles was published in February edition that explained how presence works. The next one in the July edition explains how voice works. These articles also shed light on the important role that client endpoints play in the OCS system and provide an end to end perspective. This particular article highlights the role client endpoints play in setting up voice calls, what happens when numbers are dialed and how they are processed in the system, how calls are forked, what inbound and outbound routing functions are etc. The article also provides a map of the events that take place from the point that a call is initiated to the point that the call is answered and then terminated.

 

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc645016(TechNet.10).aspx

 

Enjoy reading!

Rajesh Ramanathan

 

 

Conferencing was a large investment for OCS and OC in the 2007 release. We define conferencing as a conversation having three or more participants in it. This can be IM, Audio, Audio/Video, data (Live Meeting), or any combination of those items. For Communicator, we worked hard to keep the fact that it is a "conference" fairly transparent in our user experience. In this article I will explain how easy it is to take advantage of conferencing assuming that you have a conference supported version of OC/OCS 2007.

Turn Two Party call into a Conference
Let’s take a simple example. You are having an audio call with someone and you realize that you should bring another person into the conversation to help answer a question. There are two ways to do this:
1. Press Invite and select them from a contact picker.
(Note the presence letting you know the likelihood of them being able to join.)

2. Find them in your contact list and drag them into the conversation

Either operation will cause a conference to be created seamlessly. On your side the main difference will be an additional person in the conversation.

You didn’t have to accept, join, or create anything special to do this. Communicator will support a conference of over 100 people if you so desire!

Start Ad-hoc Conference
In addition to turning an existing conversation into a conference, it is also just as easy to start a conference from the very beginning. Below are three common methods to begin a conference.

Start with existing contact group
Use the groups you’ve created in your contact list as a starting point, especially for IM conferences. This will send an IM to everyone in the ‘Project A’ group (below).

Before starting your conference you may want to first provide a subject, so those that are invited will see that as part of the toast they receive to join. You can set the subject by selecting the menu drop-down on the far right of the conversation window.

You can verify it was changed by viewing the title in the conversation window.

Start with specific contacts
Another option is to select the people you want by pressing CTRL+ selecting each contact and then right-click to bring up the context menu. From there you can pick what modality you’d like.

Or you could start an audio/video call with those participants right away.

Start from an email in Outlook
Another really powerful scenario involves the integration of Communicator into Outlook. You can start a group IM directly in Outlook after you notice that everyone’s presence is indicating they are available. Ginger describes this in one of her posts.

Schedule a Conference Call from Outlook
Given the ad-hoc nature of Communicator it is assumed that it would do well with the scenarios I described above. However, scheduled conference calls are a very common scenario for many people today. When you install the Conferencing Add-In for Microsoft Outlook, you will be able to schedule a Live Meeting or Communicator Conference Call. See Cameron’s recent post on how to schedule and join OC conference calls.

Join from alternate device
Imagine you need to step away from your desk, but still want to join the conference call on your cell. You can do this by selecting the Join From button and then selecting the number you want to be called at. The conferencing server will automatically call you at that number so you can join.

TIP: To configure devices to show up you must provide phone information in the Phone tab in the Tools|Options dialog, as shown in a previous post.
Additionally, you don’t need to worry about how to invite others. All OC users will receive a familiar toast and have the option to accept it and join with OC or join from an alternate number also.

When contacts join from an alternate device using OC, their display name will be visible in the conference for others to see even though they are using an alternate device.

Invite a phone number
Just because you are having an OC conference, doesn’t mean that everyone has to be using Communicator. At any point you can always invite someone by typing their phone number and OCS will dial-out to them automatically. Doing this is very similar to what was shown earlier. You select Invite and then type the number you want to dial and press OK.

When that user answers their phone, they will automatically be added to the conference and will be able to participate with audio only.

Multimodal Communication
During a conference, like two party conversations, you can always add audio, audio/video, and even Live Meeting. Each participant will be notified and they have the option to join the new modes of communication.

Upon joining everyone will be able to see how others are participating in the conference (IM, audio, or both).

You can see above that Jerry is only on audio and is currently on Hold, probably answering another call. You can also see that Vincent is not on audio and only participating in IM. Everyone else is doing both IM and on the phone, while Mizue is currently talking.

Conference Commands
There are additional features that become available to Leaders when you are in a conference that can be accessed by right-click on a conference participant. This will bring up a context menu with extra commands enabled.

1. Make Leader – this will make the selected person a Leader also
2. Mute – the leader can mute themselves or anyone else using a conference mute
a. Note: the other participants can always un-mute themselves
3. Remove from Conference – this will remove the contact immediately

Hopefully, this post has made it clear how easy and familiar the conference experience is in Office Communicator.

Brandon Taylor 
Program Manager

Office Communicator 2007 PE provides the convenience of "off hook" dialing for its users that are using the Tanjay VOIP phone. This feature allows Tanjay users to enter a phone number or extension that they want to dial quickly from the Tanjay’s keypad while the phone’s speakerphone option is enabled or when the Tanjay’s handset is out of its cradle. In "off hook" mode any number that is entered using the Tanjay’s keypad will be immediately dialed without the user having to push the Tanjay’s Call button or waiting for the completion of the Tanjay’s 10 second pre dial interval. For "off hook" dialing to perform seamlessly for the Tanjay user, the Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice location profile’s normalization rules must be configured without overlapping fixed number of digit normalization rules. To overcome the challenges that may occur when implementing the Tanjay's "quick dial" feature, a basic knowledge of .Net Regular Expression, the Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice normalization rules editor, along with the use of the Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit tool RouteHelper.exe will prepare any Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice administrator for the roll out of the Tanjay’s "quick dial" features.

