Outlook: Microsoft Exchange/POP issues

[RockIT Man]

I have a business client that is using Outlook and has recently been forced by the home office to start using an exchange account in place of their old POP accounts. I did not set this up. I'm coming in after the fact.

They are experiencing a few issues:

1. The president's personal gmail calendar is now syncing with the business exchange calendar. So, everyone in the office is getting alerts like, "Go walk the dog" and "Workout time!". Obviously, this should not be happening. He would like to have his exchange calendar in Outlook as well as his personal Gmail calendar. However, his personal calendar should only show up on his computer.

2. All computers are receiving duplicate emails from the new exchange account.

The president basically wants to keep all of the old accounts and just add the exchange account to all of the office computers. In short, I need to get the new exchange account to play nicely with the old POP accounts.

It's been a few years since I've really dug into Outlook. This is an onsite job scheduled for tomorrow, so any tips/things to look for would be greatly appreciated!

[YeOldeStonecat]

What version of Exchange.....and is this in Small Business Server?

His personal calendar shouldn't be seen by others unless he shared out his mailbox and personal folders. Having your mailbox in Exchange "shared" is not a default setting.

If this is SBS...are they using the POP connector to synch the POP? Or..done on the Outlook client side?

[RockIT Man]

I'll try to get that info when I get up there today. The exchange server is at an off-site location, so I won't be doing anything with it. I'm just working on the Outlook account settings.

Pretty sure this guy tried to set Outlook up by himself and just started clicking around in the settings. Do you think it's possible that all of his accounts are pointing to one .PST? If so, could that cause this issue?

[TenYardFight]

I regularly use Google calendar sync to sync Google calendars and outlook/exchange calendars. I also use paid software called gsyncit to accomplish more advanced syncing tasks.

I would urge you to use Outlook and Exchange in your business and become very familiar with it. Regardless of whether or not you think its the best solution, your best paying prospects and customers will very often require support in this area. Good luck!

PS - you can use hosted exchange in your business and gain some basic knowledge about administering exchange. It's free for some certain levels of MS partners with certain competencies. Otherwise, its as little as 4 dollars per month per mailbox. PM me if you would like some help.

[RockIT Man]

Originally Posted by Ten Yard Fight

I regularly use Google calendar sync to sync Google calendars and outlook/exchange calendars. I also use paid software called gsyncit to accomplish more advanced syncing tasks.

I would urge you to use Outlook and Exchange in your business and become very familiar with it. Regardless of whether or not you think its the best solution, your best paying prospects and customers will very often require support in this area. Good luck!

PS - you can use hosted exchange in your business and gain some basic knowledge about administering exchange. It's free for some certain levels of MS partners with certain competencies. Otherwise, its as little as 4 dollars per month per mailbox. PM me if you would like some help.

Thanks for the info! Maybe Google calendar sync is the culprit here. I'm pretty sure he uses that on his cell phone. Could that be what is syncing his personal gmail calendar with his business exchange calendar?

[TenYardFight]

Could be. It only runs on a pc though.

[MobileTechie]

Sounds like it's set up so that the gmail is syncing to the Exchange mailbox. If so he needs two mailboxes in outlook - the exchange work on and a personal one. Then he can sync gmail to the personal only.

[YeOldeStonecat]

Originally Posted by RockIT Man

. Do you think it's possible that all of his accounts are pointing to one .PST? If so, could that cause this issue?

If it's Outlook 2010...by default it sets up separate PSTs for each account. One can point to same PST though. 2007 and older would default to one PST for all.

Hopefully his Exchange account is not dumping to a PST, but to the mailbox itself...which keeps local offline folders in an OST file.

[RockIT Man]

Thank you all for your input. I was able to solve the problem. It was basically a long chain of syncing computers and phones that connected his personal Gmail account to the new company exchange server.

After several trial and error tests, we pinpointed the culprit and everything is running smoothly!