OCS Virtual User Group

Is x64 supported on OCS?

2008-02-04T20:59:00.001+01:00

Today while cooking I was getting a question on my Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile 2007 device. This question was getting my attention. Well the meal was burned of course :-(

The question:

I have a problem adding an Server to the pool. Installed a 64Bit machine as windows 2k3 R2 x64. Installation of ocs 2007 was ok until i tried to add the server to the pool. All nessecery Users are made.
When I try to add the server, I get the Error Message 0xC3EC796A MSI installation was unsuccessful. Install MSXML Parser Error. The Error appears, when the system tries to install msxml6.0 with the message, MSXML6.0 package not supported on processor type.
So i downloaded the x64 version msxml6_x64 and installed it, but the installer does not mention that the msxml6.0 parser is already installed and the installation stops with the same Error Message.

From my contact list in Communicator I spoke to a Program Manager of Microsoft. Here some anwsers:

Office Communications Server 2007 supports the following tested 64-bit configurations:

Support for 64-bit Operating Systems

Office Communications Server 2007 supports the following tested 64-bit configurations:

The 64-bit edition of SQL Server™ 2005 SP2 on the Back-End Database of an Enterprise pool or the Archiving and CDR database.
Running the 32-bit version of the Access Edge Server on 64-bit hardware with WOW (Windows on Windows) 64 mode on the 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2003 SP1 and later.
Running the 64-bit kernel driver component of the A/V Edge Server natively on 64-bit hardware plus the A/V Edge Server service component with WOW64 mode on the 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2003 SP1 and later.
Running the 32-bit version of Standard Edition server on 64-bit hardware with WOW64 mode on the 64-bit edition of Windows Server 2003 SP1 and later.

Comments: R2 in x64 mode is not listed so it's not sure R2 is tested :-( If you have information or tested it please give me your feedback.

The setup for OCS and the console run under the WOW64 subsystem since they are 32bit programs. The MSXML parser must be detected automatically.

Tags van Technorati: MSXML,R2,OCS,x64,64-bit,Office Communications Server 2007,WOW64 mode,Standard Edition

Microsoft Voice Ignite Tour

2008-01-30T21:52:00.001+01:00

"Thank you! Your registration for the Microsoft Unified Communications Voice Ignite is now complete. Below are your confirmation details"

Yeah I will go to the Voice IgNite Tour in Paris. If you have some questions please let me know and maybe I will give you some feedback when I'm back. When joining this session in Paris I will update my weblog frequently so check!

LOCATION

Le Meridien Etoile
81 Boulevard Gouvion Saint-Cyr
75848 Cedex 17 Paris
75017 France

Tags van Technorati: Voice Ignite Tour,Paris France,Joachim Farla,e-office

Connect Mitel and OCS2007

2008-01-10T23:42:00.001+01:00

Today we had a wonderful day. We connected our Mitel MX 3300 to Office Communications Server 2007 and enabled Remote Call Control (RCC). A very talented partner of us NEXCT (www.nexct.nl) helped us when implementing.

Special thanks to John de Breij (MITEL) and Hans de Jong (NEXCT). Project leader (NEXCT) Jos Tollenaar.

What do you need to have to setup a Mitel infrastructure:

HP PoE Switch
HP Server with the LBG (Live Business Gateway) software (LBG_3.1.0.7 version) and Windows 2003 Server SP2 as operating system - workgroup installation / 1 GB RAM is enough
Mitel 3300 IP Communications Platform
IP Phones: Mitel 5340 IP Phone (in our case 6 IP phones)
ISDN2 (EUR) to have access to the outside world

Short questions you may have:

What is LBG?

Live Business Gateway provides standards-based (SIP /CSTA) connectivity to Office Communications Server 2007 via a single platform design. It complements Office
Communications Server 2007 with business-rich
telephony and presence, directly from the Microsoft®Office Communicator 2007 desktop client or Microsoft®Office program. more info: here

What does Mitel 3300 IP support?:

The Mitel® 3300 IP Communications Platform (ICP) provides enterprises with a highly scalable, feature-rich communications system designed to support businesses from 10-65,000 users.

Well the main question is how to setup this environment:

Step 1. Make sure the 5340 Ip phones are setup up. Make sure the phones are configured retrieve an IP address by DHCP or static IP address. We choose to assign static IP addresses. The IP phones are also in our production VLAN. Another option is to create a special VLAN for your telecom IP traffic.

