Using Outlook without Exchange in a Terminal Services environment for a small office

  • Thread starter Thread starter David Jensen
  • Start date Start date
D

David Jensen

I am looking for a solution that will allow me to use Outlook at work and
home from the same .pst file.

Is it dangerous (from a virus perspective) to install it on a domain
controller/file server/DNS server that runs everything else in an office of
four people? I mention the number of people since I read somewhere that
Outlook is a resource hog on a TS. Would four people running Outlook much
of the time and a user or two using MS Access much of the time on a recent
model server (Dell 1600 SC) with Win 2003 server and 1 GB of ram be asking
too much in a TS environment? What about if only two users in the office
used Outlook across TS? Would that make it OK?

It seems like this would be a good way to see my schedule and contacts from
anywhere. It also seems like it would be a problem bringing attached files
to the local machine, although I guess I could log onto the webmail email
access from my hosting company to pull the files down, provided I "leave a
copy of messages on [hosting] server".

What are the issues with this arrangement? Would I see a measurable
performance hit when using Outlook in a TS environment when I'm actually on
the LAN?

Thanks so much for steering me in the proper way here.
 
Outlook is pretty stable and ok under TS. No resource hog (not more than
Office apps). A TS with the specs you posted should be able to handle easily
15-20 people running Office apps including Outlook.
If the TS runs other stuff this may be reduced but for 4 people, no problem
at all.
Attachments are not an issue as we usually handle them on the TS itself. If
you need to bring the attachment to the local machine you can do it (as 2003
supports access to the local machine drives) but it may be slow depending on
your connection to the TS.

--
Cláudio Rodrigues

Microsoft MVP
Windows Technologies - Terminal Services
http://www.terminal-services.net
 
Great! I'm glad to hear that we might have a solution to the 'access
Outlook from anywhere, without Exchange Server' problem. I'm very
encouraged - unless someone else posts with a dissenting opinion.

Should I be concerned about viruses coming directly onto the server (which
handles everything in our office) through Outlook - I have Symantec AV Small
Business Edition on it?

I had no idea that the local drive support worked in WS 2003. That is a big
plus.

Thanks for your insight.

David Jensen



Cláudio Rodrigues said:
Outlook is pretty stable and ok under TS. No resource hog (not more than
Office apps). A TS with the specs you posted should be able to handle
easily 15-20 people running Office apps including Outlook.
If the TS runs other stuff this may be reduced but for 4 people, no
problem at all.
Attachments are not an issue as we usually handle them on the TS itself.
If you need to bring the attachment to the local machine you can do it (as
2003 supports access to the local machine drives) but it may be slow
depending on your connection to the TS.

--
Cláudio Rodrigues

Microsoft MVP
Windows Technologies - Terminal Services
http://www.terminal-services.net
David Jensen said:
I am looking for a solution that will allow me to use Outlook at work and
home from the same .pst file.

Is it dangerous (from a virus perspective) to install it on a domain
controller/file server/DNS server that runs everything else in an office
of four people? I mention the number of people since I read somewhere
that Outlook is a resource hog on a TS. Would four people running
Outlook much of the time and a user or two using MS Access much of the
time on a recent model server (Dell 1600 SC) with Win 2003 server and 1
GB of ram be asking too much in a TS environment? What about if only two
users in the office used Outlook across TS? Would that make it OK?

It seems like this would be a good way to see my schedule and contacts
from anywhere. It also seems like it would be a problem bringing
attached files to the local machine, although I guess I could log onto
the webmail email access from my hosting company to pull the files down,
provided I "leave a copy of messages on [hosting] server".

What are the issues with this arrangement? Would I see a measurable
performance hit when using Outlook in a TS environment when I'm actually
on the LAN?

Thanks so much for steering me in the proper way here.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Back
Top