The Office Communicator 2007 PE equipped Tanjay will use its "quick dial" feature as soon as it has been enabled through the use of "off hook" mode. If the Tanjay is using fixed number of digits normalization rules that overlap then the Tanjay could dial a number before it is completely entered. This will cause the user not be able to complete their call or they could possibly dial the wrong extension or phone number. These types of issues can occur when businesses add the Tanjay VOIP phones to their Office Communications Server 2007 network after they have designed a functional set of normalization rules that meet the needs of their VOIP phone network’s dial plan. If these pre-existing dial plans include different normalization rules that use a fixed number of digits, then the Tanjay in "quick dial" mode will be forced to dial the numbers that are entered an soon as the requirements for a static number of digits normalization rule are met. So for instance if you have 3 normalization rules designed for phone extensions throughout your Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice infrastructure e. g. 4 digits, 5 digits, and 6 digits. If a Tanjay user is trying to dial a known 6 digit extension using "quick dial" mode as they enter the fourth digit of that six digit extension the Tanjay device will begin to dial the four digits that have been entered as per the four digit normalization rule. So, either the Tanjay user will be connected with a wrong number or the will receive a "call cannot be completed" message from the Tanjay’s display. The first step in resolving this issue will be to redesign the Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice fixed digit normalization rules that overlap by using regular expression syntax to add a prefix to the fixed digit normalization rule that will be dropped.

Regular Expression Language Elements:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/az24scfc(VS.71).aspx

So if we are working with the following fixed digit Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice normalization rules and experiencing the issue that is described in the text listed above then we can edit those preexisting normalization rules so they will require the entry of a single digit prefix prior to the actual extension that will be dialed. This prefix can represent a department, floor of a building or a geographic location; the prefix will have to be entered prior to the actual extension and by design it can be dropped prior to the number being dialed To begin with we have:

Phone pattern: ^(\d{4})$ Pre Pend +1$1 4 digit

Phone pattern: ^(\d{5})$ Pre Pend +1$1 5 digit

Phone pattern: ^(\d{6})$ Pre Pend +1$1 6 digit

So when a 4 digit extension is dialed on the "off hook" Tanjay the 4 digit normalization rule manages sending e. g. +12345 to the corresponding VOIP gateway for processing. This is as expected.

Now when a 5 digit extension is dialed on the "off hook" Tanjay again the 4 digit normalization rule comes into play as the 4th digit is entered and manages sending e. g. +14567 when the user intended to dial +145678.

We can edit our Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice normalization rules as follows to get past this unwanted Tanjay "quick dial" behavior.

Here’s what our edited set of rules will look like:

Phone pattern: ^(\d{4})$ Pre Pend +1$1 4 digit

Phone pattern: ^5(\d{5})$ Pre Pend +1$1 5 digit

Phone pattern: ^6(\d{6})$ Pre Pend +1$1 6 digit

We know from the prior example that the 4 digit rule will always work as expected. So we have edited the 5 and 6 digit extensions normalization rules to force the user to enter 5 or 6 respectively prior to the actual 5 or 6 digit extensions. Now when a 5 digit extension is dialed as 512345 on the "off hook" Tanjay then the 5 digit normalization rule will send +112345 to the corresponding VOIP gateway. The single digit prefix will be stripped prior to the call being dialed. The graphic listed below will show you how the new dial 5 first / 5 digit normalization rule will look in the properties dialog for the Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice normalization rules.

The Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice Resource Kit provides the RouteHelper.exe tool which includes an Enterprise Voice location profile editor. In this blog we won't discuss all the features of RouteHelper.exe, but we will discuss how RouteHelper helps manage issues with the Tanjay's "quick dial" option. RouteHelper.exe allows the Enterprise Voice administrator to edit and test a Location Profiles’ normalization rules in a granular fashion. The RouteHelper Number Normalization Rule dialog allows the Enterprise Voice administrator to perform the normalization rule edits in a test environment. It also allows access to a feature that is used to address the issues with the Tanjay "quick dial". This feature is called "no quick dial" and it can be enabled on all normalization rules that support a fixed digit design. However, if the normalization rule supports the entry of a varying number of digits then the Tanjay will not process the normalization rule using "quick dial", and in respect to this design the RouteHelper "no quick dial" feature will not be enabled on the RouteHelper Number Normalization Rule dialog for a normalization rule that supports the entry of a varying number of digits. Here are a couple of simple examples of normalization rules that support the entry of a varying number of digits:

Phone pattern: ^(\d{*})$ Pre Pend +1$1 allows the entry of 1 to many digits

Phone pattern: ^(\d{1,10})$ Pre Pend +1$1 allows the entry of 1 to 10 digits

Here's a couple of screenshots of the RouteHelper Number Normalization Rule dialog using a fixed number of digits rule that will accept the "no quick dial" feature:

Here's a couple of screenshots of the RouteHelper Number Normalization Rule dialog using a variable number of digits rule that will not accept the "no quick dial" feature:

Use the link below to access the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice Route Helper User’s Guide for access to specific information on using RouteHelper to configure normalization rules for use with the Tanjay "quick dial" feature.

Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice Route Helper User’s Guide

http://r.office.microsoft.com/r/rlidOCS?clid=1033&p1=routehelp See page 16

The text in the document listed above describes the affect that the "no quick dial" option will have on the fixed digit normalization rule that it is applied to as "pattern ignored by quick dial". What this means is if you dial the extension that meets the requirements of the fixed digit normalization rule that RouteHelper's "no quick dial option" is applied to then that phone number or extension entry will not be normalized and consequently it cannot be dialed. The attempted call times out at the default 10 second interval. What is not mentioned in the text that describes the use of the RouteHelper "no quick dial" option is that it also affects the use of the fixed number of digits normalization rule when the Tanjay is not in "off hook" mode and the use of "quick dial" is not enabled.

So in a non "off hook" mode dialing scenario the Tanjay will not accept the pattern match for digits that have been entered for the use with the fixed digit normalization rule and the phone number or extension entry will not be normalized and consequently will not be dialed. So with the Tanjay’s "off hook" mode enabled or not enabled the results are the same, the "no quick dial" enabled rule appears to be non functional when put to use by the Tanjay. When the RouteHelper "no quick dial" feature is applied to a normalization rule:

a. Office Communicator 2007 to Office Communicator 2007 manually input digits that match the number of digits in that rule will normalize

b. Office Communicator 2007 to Tanjay manually input digits that match the number of digits in that rule will normalize

c. Tanjay to Office Communicator 2007 manually input digits that match the number of digits in that rule will not normalize

d. Tanjay to Tanjay manually input digits that match the number of digits in that rule will not normalize

So we can now realize the RouteHelper "no quick dial" feature was designed to not to allow the phone number or extension entry to be normalized by the Tanjay. This provides Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice administrators with a way to disable some of their fixed number of digits normalization rules while re-organizing the pre-existing dial plans to become applicable with the type of normalization rules that will be needed for use with Tanjay phone in "off hook" mode.