Step 2. Make sure the PoE Switch (in our case HP) is connected and uplinked to your production switches. In our case we use non-PoE switches from Cisco and PoE switches to power up our IP 5340 phones.

Step 3. Install Windows Server 2003 SP2 (R2) on a spare server (3.00 Ghz / 1RAM is enough), add more hardware to make your LBG more redundant (recommended is RAID1, secondary power supply)

Step 4. Configure LBG

Step 4.1 (default port 5060, internal IP address LBG server)

Step 4.2 configure your RCC SIP URI (default sip:):

Step 4.3/4.4 Configure your licensing and Active Direcoty connection for reading ADS objects from your Active Directory (for security we did not add these printscreens.

Step 5. Configure your Mitel 3300 ICP on /esm_loginMain.htm">/esm_loginMain.htm">http://<IP>/esm_loginMain.htm (SSL secured) More information on how to configure Mitel please contact me by e-mail or IM and I will put you through to the right person for doing this. As you probably know I'm not an "telecommunication guy". Just OCS/MOSS ;-)

Step 6. Configure the static route in OCS. Open your standard edition server or enterprise pool. Adjust for MCC view (restart after modification):

Step 6.1 (organize servers as list)

Step 6.2 configure pool settings

Matching URI: SIP.*@<domain-FQDN>
Next Hop: IP address of your LBG server
Port: default port 5060 (in our case)
Transport: TCP (default)

Step 7. Make one or more users OCS enabled (make the user from the OCS MMC)

Select: enable Remote Call Control
Fill-in: sip:LBG@<domain-FQDN>
Full-in: tel:<internalnumber>;phone-context=mitel.com
Federation: check all

**Do this for each user you will have. Make sure the corresponding numbers are even setup in Mitel 3300 (configure it by hitting the HTML configuration page)

Step 8. Import/configure the Office Communicator 2007 administrative template into your ADS (select the corresponding OU where the users resides)

Configure it under User Settings

scroll down to the following administrative template setting:

Configure like screendump below (not all telephony modes in OCS are functional - microsoft is working on that > information from MCS consultant in the Netherlands ;-) setting: 2e RCC Enabled

Step 9. Return to your hopefully (Vista) workstation where Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 and Live Meeting 2007 is installed. Close MOC2007 from your taskbar en clear it in memory. Go to START>CMD>gpupdate /force > ENTER-command. The GPO is forced to update. Restart your MOC2007 client.

Step 10. Configure your MOC2007 client by enable phone integration mode and set it to automatic.

Step 11: RCC is enabled! Test your communication by dailing a number and see if your presence is switched to "In Call".

Tags van Technorati: Mitel,Office Communications Server 2007,OCS2007,Microsoft Office Communicator 2007,MOC2007,OCS Administrative Template,ADS,OU,Telephony Integration,Remote Call Control,RCC,grayed out,advanced phone integration,phone integration,Mitel 3300,LBG,Live Business Gateway,LBG_3.1.0.7,automatic configuration,static route,sip:,Call Forwarding,PoE,Joachim Farla,e-office

Resource Center for OC Clients: MOC2007

2008-01-02T20:42:00.001+01:00

The Resource Center for Office Communications Server 2007 Clients, including Microsoft Office Communicator 2007, Microsoft Office Live Meeting 2007, Office Communicator Mobile (2007 Release) and Office Communicator Web Access (2007 Release ), is now available online at: Resource Center

For everybody especially end users they can choose between different categories:

Evaluation
Overview and Features
Getting Started - Day One Resources
Training and How-to's
Administrator Resources
Community and Related Resources

More about LiveMeeting 2007 see: LM2007

More about Communicator mobile: MOCM2007

More about Communicator Web Access: CWA2007

Tags van Technorati: OC,Resource Center,LM2007,MOCM2007,CWA 2007

OCS related KB articles

2007-12-20T19:57:00.001+01:00

Here are the most recent OCS-related KB articles published - enjoy!

