Sharing Contacts and Calendar?

[Bryan Anderson]

I work with a friend on a joint project and we have a need to share a
diary and contacts. Here's the situation:

ME:

iPaq <---> Laptop <---> Desktop PC (A)
|
|
FRIEND: Z: mapped via VPN
|
Palm <---> Laptop <----------

Not sure if that makes sense on everyone's screens, but I have a
desktop PC that I use as a server. I have a laptop that I run Outlook
2003 on and I sync that with an iPaq. My friend has a laptop and he
has a drive mapped to my server via VPN. He also runs Outlook 2003 and
he syncs his with a Palm device.

Now - he uses Outlook for email, calendar and contacts and I use it
for calendar and contacts only. We need to share the calendar and the
contacts (ideally with the option to mark some contacts and apps. as
private) but not the email.

What is the easiest, simplest and FREE way to do this? Can I somehow
set up a new .pst file on the shared drive and allow us both access
to that?

I ave tried Googling but only seem to find stuff about Exchange Server
which is way beyond our needs and budgets.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

I work with a friend on a joint project and we have a need to share a
diary and contacts. Here's the situation:

ME:

iPaq <---> Laptop <---> Desktop PC (A)
|
|
FRIEND: Z: mapped via VPN
|
Palm <---> Laptop <----------

Not sure if that makes sense on everyone's screens, but I have a
desktop PC that I use as a server. I have a laptop that I run Outlook
2003 on and I sync that with an iPaq. My friend has a laptop and he
has a drive mapped to my server via VPN. He also runs Outlook 2003 and
he syncs his with a Palm device.

Now - he uses Outlook for email, calendar and contacts and I use it
for calendar and contacts only. We need to share the calendar and the
contacts (ideally with the option to mark some contacts and apps. as
private) but not the email.

What is the easiest, simplest and FREE way to do this? Can I somehow
set up a new .pst file on the shared drive and allow us both access
to that?

I ave tried Googling but only seem to find stuff about Exchange Server
which is way beyond our needs and budgets.

One free option: each of you can set up a rree Yahoo mail account, use
Intellisync for Yahoo to sync your contacts/calendars, and set permissions
in Yahoo so each can view the other's data through a web browser. Can't
combine them into one, that I know of...although it might be possible to
sync a single Yahoo account with two Outlooks....I've never tried.

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/share.htm is another resource, but since
you aren't on the same LAN I don't know that many will work.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/share.htm is another resource, but
since you aren't on the same LAN I don't know that many will work.

Since the OP said the connection was via VPN, doesn't that put them both on
the same (virtual) LAN?

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/share.htm is another resource, but
since you aren't on the same LAN I don't know that many will work.

Since the OP said the connection was via VPN, doesn't that put them
both on the same (virtual) LAN?

Actually, it's a WAN, strictly speaking. I would not recommend trying any
method of sharing a PST file over a VPN link. It's bad enough trying to
access a PST file over a 100Mbps network connection.....(and also isn't
supported).

 

[Bryan Anderson]

One free option: each of you can set up a rree Yahoo mail account,
use Intellisync for Yahoo to sync your contacts/calendars, and set
permissions in Yahoo so each can view the other's data through a
web browser. Can't combine them into one, that I know of...although
it might be possible to sync a single Yahoo account with two Outlooks
....I've never tried.

That's what we do at the moment but it's a bit flakey. We have one
Yahoo account that we can both access and we both use Intellisync
to sync it with our desktops. But we get lots of duplicates, very
often an appointment made on Yahoo online, won't come down in the
sync and so on. We are trying to look for something that isn't at
all dependant on another companies service either.

http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/share.htm is another resource, but
since you aren't on the same LAN I don't know that many will work.

Thanks, I'll have a look to see if there's anything useful there.

 

[Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]]

That's what we do at the moment but it's a bit flakey. We have one
Yahoo account that we can both access and we both use Intellisync
to sync it with our desktops. But we get lots of duplicates, very
often an appointment made on Yahoo online, won't come down in the
sync and so on. We are trying to look for something that isn't at
all dependant on another companies service either.

Perhaps a hosted Exchange acount might help you? Have you looked into that?