Let's picture a hypothetical situation where the Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice administrator has disabled some of his fixed number of digits normalization rules for troubleshooting purposes using the RouteHelper "no quick dial" option. These rules conflicted with other more needed fixed number of digit normalization rules and by temporarily disabling them the VOIP administrator can almost implement a fully functional VOIP dial plan that allows the use of the Tanjay "quick dial"feature. The Tanjay users on the network prefer to keep the "off hook" functionality of the Tanjay enabled for the convenience it provides them at work. Having to toggle their Tanjays between "off hook" and "on hook" mode would be an unwanted distraction for these users. To keep his Tanjay users happy the VOIP administrator can enable the dial plan’s conflicting fixed number of digits normalization rules so they can be processed normally while the Tanjay is in "off hook" mode. In "off hook" mode it is possible for the Tanjay to use the "quick dial" feature with the applicable normalization rules and it can process other fixed number of digits normalization rules that have been edited so they will not use "quick dial" while the Tanjay is in "off hook" mode.

This edit can be accomplished by using the properties dialog for the Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice normalization rules. From here select one of the fixed number of digits normalization rules that have been disabled by the enabling of the RouteHelper "no quick dial" feature. Here you will notice that the Phone pattern regular expression has been edited and reflects the changes that were applied by the addition of the "no quick dial" feature. The Regular Expression characters "t?" will be appended to the original phone pattern - as follows:

Phone pattern: ^(\d{5})t?$ Pre pend: +1$1 5 digit

The screen shot listed below will show how this edit will look in properties dialog for the Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice normalization rules

After researching this configuration we discovered that the "?" is a Regular Expression character that represents the input of an optional value. The use of the "?" can be simply defined as follows:

^2?(\d{4})$ with a pre pend of +1$1 will allow you to enter 21234 or 1234 and normalize to +121234 or +11234.

Any character or range of characters that precede the "?" are considered optional. In our case the "t" when added to the phone pattern expression it disables the use of the rule for the Tanjay. However, if you remove just the t from the phone pattern expression and leave the "?" the fixed number of digits normalization rule will be enabled again for use with the Tanjay. However, after this edit is made, the Office Communications Server 2007 front end services must be restarted. Now when the phone extension that the normalization rule is intended to process is dialed from the Tanjay it will be processed by the Tanjay as if the Tanjay is not in "off hook" mode. The user will have the option to push the call button or wait for the default ten second pre dial interval to expire for the now normalized number to be dialed. This will allow the Tanjay to operate in "off hook" mode and process both types of the fixed number of digits normalization rules by using "quick dial" and non "quick dial" processing. Though this does compromise the explicit usage of the Tanjay "quick dial" feature, you may find the compromise to be a welcome one when compared to having to re-write the normalization rules for your Office Communications server 2007 Enterprise Voice location profile. Here’s what the phone pattern expression for the edited the fixed number of digits normalization rule will look like.

Phone pattern: ^(\d{5})?$ Pre pend +1$1 5 digit

The edit described above can be easily handled using the properties dialog for the Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice normalization rules as in the screen shot listed below.

So if you are planning on adding the Tanjay VOIP phones to your Office Communications server 2007 infrastructure please keep in mind that the implementation of the Tanjay "quick dial" feature could require some planning that includes a basic knowledge of .Net Regular Expression, the use of the Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Voice dialogs and the use of the Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit tool Routehelper.exe.

Mike Adkins

Support Escalation Engineer

 

With the Office Communicator and the Conferencing Add-in for Outlook, you can schedule a VoIP conference call well in advance, and join the call using Microsoft Office Communicator.

First things first, there’s some one-time prep work:

· You’ll need Office Communicator (of course), and it’s a good idea to have it running and signed in so you can avoid signing in at the time of the call.

·You’ll need the Conferencing Add-in for Microsoft Outlook, which you can get here: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA102368901033.aspx
Just click the "Accept Terms and Install Add-in" link at the bottom of the page to kick off the download and install the Add-in.

· Close and restart Outlook so it is aware of the Add-in.

· You’ll notice you now have a Conferencing menu in Outlook. On that menu, click "User Accounts":



· Now enter your sign-in name in the dialog, and click the Test Connection button, which should tell you the connection succeeded after a few seconds. If not, you may need to use the Advanced button to enter your sign-in information:



NOTE: You can ignore the Live Meeting Service information in the User Accounts dialog if you don’t have an account.
· Click OK to close the User Accounts dialog. That’s it for the prep work!

Now it’s time to schedule your first Conference Call:

1.On the Conferencing menu in Outlook, select Schedule a Conference Call. Or, on the Outlook toolbar, select Schedule a Conference Call.

 

2. This will bring up a Conferencing Request window (the one shown below is from Outlook 2007):


3. On the Appointment tab, on the Subject line, type a description for your conference call.

4. To add people to the invitation, do one of the following:

· On the Appointment tab, in the To box, type the full e-mail addresses of the people you want to invite, separating each address by a semi-colon.

· On the Appointment tab, click To, and then select the invitees from your address book.

5. To designate which invitees are to be leaders depending on which version of Microsoft Office Outlook you are running, in the Conferencing request, on the Live Meeting toolbar (or in the Outlook 2007 ribbon) click, Participants/Leader or Leaders. In the Participants list, click the appropriate names and e-mail addresses. Click Add to move the selected names to the Leaders list, and then click OK.

 

6. To check the availability of meeting participants, if you have not done so already, on the Scheduling tab, find a time when all participants are available, and then click that time. Drag the bars that indicate the start and end time for the meeting until they are as you want them.