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=943392
Error message when you try to send an instant message in Communications Server 2007: "The following message was not delivered to <recipient>"
11/14/2007
Windows NT
Office Comm Svr Ent 2007 EN
EN-US

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=943631
Error message when you try to view the events on the Event Log tab of the Communications Server 2007 MMC snap-in: "retrieving data failed"
11/14/2007
Windows NT
Office Comm Svr Ent 2007 EN
EN-US

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=943880
You may receive an access violation error message in the APIEM.DLL!WPP_SF_qSS call when you run a stack trace on a computer that is running Communications Server 2007
11/6/2007
Windows NT
Office Comm Svr Ent 2007 EN
EN-US

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=942872
Description of the Communications Server 2007 update package: November 2, 2007
11/6/2007
Windows NT
Office Comm Svr Ent 2007 EN
EN-US

Special thanks to:

- Michael Platts

Support Escalation Engineer

Tags van Technorati: KB943631,KB943880,KB942872,KB942292

Latest KB articles MOC2005 and MOC2007

2007-12-20T19:46:00.001+01:00

Section: KB MOC2005, 2007

Here are the latest KB articles for Office Communicator 2007 and Office Communicator 2005:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=944686
Description of the Communicator 2007 hotfix package: November 6, 2007
11/9/2007
Windows NT
Office Communicator 2007 EN
EN-US

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=944687
Error message when you try to change an IM conversation into a multiparty conference in Communicator 2007: "Your attempt to start a conference was unsuccessful."
11/9/2007
Windows NT
Office Communicator 2007 EN
EN-US

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=944612
Error message when you try to start a meeting in Communicator 2005: “Microsoft Office Live meeting could not be started. Please make sure that the latest version of the program is installed and properly configured"
11/19/2007
Windows NT
Office Communicator 2005 EN
EN-US

Specials thanks to:

- Michael Platts

Support Escalation Engineer (MSFT)

Tags van Technorati: KB944686,KB944687,KB944612,Office Communicator 2007,Office Communicator 2005

OOF back on 03/01/2008

2007-12-20T12:20:00.001+01:00

Dear blogreader,

I am currently out of the office. I will be back on 03/01/08.

Until then, please do not expect me to answer to any e-mail, my phone, or react to voice mail messages.

Thanks for reading my blog this year! Upcoming year lots of extra news about Unified Communications. Well happy New Year and Merry Christmas everybody!

Kind regards,
Joachim Farla e-office m b.v.
Technical Infrastructure Consultant

OCS 2007 - Continuous prompts for Address Book download

2007-12-18T09:05:00.001+01:00

Section: MOC failures

..after deploying Office Communications Server 2007 Enterprise Edition that the Office Communicator client is unable to download the address book from the IIS server.. nice article on the Communicator blog of Microsoft.

Here

Tags van Technorati: Address Book failed to download,OCS,Microsoft Office Communicator 2007,Enterprise Edition OCS

Ask the expert..

2007-11-30T21:51:00.001+01:00

Question(s):

since some weeks I follow your blog about OCS on unified-communications.blogspot.com and I appreciate your work very much.

I am desperatly looking for information about how OCS clients communication flows over the network:

For example a OCS user on a OCS server in Europe makes an IM communication with another OCS user on a OCS server in the same organization in the USA.

1. I found that the SIP communication and the content oft he instant messages flows via the OCS servers and Video and Audio Streams flow directly from client computer to client computer?
2. But how are Video and Audio streams for Live Meetings flowing And how are the streams for voice calls flowing? And how are those streams flowing for remote, federated and internet (=public IM) users?

Anwsers:

1. That’s true SIP Communications are routed between the OCS infrastructure you deployed. While using TLS and default MTLS the flow is as follows. TLS and MTLS protocols provide encrypted communications and endpoint authentication on the Internet. Office Communications Server uses these two protocols to create its network of trusted servers and to ensure that all communications over that network are encrypted. All SIP communications between servers occur over MTLS. SIP communications from client to server occur over TLS.TLS enables users, through their client software, to authenticate the Office Communications Server 2007 servers to which they connect. On a TLS connection, the client requests a valid certificate from the server. To be valid, the certificate must have been issued by a CA that is also trusted by the client and the DNS name of the server must match the DNS name on the certificate. If the certificate is valid, the client trusts the server and opens the connection. The resulting connection is trusted and from that point is not challenged by other trusted servers or clients. Default this is port 5061 TLS port or you can configure port 443. Server-to-server connections rely on MTLS (Mutual TLS) for mutual authentication. On an MTLS connection, the server originating a message and the server receiving it exchange certificates from a mutually trusted CA. The certificates prove the identity of each server to the other. In Office Communications Server 2007 deployments, certificates issued by the enterprise CA are automatically considered to be valid by all internal clients and servers. In federated scenarios, the issuing CA must be trusted by both federated partners. Each partner can use a different CA, if desired, so long as that CA is also trusted by the other partner.
The following figure shows how Office Communications Server uses MTLS to create a network of trusted servers.
Office Communications Server 2007 uses TLS and MTLS to encrypt instant messages. All server-to-server traffic requires MTLS, regardless of whether the traffic is confined to the internal network or crosses the internal network perimeter. Requirements for client-to-client traffic depend on whether that traffic crosses the internal corporate firewall. Strictly internal traffic can use either TLS, in which case the instant message is encrypted, or TCP, in which case it is not.

