Thoughtbus Hosted Exchange and SharePoint Services
Exchange 2003 FAQ
Everyone:
1. How do I change my password?
2. How can I tell how much space I’m using in my Thoughtbus Exchange mailbox?
3. How do I import a .pst file to my Thoughtbus mailbox?
4. Why does Outlook Web Access keep prompting me for my username?
5. I start Outlook and nothing happens. What now?
6. I deleted something from “Deleted Items” accidentally. Can it be recovered?
7. How do I access a “delegated” mailbox with Outlook Web Access?
Administrators:
8. I need to increase the storage limits on a mailbox. How?
9. How do I add a new user to my organization?
11. How do I send email to Public Folders?
12. What are all these permissions on my Public Folders?
13. How can I add a SharePoint user without adding an Exchange mailbox?
In order to change you Thoughtbus password, please use the Outlook Web Access interface. (It cannot be done with the standard Outlook client.) Logon to Outlook Web Access by browsing to https://mail.thoughtbus.com. After logging into your Thoughtbus mailbox, choose “Options”, and scroll all the way down to the bottom of the frame on the right. You will see an option to change your password:
Once you press the ‘Change Password’ button, the following window appears:
In the ‘Account’ field, please enter your Thoughtbus username (generally the part of your primary SMTP address to the left of the ‘@’). Enter the password information and press ‘OK’ to change your password.
How can I tell how much space I’m using in my Thoughtbus Exchange mailbox?
Using Microsoft Outlook, you can see the amount of space that your mailbox is using on the Thoughtbus server by right-clicking on your top-level mailbox (the one that’s marked “Mailbox - <your name>”), choosing “Properties”, clicking the “Mailbox Size” button, and then selecting the ‘Server Data’ tab.
How do I import a .pst file to my Thoughtbus mailbox?
If you have been using Microsoft Outlook before you signed up for Thoughtbus service, and you want to import your mail, Calendar, and Contacts into your Thoughtbus mailbox, you can do this by locating the Personal Folders (.pst) file that contains your information, and import it to your Thoughtbus mailbox using the “File / Import and Export” function within Outlook. This brings up the following window:
Select ‘Import from another program or file’ and press ‘Next’. In the ‘Import a File’ window, scroll down and choose the “Personal Folder File” option and press ‘Next’.
In the ‘Import Personal Folders’ window, specify the location of your .pst file. Choose how you would like duplicates to be handled and press ‘Next’.
Now, choose what you want to import. In order to import everything you have stored in Outlook (Contacts, Calendar, etc.), choose the top-level folder that is (most likely) listed as “Personal Folders”, check the box that says “Include subfolders”, and have the items import into the same folder in your Thoughtbus mailbox.
Click ‘Finish’, and the import process will begin, after which your old mail (and anything else you chose to import) will be in your Thoughtbus mailbox.
NOTE: Before performing the above procedure, please check the size of the .pst file, and the remaining space in your Thoughtbus mailbox, to ensure that importing the .pst file will not result in your mailbox reaching its size limit. For example, if your mailbox limit is 300 MB, and you determine (via FAQ item #2 above) that your mailbox currently uses 173 MB, and when you view the properties of the .pst file, you find it is 150 MB, then the .pst file will likely fill your Thoughtbus mailbox. If this happened you would be unable to send or receive emails, so in this case we recommend paring down the information to be imported – you could move some information to another .pst file before importing the first .pst file to your mailbox, for example.
Why does Outlook Web Access keep prompting me for my username?
When you logon to Outlook Web Access in the default “Public or shared computer” mode, the timeout period is very short; approximately 15 to 30 minutes. So, if you do not use Outlook Web Access for this period of time, the next time you use Outlook Web Access, you’ll be prompted for your username and password again. This is a security precaution to prevent unauthorized access to your mailbox if you’re using a computer that is accessed by many people. If you choose the “Private computer” option at the Outlook Web Access logon screen, Outlook Web Access will take 24 to 36 hours to timeout.
I start Outlook and nothing happens. What now?
If you double-click your Outlook icon and nothing happens, there’s most likely another instance of Outlook running in the background. To remove the other instance, use the Task Manager. Hit Ctrl-Alt-Del. If the Task Manager does not come up automatically, click on the box that says “Task Manager”. Select the second tab, which is marked “Processes”. Next, look for an image name of “OUTLOOK.EXE”. Click on it and hit “End Process”.