7. To choose access control settings:

· On the Live Meeting toolbar (or in the Outlook 2007 ribbon) of the Conferencing request window, click Access:

· Choose Open Authenticated to only allow participants with a user account on the same Office Communications Server to join the meeting.

· Choose Closed Authenticated to allow only invited participants to join the meeting.

8. You can also type a message that all recipients will receive. On the Appointment tab, type your message above the dotted line in the box provided.

9. When the meeting invitation is as you want it, on the Standard toolbar, click Send.
You’ve now scheduled your Conference Call – note that you’ll often be able to skip many of the steps above. For instance, if you’re going to be the only Leader, you can skip step 5, and you’ll likely want to leave the Access control at Open Authenticated for most cases. The rest of the steps you’ll do for any meeting you schedule.

It’s time to Join the Conference Call

When the scheduled time arrives, Outlook will pop up a standard meeting reminder. To Join the Conference Call:
· Open the item from the reminder, and click the "Join the conference call" link:

· You’ll now see a Communicator Conversation window. Simply click the orange "Join conference call…" button to join the call:

· You’ll now have regular conversation window controls, and audio conference controls available:

That’s it! Now you can schedule all of your Communicator VoIP calls using Outlook in a way that’s simple and familiar – now go forth and Conference!

Cameron Parker
Senior Program Manager Lead

 

Microsoft Office Communicator provides several call forwarding options that allows you to manage your incoming calls in the way you want. For example, you can set up a simple rule in Communicator such that all your calls get routed to your cell phone while you are travelling on business. Or, you can set up a more complex rule such that your cell phone also rings if someone calls you at work during work hours on a weekday so that you don’t miss the important call from your client that you have been waiting for, even if you step outside your office for a few minutes. Or, you can automatically forward your calls to voicemail without first ringing you by setting yourself to "Do Not Disturb".

If you are enabled for enterprise voice, you will notice quick call forwarding options from the button at the top right corner of your Office Communicator main window as shown in Figure 1. You can quickly select to route the incoming calls to one of your personal numbers or to a contact from the flyout menu. For example, I often set my incoming calls to be routed to my mobile phone when I’m travelling as shown in Figure 1 below. You might find it convenient to first enter your personal numbers (mobile, home etc) in Tools > Options > Phones dialog as shown in Figure 2 so that these phone numbers appear in the call forwarding flyout menus automatically. (Note: You can choose to keep your phone numbers private by opting to not publish them.) Note: This call forwarding button will be missing if your administrator has configured you as a Standard CAL (client access license) user.

Once you set a rule, you will notice that the call forwarding button turns green. Hovering over the button or clicking on it will show you the exact rule you have set. For example, see Figure 3 below that shows that I’m forwarding my calls to my mobile phone.

 

From the call forwarding flyout menu, you can also select to simultaneously ring another phone number when you get an incoming call (see Figure 4 below). I find this option really cool and generally keep it turned on to ring my cell phone in addition to my desk phone for any incoming calls. It is particularly useful when I’m expecting an important call that I do not want to miss if I step outside the office for a few minutes. When I’m at my desk, I usually pick up the incoming calls on Communicator within a few seconds. If I happen to be outside my office getting a cup of coffee or chatting with a co-worker down the corridor or getting lunch in the cafetaria or travelling to another building for a meeting, I can always pick up that important call on my cell phone.

When you use this option, here are a couple of tips to keep in mind for better experience. There’s usually a few seconds latency in cell phone networks, so your Communicator will ring a few seconds before your cell phone. You may want to adjust the ring duration (I talked about this later) appropriately so that your cell phone rings at least a few times before the call goes to voicemail. Also, you might want to adjust the ring duration to ensure that the caller gets voicemail on your work number (and not your cell phone). A setting of 18 – 25 seconds has worked for me wonderfully.

To set more advanced call handling rules such as how to manage your unanswered calls and how to use the rules during work hours that you have specified in Microsoft Outlook Calendar, select Call-Forwarding Settings from the dropdown or from the Tools menu as shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6 below.

On the Call-Forwarding Settings dialog below, you can select more advanced options like time-based forwarding. For example, when I’m working from home, I often select the incoming calls to be routed to my home number during business hours as shown in Figure 7 below. This feature is really neat because it provides a unified experience with working hours in your Microsoft Outlook calendar. To view or update the business hours configured in Microsoft Outlook, go to Tools > Options > Calendar Options > Calendar Work Week as shown in Figure 8.

You can also send your un-answered calls to a phone number or to another person.That way, if you are not around to answer your calls, you can redirect them to someone or some phone number. For example, my project partner has selected to redirect his unanswered calls to me after ringing him first for 20 seconds in Figure 9 below. If an incoming call is not answered by my project partner and me (or my voicemail) within 60 seconds, it will be routed to my project partner’s voicemail instead.

Communicator 2007 also supports basic presence-based call routing. If you set your presence level to Do Not Disturb (aka DND), your incoming calls will be immediately routed to your voicemail without first ringing you. This is somewhat like the silent feature on your cell phone that you might already be familiar with. I find this immensely useful when I’m working on an important task or when I’m giving a presentation in front of clients and do not want to be disturbed by incoming calls. Note that contacts in your team access level can breakthrough DND to reach you if they have a pressing need to interrupt you. Also note that the call forwarding rules you have set previously do not apply while you are in DND.

You can also set all the call forwarding settings that I have described above when you use Microsoft Office Communicator Web Access 2007 as shown in Figure 10. This can come in really handy when you are at an airport kiosk, and want to change your call forwarding rules. If you happen to have an IP phone powered by Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Phone Edition (e.g. Tanjay), you will notice a subset of call-handling options (including forwarding calls to a phone number, to a contact or to your voicemail) on your phone also as shown in Figure 11 below. The call forwarding settings roam and persist from one endpoint to another. So, if you set a call forwarding rule in Communicator client, you can later update it in Communicator Web Access and then turn it off in Office Communicator Phone Edition.