But how are Video and Audio streams for Live Meetings flowing And how are the streams for voice calls flowing? The Video and Audio streams are redirected through your Edge infrastructure even to Federated partners. To get a good overview over which ports you need to open review. The first thing you need to do is consider which Edge infrastructure needs you have. When having that information review the OCS Edge Server deployment documentation.
When looking at Enterprise Voice is an implementation of IP telephony that uses SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) for signaling and RTP (Real-Time Transport Protocol) for voice. To get more controle over your Mediation Server and connections to a public PSTN cloud review my earlier post on how to configure the Mediation Server and Interoute see: post
2. But how are Video and Audio streams for Live Meetings flowing And how are the streams for voice calls flowing? And how are those streams flowing for remote, federated and internet (=public IM) users?

Important notice about connections to PIM:

If you enable public IM connectivity, be aware that while communications between Office Communications Server and the public IM server are encrypted, communications between the public IM server and the public IM client might not be encrypted, depending on whether encryption is provided by the public IM provider.

Tags van Technorati: Egde Infrastructure , OCS , PSOM , SRTP , RTP , Public IM , STUN , SIP , Enterprise Voice , Office Communications Server , Mediation Server , A/V Edge Server , TLS , MTLS , federation , UDP , HTTP(S)

Contact?

2007-11-21T19:30:00.001+01:00

If you run Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 SP1 or Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 (hopefully ;-) and connected your AP or Edge servers to the internet... we can get in contact!

Step 1. Fill in my name joachim.farla@e-office.com (my SIP account is the same as my SMTP address)

Step 2. Drop me in your contact list! And live!

So, very simple! Do not hesitate to contact me by IM. I'am always in for a technical issue or just working things out generally. By the way you can also contact me through the public website of e-office at link

Consolidated edge server and interoute one?

2007-11-21T19:16:00.001+01:00

Section: Enterprise Voice, Mediation Server

Today i've got an very good question about how to connect to interoute through OCS and how to configure the IP address etc.

Questions are:

1. Do you need a GW between your Mediation server and Interoute?

2. Have you ever configured a consolidated edge server – I am trying to do this with the least amount of kit – so what to put Access Edge /AV edge and Web conferencing on it – I have 3 separate IP addresses for the external interface but need to know if I can put all three on one NIC or if it is better to put the AV edge on one nic and the other two on the other.

Answers are:

1.No – the connection is direct between the mediation server and the Interoute One server

2. Our lab – (which was used as a pilot for 30 users) was on a consolidated edge server, with one public nic which worked fine.

For the office installation we have split the roles across two servers

1/ A/V proxy
2/ all other edge roles

This seems to be working ok for our 800 user installation – it was done this way for scalability and network infrastructure reasons (the A/V needing a non-natted public address). In all cases the machines involved had two nics – inside and outside….

Tags van Technorati: Mediation Server , Interoute one , consolidated edge server , ports , public IP address , Office Communicatons Server 2007 , GW

UC Learning Path - Additional Resources

2007-11-20T21:28:00.001+01:00

Type
Level
Title
Availability
Detail

200
Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Tips
12/5/2007
N/A

300
Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit
1/9/2008
Link

UC Learning Path - Electives

2007-11-20T21:27:00.001+01:00

200
5126: Introducing Enterprise Instant Messaging Using Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007
11/29/2006
Link

200
5127: Introducing On-Premise Conferencing Using Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007
11/29/2006
Link

200
5128: Introducing Enterprise Telephony Using Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007
11/29/2006
Link

200
5129: Customizing Real-Time Communication with Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007
11/29/2006
Link

200
6447: First Look: Getting started with Office Communications Server 2007
12/5/2007
N/A

