Outlook 2003: OST without Cached Exchange Mode?

[Sandy Tipper]

I'm trying to understand how offline folders work
in Outlook 2003 with an Exchange account.
Can anyone confirm, deny, or correct my findings?

I "think" this is the way it works:
- Cached Exchange Mode is a layer built on top of
offline files, designed to make them easier to use and manage
- if you turn off Cached Exchange Mode, you still have
offline files enabled, but only sync with Send/Receive
- if you have a synced ost and disconnect from the net:
- and have offline files enabled, you can read new
messages that were already in your Inbox at last
sync, regardless of the Cached Exchange Mode setting
- but if you turn off Cached Exchange Mode AND
you disable offline files, you cannot read messages in
your Inbox (for example)
Question:
1. Without offline files, can you even "see" your Inbox?
2. Is there any reason ever to enable offline files but
disable Cached Exchange Mode?

Thanks,
Sandy

 

[Ryan Dick]

I am not sure the exact differences, but what I do know is that:

1. If you have Cached Exchange Mode, and while you are in Outlook, or goto
start outlook and Exchange is unabailable (either the server is offline or
it is busy) you still have full access to your emails (since the last sync).
You can also send emails (they will be placed in a queue
2. WHile in Cached mode, emails don't seem to appear instantly like they do
while in regular mode.

While the second point sometimes causes issues (it is only a few seconds
delay), a Send/Receive fixes the issue, the times it saves you when the
exchange server is unavailable makes up for it.

Not sure of technically why, but you may wish to check with your exchange
administrator to see if its ok to use cached mode - as I am pretty sure it
adds a lot of extra traffic to the network (I know we are warned to only use
it for laptop computers - we have around 3000 exchange accounts).

DOes this help?