Please note that this issue has been fixed in the latest update for Outlook 2003. You can get the latest update for Outlook 2003 by running ‘Office Update’ from Microsoft, available here: http://office.microsoft.com/officeupdate/maincatalog.aspx?lc=en-us
I deleted something from “Deleted Items” accidentally. Can it be recovered?
If you delete something from your “Deleted Items” folder, you can still restore it for up to 7 days by choosing “Tools – Recover Deleted Items”. Beyond that amount of time, we would need to perform a mailbox restore to recover the item. Please work with your organization’s Thoughtbus administrator to request the restore of a mailbox.
How do I access a “delegated” mailbox with Outlook Web Access?
To access a “delegated” mailbox or shared mailbox folder from within Outlook Web Access you need to use a specific URL, in the following format:
https://mail.thoughtbus.com/exchange/<other user’s full email address>/<folder>
So, if you work at “company.com” and Mary Smith has assigned you as a delegate for her “Contacts” folder, your URL might look like this:
https://mail.thoughtbus.com/exchange/marysmith@company.com/Contacts
You will be prompted for your username and password, after which you will be granted access to Mary Smith’s Contacts folder. Please note that you can be logged into your own mailbox as well via Outlook Web Access, in a separate window.
I need to increase the storage limits on a mailbox. How?
If you are your organization’s Thoughtbus administrator, you can increase the storage limits on a mailbox from within the Thoughtbus Administration Console, at http://mail.thoughtbus.com/ProvisioningConsole. (Please see the section Using the Administration Console, in http://www.thoughtbus.com/support.html, for more information on running the Administration Console for the first time.) Double-click the user’s name and choose “Packages”, click ‘+’, then ‘Exchange 2003’, then ‘Edit’ to edit the Exchange 2003 settings. There you will see a tab for “Limits”.
How do I add a new user to my organization?
If you are your company’s Thoughtbus administrator, you can add a new user to your organization through the Thoughtbus Administration Console, by right-clicking on your company name and selecting “Create / New User”.
This issue where you cannot run the Thoughtbus Administration Console is a bug in 'update 6' or newer of the 'J2SE Runtime Environment' (JRE) 5.0, and any update of JRE 6.0. The bug breaks the ability of the Administration Console to use a previous version of the JRE once 'JRE 5.0 update 6' or newer, or any update of JRE 6.0, is installed. The bug does not exist in 'update 5' or any previous versions. The work-around to this problem is to uninstall the newer version(s), and then install 'JRE 5.0 update 5' -- here's how:
(1) In the Windows Control Panel, use the ‘Add or Remove Programs’ applet to remove the 'J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 6' or newer, along with any updates of JRE 6.0.
(2) Install 'J2SE Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 5' from here
a.) Accept the License Agreement
b.) Download and install the 'Windows Online Installation, Multi-language' version
How do I send email to Public Folders?
If you want a Public Folder to be able to receive email, please email or call Thoughtbus Support and we will set it up for you. This feature is not enabled by default.
What are all these permissions on my Public Folders?
If you look through the permissions on your Public Folders, you will see a number of Thoughtbus service accounts. Do not remove these, as they are required for maintenance and backup purposes. In addition, please do not change the ‘Default’ group from a role of ‘None’, as this group consists of all users of Thoughtbus hosted Exchange – not just your organization. The ‘…DELADMIN…’ group consists of the administrator(s) of your organization. The ‘…OU_USERS…’ group consists of all the users within your organization’s main container in the Thoughtbus Administration Console.
How can I add a SharePoint user without adding an Exchange mailbox?
If your organization has an Thoughtbus hosted SharePoint site, and you want to add a new person to the site, but you don’t want to create an Exchange mailbox, just add the person in the Thoughtbus Administration Console, but do not subscribe them to a package. (In the Admin Console after you create the User, a window titled ‘Auto-Subscribe a Package’ appears. Press the ‘Cancel’ button in this window to avoid subscribing to a package.) Once you’ve created the User in the Admin Console, you can add the User to the SharePoint site, via the ‘Site Settings / Manage Users’ link.