200
Collection 5125: Introducing Microsoft® Office Communications Server 2007
11/29/2006
Link

200
TechNet Virtual Labs for Office Communications Server 2007
7/23/2007
Link

200
TechNet Webcast: Communicator Web Access for Communications Server 2007
5/9/2007
Link

200
TechNet Webcast: Implementing Instant Messaging/Presence and Conferencing in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007
4/13/2007
Link

200
TechNet Webcast: Implementing Voice in Communications Server 2007
4/19/2007
Link

200
TechNet Webcast: Understanding Call Routing in Office Communications Server 2007
4/24/2007
Link

300
OCS 2007 Ignite Workshop
6/18/2007
Link

UC Learning Path - Core Training

2007-11-20T21:26:00.001+01:00

Core training:

Type
Level
Title
Availability
Detail

200
5177: Implementing and Maintaining Enterprise Instant Messaging Using Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007
12/12/2007
N/A

300
5178: Implementing and Maintaining Audio/Visual Conferencing and Web Conferencing Using Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007
12/12/2007
N/A

300
5179: Implementing and Maintaining Telephony Using Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007
1/7/2008
N/A

OCS2007 Enterprise Voice vs Interoute One Services

2007-10-30T21:50:00.001+01:00

OVUG section: Enterprise Voice

Today we are the lucky owners of a fully functional OCS environment connected to Interoute One Services.

For a while Interoute is one of our partners in iSIP services. A couple of month's ago e-office connected LCS to the iSIP cloud. The 16th of October interoute is fully supporting OCS2007RTM and ofcourse federation. Even interoute One is supporting OCS and MOC.

What is interoute One?

Interoute One is an advance VoIP solution, the core of which is the integration to Microsoft Office Communications Server. It acts as a secure communications clearing house, creating a global community of Microsoft Office Communicator (MOC) users. Alternative solutions include a stand alone soft phone and integration into existing IP or TDM PBX devices.

Traditional network:

cons:

Complex
Expensive
Lack of expertise

pros:

Simple Online Setup
Zero cost
Auto Configured

The main question is how can i configure OCS to connect to Interoute One.

Basically you need to do the following steps:

Step 1.

Domain Name: This is the 'Sip domain' that your users are configured to use. If the user name is like user@company.com, the domain name is company.com. Most of the time this domain name is the same as the corporate SMTP domain space.

Step 2.

Interoute One will send you a loginname and password. Login at Interoute One Login Page:

Example is shown:

After fillin in the required information you will see the control panel every user have when using the Interoute One service.

Example is shown:

Be able to manage all your existing numbers:

Key features:

one credit for all your available accounts. In our example: €125,52 euro.
call hostory (duration, number called, call time)
which services are enabled: Community,Outbound Calling and Inbound Calling.
call rates and much more....

Step 3.

Make sure an OCS Mediation Server is installed and joined to the domain for example (contoso.local). A Mediation Server must be able to pass SIP requests and media between the Enterprise Voice infrastructure and a media gateway connected to the PSTN.

Assign this Mediation Server 2 separate NIC's with each a separate IP addresses. Configure one IP address to listening for Office Communication Server traffic. Configure the other NIC for listening for voice gateway traffic. There can only be one default gateway! Set it on your external edge of your Mediation Server.

Make sure your internal pool name is filled in (example: pool1.contoso.local) and make also sure that the PSTN next hop address is correct. In your case the PSTN next hop address is the public IP address of the Interoute One servers (89.*) this information fill be provided by Interoute in case you have any questions about that.

Step 4.

Make sure within the OCS Management Console that only users prepared as Enterprise Voice users are checked with the Enterprise Voice option and that the line URI is filled in. Example (+312......) You can configure Enterprise Voice on per user basis.

Step 5.

Make sure all users who are using Enterprise Voice have installed Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 (MOC2007).

Step 6.

Make sure numbers entered in MOC2007 can normalized to E.164. The format of the telephone number associated with the UC-enabled user is E.164 (example: +123456789). Therefore, if a user enters a number that is in different format (example: extension 1234) it has to be manipulated into the E.164 format.

OCS will take this number and search the corporate directory to find the user who has a matching number and then voice mail will be routed to the correct user. OCS uses normalization rules to translate these number formats and uses an internal translation service to perform canonicalization transformation. In our case we use only one normalization rule.

Step 7.