If you are not enabled for enterprise voice (e.g. if you are configured for remote call control), you will notice that you do not have the richer call forwarding settings that I have described above. Instead, you will notice a dialog as shown in Figure 12 that simply allows you to forward your incoming calls to a phone number or to your voicemail.

I hope you find these Call Forwarding Settings (and my tips) useful, and I look forward to hearing any feedback/comments based on your experience!

Ankit Tandon

Program Manager

 

 

 

By default everyone in your company is able to see your Office Communicator Presence. This is a great feature, because you don't have to have someone on your contact list and you can still see his or her availability in other applications (e.g. Office Outlook or Office Sharepoint Server). This empowers you to use the benefits of Unified Communications and to decide – based on your colleague’s status – whether it’s better to write an email, start an IM or call a person without adding everyone to your contact list.

On the other hand, this means also that everyone in the company is able to see your presence without having to add you to his/her contact list. While you will get a notification whenever someone adds you to his contact list, you do not get any feedback when someone just views your presence.

There may be a situation where someone would want to change this default behavior so that only certain contacts can see their Presence information. Imagine the CEO of a large company: they may prefer to block everyone except for contacts that are in their contact list.

Here is a way to configure this in Office Communicator 2007:

1. Click Show Menu >> View >> Access Levels Management

2. Right-click People in my company >> Change Level of Access >> Blocked

3. Do the same with People in domains connected to my company and People in public domains.

4. Click Show Menu >> View >> Access Levels
Now move your contacts to the desired Access Level so they can see your Presence information. Be sure to add anyone to your contact list if you want them to be able to view your Presence and contact you.

Thomas Binder

Services/ Associate Consultant

 

 

 

Recently, there have been some server changes made by two of our Public IM Connectivity partners Yahoo! Inc. and MSN (Windows Live). These changes will affect only those Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 customers whose external firewalls accept traffic on TCP port 5061 only from known IP addresses.

On May 22, 2008, Yahoo! Inc. moved their servers that provide instant messaging (IM) federation with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and with Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005. As a result, The fully qualified domain names (FQDNs) and IP addresses for the Yahoo! gateway servers have changed. However, Yahoo! will not change the name of the service provider for instant messaging, which is configured in Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 Access Proxy and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Access Edge Server. This name will remain lcsap.msg.yahoo.com.

Meanwhile, MSN (Windows Live) has also changed the IP address for its LCS and OCS gateway. The name of the service provider for instant messaging will also remain the same, which is federation.messenger.msn.com.

As documented in the documentation for Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 and for Office Communications Server 2007, the recommended firewall configuration when federating with public IM providers is to allow any IP address to connect to port 5061 on the Access Proxy. However, certain enterprises prefer to enforce stricter firewall rules and restrict incoming connections to specific IP addresses. For those customers, the IP addresses that are used by the public IM networks need to be specifically allowed on the enterprise firewall. The following lists contain the new IP addresses that are currently used by each service provider:

IP address that is used by MSN (Windows Live)
• 65.54.227.249

IP addresses that are used by Yahoo!
• 76.13.22.8
 
• 76.13.22.9
 
• 76.13.22.10
 
• 76.13.22.11
 
• 98.136.47.8
 
• 98.136.47.9
 
• 98.136.47.10
 
• 98.136.47.11
 
IP addresses that are used by AOL (unchanged)
• 64.12.162.248
 
• 205.188.153.55
 
For further information about the Yahoo! Change, please refer to the following Microsoft KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952209

For other Known issues that occur with public IM connectivity, please refer to the following Microsoft KB article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/897567

Hao Yan
Sr. Program Manager

 

With this post, we would like to provide you an overview of how one could write a simple .NET based application to perform point-to-point Instant Messaging session (IM) using the Unified Client Communications API (UCC API) which can be downloaded from here.

The UCC SDK enables one to add features like Presence, Instant Messaging as well as Voice, Video and others offered by the Unified Communications Client Platform to applications (managed or unmanaged).

For an SDK overview and how to use the API in general, please refer to the MSDN library focused on UCC 1.0 SDK section within the Communications Server 2007 of the Office System.

A brief architecture overview follows.

 

 

The diagram above shows some of the various components involved within the UCC API SDK. The UCC SDK includes various communication modalities, conferencing capabilities, a presence infrastructure built on top of a signaling stack and a media stack. The signaling and media stack combined supports various different protocols including (but not limited to) the following: SIP, RTP, RTCP, STUN/TURN/ICE (for NAT/FW traversal), SRTP (for encryption), CCCP (for conferencing) and ECMA-based CSTA for Remote Call Control.

As before mentioned, this blog entry will primarily focus on the instant messaging APIs. Future posts may focus on other aspects of the API based on demand (please drop a comment if you would like us to focus on other areas in the future).

With that, let us dive into what one needs to do to integrate UCC API into their product to offer basic point-to-point Instant Messaging (IM) capabilities.

First, one will have to ensure that a manifest is included in the application that contains UCCAPI as a dependency (see sample below).

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>

<assembly xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" manifestVersion="1.0">

    <assemblyIdentity

        version="1.1.0.0"

        processorArchitecture="x86"

        name="IMVoIPSample.exe"

        type="win32"

    />

    <dependency>

        <dependentAssembly>

                   <assemblyIdentity

                           version="2.0.0.0"

                           processorArchitecture="x86"

                           name="UCCAPI"

                             type="win32"

                    />

        </dependentAssembly>

    </dependency>

</assembly>

 

 

Next, the inter-op COM dependency needs to be added as a reference to the application: Microsoft.Office.Interop.UccApi.dll. The following DLLs are also needed to run the application: UccApi.dll and RTMPLTFM.dll.

The following will give an overview of what an application needs to prior to initiating an IM session.

An application should first initialize the platform as shown below. The following piece of code performs the following functions:

-          Initializes the platform

-          Connects to the SIP outbound proxy (specified as the server address below) using TLS

-          Sets NTLM as the authentication scheme with specified username and password (credentials)

-          Enables the endpoint: at which point the application sends out a SIP REGISTER request to the outbound proxy which then routes the SIP REGISTER request (RFC 3261, RFC 3327 and a few others) to the SIP registrar within OCS (Office Communications Server 2007). The UCCP stack internally handles SIP 401/407 SIP challenge responses with the supplied credentials.

