Web-based Offline Address Book

Microsoft’s Exchange Server 2007 introduces a new method of Offline Address Book (OAB) distribution that does not involve Public Folders (the required method in previous versions of Exchange). The new implementation is an HTTP mechanism that allows the OAB to be downloaded via the web.

The following are some key items regarding OAB downloads in Exchange 2007:

1) Web-based OAB downloads are only supported by Outlook 2007 email clients.

2) The Public Folder method for OAB download is still supported for backwards compatibility with earlier email clients (Outlook 2003 or earlier).

3) The Autodiscover service must be configured in order for web downloads to work correctly (you can refer to previous blog entries for more details on Autodiscover)

4) The new distribution has several advantages such as the ability to support more concurrent client connections, reduce bandwidth usage, and provide more resilient OAB downloads. The web-based OAB downloads utilize the Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) technology that is also used to download updates from the Windows Update site.

For a more in-depth look at this feature and its associated components, please see the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog link below:

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/11/15/431502.aspx


Vaz