Check your Forest Level Voice Settings

To view global settings for Enterprise Voice:

Open the Communications Server 2007 administrative snap-in.
In the console pane, click the forest node.
In the details pane, click the Voice tab.
Expand one or more of the following to view the corresponding settings for Voice: Global Policy, Phone Usages, Normalization Rules, Location Profiles and Routes.

Step 8.

Check your pool level Voice Settings

To To view voice settings for a pool:

Open the Communications Server 2007 administrative snap-in.
In the console pane, click the pool whose settings you want to view.
In the details pane, expand Voice Settings. Voice Settings displays pool-level settings for phone lock, location profile, and quality of service.
Expand the settings you want to view.

Step 9.

Check your Route within OCS. When Communications Server determines that a dialed number needs to be routed to a PSTN gateway, the routing table is queried to determine the optimal gateway for the call. In our case the route is (.*) because we only have 1 normalization rule. So there is no need for logic routing.

Step 10.

Open ports on your FW (only outbound) only to the specific public IP addresses of Interoute (89.*) When configuring the Mediation Server, you are advised to accept the default media port gateway range of 60,000 to 64,000. The default range media port range enables the server to handle up to 1,000 simultaneous voice calls. We as e-office expanded this range.

11. Open ports on your FW (only inbound) only to your external edge of the Mediation Server. Ports (60,000-64,000).

12. There you go! Outbound calling will go through the services of Interoute One. Inbound calling will be forwarded to your OCS infrastructure. All: cheap, easy to use and just perfect! Sign it up for free and do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Tags van Technorati: MOC2007 , Office Communications Server 2007 , Enterprise Voice , Interoute One , Mediation Server , Media Port Range , OCS2007 , Route , Voice Settings OCS , nomalization rules , location profiles

MOR2007 can be ordered!

2007-10-29T18:22:00.001+01:00

Today NEC Philips announced that the Microsoft Office Roundtable 360 panoramic view camera can be ordered at their site NEC Philips Roundtable Order Site

Order and fill-in this form: Form ask for Peter.Alexander.de.Graaf@nec-philips.com or call: +31356891198

Price: $3000

Tags van Technorati: MOR2007 , Office Communications Server 2007 , NEC Philips

UC personal newsletters online

2007-10-29T08:52:00.001+01:00

Every month I will send an Personal Newsletter to all my technical and non technical contacts to inform them about UC.

I'm also making those newsletters public shared:

http://joafar.winkflash.com/

Click to save:

Assign yourself or someone else? SUBSCRIBE

Tags van Technorati: Winkflash , UC NewsLetter , Joachim Farla

OVUG online

2007-10-28T17:56:00.001+01:00

OVUG is online! This site contains information about Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 and will bring the same questions you have together in one simple site.

OVUG: OCS Virtual User Group

Most of the time being active in newsgroups of OCS we see a lot of the same questions. This site combines these questions and can be seen as an extension to the public forum at Microsoft.

Online communities:

Microsoft.Public.Office.Communicator (Here!)
Microsoft.Public.LiveComm.General (Here!)

Wikipedia explanation:

Users' group

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from User group)

• Learn more about citing Wikipedia •

Jump to: navigation, search

A users' group (also users group or user group) is a type of club focused on the use of a particular technology, usually (but not always) computer-related.

User's groups started in the early days of mainframe computers, as a way to share sometimes hard-won knowledge and useful software, usually written by end users independently of the factory-supplied programming efforts. SHARE, a user group originated by aerospace industry corporate users of IBM mainframe computers, was founded in 1955 and is the oldest computer user group still active. DECUS, the DEC User's Society, was founded in 1961 and its descendant organization still operates. The Computer Measurement Group (CMG) was founded in 1974 by systems professionals with a common interest in (mainframe) capacity management, and continues today with a much broader mission. The first UNIX user's group organized in 1978.

Users' groups began to proliferate with the microcomputer revolution of the late 1970s and early 1980s as hobbyists united to help each other with programming and configuration and use of hardware and software. Especially prior to the emergence of the World Wide Web, obtaining technical assistance with computers was often onerous, while computer clubs would gladly provide free technical support.

A users' group may provide its members (and sometimes the general public as well) with one or more of the following services:

periodic meetings
public lectures
a newsletter
a library of media or tools
a software archive
an online presence such as a dial-up BBS or Internet website
swap meets
technical support
social events

Tags van Technorati: Office Communications Server 2007 , OVUC , Online Virtual User Group , LCS , Microsoft.Public.Office.Communicator , Microsoft.Public.LiveComm.General