Mutliple people looking at the same outlook mailbox - the auto achive is causing problems

[EssexPCfix]

I am a PC engineer, I have a client I look after there PCs.

The client uses BTs hosted outlook exchange for there email.

The client has 4 users accessing the same mail box.

This is fine until one of the PCs in use runs an auto archive – this moves the emails from the server to the local PC.

Although the archive folder can be added as a .pst data file, as the different PCs request the auto archive at different times – the data from the emails is split (not equally) among the 4 PCs.

The client needs to look up the data from old emails on an irregular basis – however as the archives are spread over 4 PCs – he is getting annoyed that he has to look up to 4 times.

My question is –

Is there a way of hosting the archive file on the BT server end so all PCs can see the same archive folder?

If not, is there a way to mount all 4 archives on all machines?  (I believe the .pst file is locked when mounted to one PC)

I suggested to the customer that he turn off auto archive on 3 of the PCs and leave it all to one PC – he was not keen to do this.

If you have any other suggestions how to resolve this issue, I would love to hear it

Thanks

Paul Middleton

Essex PC Fix

info@essexpcfix.co.uk

[Burkem5]

if you have 4 pop accounts set up all fighting over the same mailbox you may have a bit of a problem 

as your customer does not want to turn off the auto archive I would suggest a premium or org and share account 

this way he can have imap accounts set up instead of pop

this means that if one of his users deals with a message it will sync with all the other users to show this.

you can speak to sales to request this or even just get some info on it 

the tech livechat would also be able to tell you a good bit about the various features.

I will warn that our desks cant help set up IMAP as we are trained on POP

we can however give you all of the settings -  most mail clients - outlook, Mac mail etc will give you an option for IMAP when setting up 


********************************************************************************************

settings for imap 

for the old server - blue and white mailbox on www.myoffice.bt.com

imap4.btconnect.com - incoming

mail.btconnect.com - outgoing

port 143 for incoming 

port 25 outgoing

for office 365 - orange and white mailbox on www.myoffice.bt.com 

IMAP setting

• Server name: imap.outlook.com
• Port: 993
• Encryption method: SSL/TLS 

SMTP setting

• Server name: smtp.outlook.com
• Port: 587
• Encryption method: SSL/TLS

[Stephenc]

Hi Paul,

From my understanding you are already running a BT exchange account?  Is this the old platform?  If so the allowance on there is at most 1GB.  If you're on the new platform the storage compacity per mailbox is 25GB.  We can set this up for you.

However to answer your question, there is no way to upload the archive.pst file to the exchange with BT, if you have unused space on the exchange you could move emails needed from the archive.pst to a folder on the exchange, possible create a folder called "archive" or "emails from 2010" for example.

This folder would sync across the exchange.

In terms of sharing the archive across the exchange you should be able to copy the pst and put this on each of teh machines, but if you make a change to one of the pst's this would not update the other three machines.

Thanks,

Steve

[EssexPCfix]

Thanks for the reply.

I believe he is using the old email client with the 1GB limit.  Is there a way to tell (that I can send him via email to check himself?)

If he is using the old client I will suggest to them that they change to the latest offering.

the expansion to 25GB of data will help, but what happens when that limit is reached?

What are the steps for upgrading to the new client?

With the exception of the current archive files - are there guarantees that the data will remain complete and that there will be no disruption to the mail service?

Is there a cost to this or a change to what they currently pay?

Would I still be able to mount the current archive pst files to the new client - as you suggested, I could then copy all the current archives to a folder that all can share.

Thanks in advance

Paul

[Stephenc · Accepted solution]

Hi EssexPCfix,

If you get the customer to login to http://myoffice.bt.com click on "your email" it will either take him straight into his email - old platform.  Or say - please click here to access ofice 365 - new platform.

If the 25Gb is reached, you would need to start storing less important emails in an offline pst or delete some email.

If still on the old platform login to myoffice.bt.com go to the "Email" section and check if there is an upgrade centre option, if so follow these steps and select the new migration date, if this is not available, you will need to wait for an automated email advising when the upgrade will become available to the customer.

Once upgraded, you need to reconfigure outlook by putting in the username and password again as an exchange account and this should automatically pick up the new server details, ensure any emails are backed up first.

Mail from the old service will automatically move to the new server within 24hours.  However mail sent during this 24 hour period will not be lost.

At the point of migration, you will receive one last email from BT, advising that your email has been upgraded at this point you need to update your mail client settings to get new messages.

If organise and share is already on the account, I'd imagine the cost would stay the same, if not, the new premium package costs, £5 per month for a 2 year term or £5.50 for a shorter contract (not inc VAT).

Copying the pst to one folder they can share would potentially work, but I'd imagine only one email client could have the file open at a time, but if they close it after use, the other machine would probably allow you to open it.

Thanks,

Steve