-          In the event that a challenge response fails again, an event is raised to the events interface as will be later shown.

 

NOTE: What is not shown is the setting the application up to receive the events as shown in the comments below.

//Create the singleton platform object

IUccPlatform platform = new UccPlatform();

 

//Advise for platform events

//Initialize the platform with application name

platform.Initialize(“SampleApp", null);

 

//Advise for platform events

//Create an endpoint object from the platform object

IUccEndpoint endpoint = platform.CreateEndpoint(userURI, null, null);

 

//Advise for endpoint objects

//QI server IUccServerSignalingSettings interface from the endpoint

IUccServerSignalingSettings serverSignalingSettings = (IUccServerSignalingSettings)endpoint;

 

//Set servername, transport, authentication mode and login credentials

serverSignalingSettings.Server = serverAddress;

serverSignalingSettings.TransportMode = UCC_TRANSPORT_MODE.UCCTM_TLS;

serverSignalingSettings.AllowedAuthenticationModes = (int)UCC_AUTHENTICATION_MODES.UCCAM_NTLM;

 

IUccCredential credential = serverSignalingSettings.CredentialCache.CreateCredential(username, passwd, domain);

serverSignalingSettings.CredentialCache.SetCredential("*", credential);

 

//Enable the endpoint in order to register with server 

endpoint.Enable();

 

Next, handle the sign-in completion events as follows.

void _IUccEndpointEvents.OnEnable(IUccEndpoint pEventSource,IUccOperationProgressEvent pEventData){

  if (pEventData.IsComplete) {

    if (pEventData.StatusCode >= 0) 

    // Sign in succeeded.

          sessionManager = (IUccSessionManager) endpoint;

    else 

    // Sign in failed. Clean up and retry.

          endpoint = null;

  }       

}

 

Next, the application can send an IM out by creating an IM session and adding participants to it. An IM session sets up a SIP session-mode IM session using an SIP INVITE dialog and uses MESSAGE requests within the dialog to transfer Instant Messages.

The following piece of code does the following:

-          Obtains the session manager from the endpoint: the session manager is a factory for creating session objects that are responsible for maintaining run-time state information for different kinds of sessions, including Instant Messaging, Audio and Video and others.

-          Creates a new Instant Messaging (SIP) session

-          Adds a remote participant

NOTE: What is not shown is the setting the application up to receive the events as shown in the comments below.

//QI the IUccSessionManager interfaces from endpoint object

IUccSessionManager sessionManager = (IUccSessionManager)endpoint;

 

//Advise for _IUccSessionManagerEvents to receive notifications about incoming sessions

 

//Create a session of type Instant messaging

IUccSession session = (IUccInstantMessagingSession) sessionManager.CreateSession(UCC_SESSION_TYPE.UCCST_INSTANT_MESSAGING, null);

 

// Advise for _IUccSessionEvents, _IUccInstantMessagingSessionEvents and

// _IUccSessionParticipantCollectionEvents

IUccParticipant participant = session.CreateParticipant(“alice@constoso.com”,0)

 

// Advise for _IUccSessionParticipantEvents and

// _IUccInstantMessagingSessionParticipantEvents

session.AddParticipnat(participant,0);

 

Once the application registers for events, an application may receive Instant Messages as follows.

void _IUccSessionManagerEvents.OnIncomingSession(IUccEndpoint eventSource,

                         IUccIncomingSessionEvent eventData)       

{

  this.session = eventData.session;

  // Advise for _IUccSessionEvents, _IUccInstantMessagingSessionEvents and

  // _IUccSessionParticipantCollectionEvents

  eventData.accept();

  // If user wants to reject,

  // eventData.Reject(UCC_REQUEST_REJECT_REASON.UCCRRR_DECLINE);

}

 

Sending a message is quite straightforward as shown below.

// QI the IUccInstantMessagingSession

IUccInstantMessagingSession imSession = session as IUccInstantMessagingSession;

 

// Send message

String message = “Hello world!”;

imSession.SendMessage(message,null);

 

And there you have it, a basic point-to-point IM example using the Unified Communication Client API ver 1.0!

Srivatsa Srinivasan

Program Manager

 

 

 

 

A problem that all Office Communicator 2007 users may face from time to time is the Office Communicator 2007 notification “cannot synchronize address book”. This notification usually stems from logical or physical network connectivity design issues that exist between the Office Communicator 2007 client and the Office Communications Server 2007 Web Components server. However, this Office Communicator 2007 notification could be a symptom that indicates an Office Communications Server 2007 services failure that is caused by the Server 2003 default Active Directory service account administration.

 

Office Communications Server 2007 RTCComponentService account

Office Communications Server 2007 requires the use of proprietary service accounts that are created during the installation phase of the product. This blog will describe the proprietary service account that is used to support the authentication process for the new features that Office Communication Server 2007 brings into our workplace. This service account is the RTCComponentService account. The RTCComponentService account can be created during the Office Communications Server 2007 activation process for the Web Component services. By default it is a member of the RTCComponentUniversalServices group which is created during the Office Communications Server 2007 ForestPrep operations. The RTCComponentService account is the default service account for the Office Communications Server 2007 Web Conferencing service, Audio \ Video service, and the Identity account for the LsGroupExpAppPool IIS application pool that hosts the Office Communications Server 2007 Web Components virtual applications. When this service account cannot complete the authentication process for the services it supports the Office Communications Server 2007 installation will not be able to provide Web Conferencing services, Audio \ Video services and Web Component services to Unified Communication clients on its network.

 

 

Server 2003 Default Domain account policies and the RTCComponentService account

When the RTCComponentService service account is created during the Office Communications Server 2007 activation process, it is added to the "log on as a service" policy for the User Rights Assignment of the Local Policies under the Security Settings for the Local Machine Policy on the Office Communications Server 2007 server. As a service account it will need to have a password assigned to it which is created by the Office Communications Server 2007 administrator during the Office Communications Server 2007 activation process. Since the RTComponentService is a domain account, its assigned password is kept in compliance by the Default Domain group policies for password administration. These default password policies apply their limitations on all domain accounts’ password specifications, one such limitation is the "Maximum password age" password policy which has a default lifetime of 42 days. This policy sets the time limitation for the expiration of a domain account password. The most common way to thwart the expiration of a domain account password is for a domain administrator to set the option of "Password never expires" on the domain user account object in Server 2003 Active Directory Users and Computers. However, when the RTCComponentService account is created during the activation process, the “password never expires” domain user / service account option is not enabled and the RTCComponentService account is subject to the expiration of its password as per the Default Domain group policies for password administration.

 

 

 

 

If the RTCComponentService password expiration should occur then the Web Conferencing and the Audio/Video services will not be able to start on the Office Communications Server 2007 servers that are hosting them. Also the LsGroupExpAppPool which is hosted locally in IIS 6.0 on the Web Components Server will become disabled resulting in the failure to provide Office Communicator 2007 users with their Address Book information and Group Expansion services. The most noticeable symptom in this scenario is that the Office Communicator 2007 clients will display the notification "Cannot Synchronize Address Book". The Web Conferencing and Audio \ Video services on the Office Communications Server 2007 server will log similar events in the system event log:

Event Type:      Error

Event Source:   Service Control Manager

Event Category:            None

Event ID:          7038

Date:                4/26/2008

Time:                10:40:21 AM

User:                N/A

Computer:         WEBDATA8

Description:

The RTCDATAMCU service was unable to log on as PLATNETWORK\RTCComponentService with the currently configured password due to the following error:

Logon failure: the specified account password has expired.

To ensure that the service is configured properly, use the Services snap-in in Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

 

 

 

The LsGroupExpAppPool application pool that is located in the application pools container on the Office Communications Server 2007 Web Components server IIS 6.0 MMC will add the following W3SVC events to the local System log in Event viewer.

Event Type:      Warning

Event Source:   W3SVC

Event Category:            None

Event ID:          1057

Date:                4/23/2008

Time:                7:48:27 AM

User:                N/A

Computer:         WEBDATA8

Description:

The identity of application pool 'LSGroupExpAppPool' is invalid, so the World Wide Web Publishing Service cannot create a worker process to serve the application pool.  Therefore, the application pool has been disabled. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

 

Event Type:      Error

Event Source:   W3SVC

Event Category:            None

Event ID:          1059

Date:                4/23/2008

Time:                7:48:27 AM

User:                N/A

Computer:         WEBDATA8

Description:

A failure was encountered while launching the process serving application pool 'LSGroupExpAppPool'. The application pool has been disabled. For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

 

The Identity authentication issue with the LsGroupExpAppPool application pool does not become apparent until a request is made to one of the Office Communications Server 2007 Web Component services on the Office Communications Server 2007 server. Then events like the ones listed above will be logged in the local System Event log. The LsGroupExpAppPool application may not show up as visibly disabled until you select it in the IIS 6.0 application pools container and perform a refresh on it. Then it will display a red X on its icons lower left corner as listed below.

 

 

To get the RTCComponentService account to provide authentication for its services again is a simple task, but the procedure does require the permissions of a local domain administrator for the Active Directory domain that is hosting the RTCComponentService account.

1. Open the Active Directory Users and Computers dialog on a Server 2003 server in the same domain that is hosting the Office Communications Server 2007 servers

2. Browse to the Users container and highlight it

3. In the details pane on the right side of the window locate the RTCComponentService account and access its properties dialog. Then browse to the Account tab.

4. Place a check in the "Password never expires" option to enable it. Then click on the OK button and close the Active Directory Users and Computers dialog

 

 

5. Go to the Office Communications Server 2007 server that is hosting the Audio \ Video services or the Web Conferencing services. Open the Office Communications Server 2007 Administration MMC and locate the respective servers. Right click on each and choose Start from the pop-up menu. The Audio \ Video and Web Conferencing servers should start now.

6. Open up the IIS 6.0 manager on the Office Communications Server 2007 that is hosting the Web Components server. Expand the application pools node and then select and right click on the LsGroupExpAppPool application pool node and choose the refresh option. Next right click on the LsGroupExpAppPool application pool and choose start.

7. You should be back in business now with the availability of Office Communicator Address Book synchronization and the Office Communications Server 2007 Audio \ Video and Web Conferencing will be available for your network's Unified Communication clients.

 

RTCComponentSevice password mismatch

 

Should the RTCComponentService service account password be reset by a domain administrator in the Users container of the Server 2003 Active Directory Users and Computers dialog then the services that run under it on the Office Communications Server 2007 server will continue to run until either the Office Communications Server 2007 server is restarted, the Audio \ Video or Web Conferencing services are restarted singly, or the IIS 6.0 services that host the Office Communications Server 2007 Web Components services are restarted. 

A good practice is to make sure that the password for the RTCComponentService account is updated on all the services that are dependent for it as a login account, whenever you have to reset its password in the Users container of Active Directory Users and Computers.

1. To do this, open the services.msc on the Office Communications Server 2007 server and locate the following services:

Office Communications Server Audio \ Video Conferencing

Office Communications Server Web Conferencing

2. Access the properties dialog of each and choose the Login tab. Here you can enter the updated password for the RTCComponentService account and apply the changes. Then just re-start the services.

 

 

1. Open up the IIS 6.0 manager on the Office Communications Server 2007 that is hosting the Web Components server.

2. Expand the application pools node and then select and right click on the LsGroupExpAppPool application pool node and open the properties dialog. Next select the Identity tab and re-enter the updated password for the RTCComponentService account.

3. Click on OK and enter the password confirmation then click on OK to close the properties dialog. Next right click on the LSGroupExpAppPool application pool object and choose the Start option.

 

 

 

User defined RTCComponentService account

You can use any pre-defined service account or service account schema as a substitute for the RTCComponentService account. For instance if your organization has a naming convention for its service accounts and you cannot use a service account named RTCComponentService, but requires a service account like "Service2301'. As you are going through the beginning of the Office Communications Server 2007 Activation or Web Components Activation wizard then you will have the choice to create an account or use an existing account, Either way that you choose to implement the service account it will be added to the RTCComponentUniversalServices group where it will inherit the proper Access Control Entries and be added to the "log on as a service" policy under the User Rights Assignment of the Local policies under Security Settings of the Local Machine Policy on the Office Communications Server 2007.

 

Mike Adkins

Support Escalation Engineer

 

One of the greatest value props of integration features is a streamlined workflow.  What does that mean to the end user?  You can get your work done efficiently without having to switch constantly from one app to another!  You also get the best features from multiple apps combined into SUPER features.  When you think of Email, Outlook might come to mind.  When it comes to Instant Messaging (IM), Office Communicator (OC) saves the day.  But what about OC features within Outlook.  It sounds like the best pair since the invention of peanut butter and jelly. J

Let’s take a closer look – without getting into the plumbing – at OC features that light up across Office today. 

 

Presence

 Alex has already mentioned Presence in a previous blog article, but we’ll recap and go into some more detail.  In the OC team, the lingo you’ll hear for the Presence Icon is “Jelly Beans” or “Pawns”.  While the Icon doesn’t look exactly like a Jelly Bean, this feature is just as sweet!  I use this feature to figure out from a glance the best way to contact someone.  Here is an Outlook email:

 

 

I can see from a glance that Alex is available (green), Cindy is not (red), and Sung is Out of the Office (Jelly bean with asterisk).  If I was in another scenario where all the recipients of my “Sync up on initial IDD” email were available (green), it would look like this:

 

 

 

In this case, I might choose to IM these coworkers instead, since they are all available to chat, and especially if I wish to contact them in real time.  To do this, I can click on a jelly bean or right click on any of Alex, Cindy, or Sung’s names to see a menu which has the option to Reply All with Instant Message.

 

 

 

This opens up an IM conversation window.  It even includes the Email subject line in the title bar so the recipients have context to what this IM is about.

 

 

 

This type of scenario works in SharePoint as well.  Last week I went up to our team’s SharePoint site to find a document written by Cindy.  After looking through the list, I found one called the “Contact Store”:

 

 

Not knowing if this was the right document, I IM’ed Cindy right from SharePoint to find out:

 

 

 

 

Better Together

As explained in a previous blog article, OC fetches calendar information and the Out of Office Note from Exchange.  The story doesn’t stop there.  There is also OC data that is shared which appears in Outlook.  Through OC, you can choose what pieces of data you want to share with your contacts by changing their Level of Access.  In the image below, I’ve right clicked on Manisha’s name on my OC contact list and selected Change Level of Access.  I see that she is in the Company category.  Everyone on your contact list is in fact by default in the Company category.

 

 

 

Manisha also happens to have me on her contact list, in the Company Category.  When I mouse over her name in Outlook on an email, I get a tooltip which shows her title, company, and email address.

 

 

 

When I right click on her name in Outlook or SharePoint, I can see her calendar free/busy information, Office location, and work phone number.

 

 

At this point, I’ve kindly asked Manisha to put me in the Personal category rather than the default Company category so we can see the effect. 

Here is what her tool tip looks like when I am in the Personal category.  I now get to see her personal OC note in Outlook!

 

 

And her mobile number is now visible to me as well.

 

 

Of course, changing Access Levels in OC not only affects what your contacts will see in Outlook and SharePoint, but also in OC itself.  Give it a try; Share more information about yourself with your closet contacts.  They’ll appreciate being able to easily contact you on your mobile. 

These are only a few of the many Office Integration features offered through OC.  I hope you’ll take some time to explore what I’ve described above if you haven’t already.  You’re bound to discover other features as well, such as Schedule a Live Meeting or Conference Call from Outlook, or View IM Conversation History. 

 

Happy Exploring.

Ginger Tien

Program Manager

 

 

Check it out!

 

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/messenger/default.mspx

 

Instant face-to-face communication

Built for corporate Mac users on Office Communications Server 2007, Messenger for Mac 7 gives co-workers new ways to communicate easily with each other in different locations or time zones. Additionally, personal users will find a few improvements for managing their contact lists.

 

 

 

 

 

What is this “Toast” thing anyway?

Toast, as the OC team calls it, is a notification that appears near your desktop’s systray (i.e. the thing with the clock in it). Toast’s primary goal is to let a user know that there is an incoming communication request and to give as much context about the request as possible. Toast is divided up into two regions:

 

-          Contextual information:

o    Caller Identity

o    Conversation Topic

o    Invitation modality

-          Actions

 

 

What does context mean for the me, the user?

Context is everything! The more information you have about the caller and the invitation, the better you can utilize your time. After all, it might be Bill Gates calling via video conference about your annual raise. Bet you’d want to take that call.

 

Let’s start with the “Caller Identity” region.

 

Info that might be seen in this region includes:

-          Name

-          Company

-          Job title

 

How do I make the most of the Caller Identity region?

Posting your information on the global directory helps identify you by displaying useful info such as your name, your phone number, the location associated with the phone number and your job title. Even if you don’t recognize the name of a caller, you can still see whether he/she is a co-worker or partner, a fellow team member or a manager from another company.

 

Next, let’s take a look at the “Conversation Topic” region.

 

Info that might be seen in this region includes:

-          Subject line (populated by the sender of the invitation)

-          First line of instant message

-          Phone number

 

How do I make the most of the Conversation Topic region?

When you want people to take your conversation seriously, try using the subject line before initiating the invitation. That way the recipient will know what you really want to talk about. Adding a subject line helps scope the nature of your call, especially if this is an on-going conversation from a previous session. If this is in fact a brand new conversation, OC will auto-populate this line with either:

-          IM only: First instant message of the conversation

-          Voice only: Phone number

-          Default: Incoming <modality> call

 

   

 

 

 

Finally, let’s check out the “Invitation Modality” region.

 

Modality is the type of invitation you are receiving, i.e.:

-          Instant message (IM) / File transfer

-          Voice/Video