As Carl
already blogged, ST651IF1
has been released again to address SPR’s to date and also supply newer
versions of some parts of the product, including the sametime client for
the desktop. Release
Notes are here.
The original sametime everyplace server
worked on pocketpc but always caused
me grief on the blackberries.
Especially the native client (the java client worked ok). As
posted by Ed
and Carl,
RIM
are introducing a new sametime plug-in on the berry client later this year.
I am looking forward to seeing this in action, and hope that is causes
me less grief then STEP did…
I was discussing the integrated IM client
with a site that had it deployed recently. To be honest, they are
completely raving about the product. The users love Lotus Notes now.
As per usual, there were company grumblings of how rubbish this Lotus
Notes thing is, compared to their Outlook client at home. Now they
have ND6 and Single Sign on to Sametime, it has added a completely new
aspect to the product. Next stop is adding the IM functionality
to their apps…..
As a slight criticism, it was
pointed out that the UI of the sametime client is quite poor compared to
the UI of the public products. Lotus (as ever) have put in extensive
work into the back end, security, interoperability and standards based
products, and it would be a shame for the front end to let them down. Microsoft
have a fabulous habit of concentrating on the excellent front ends they
provide, but with a poor back end running it (lets not get started about
standards!!). I agreed that the ST client, even the built in one,
could do with a bit of a reshape. But then again, maybe that isn’t
where the product is going. As IM "integrates" with Lotus
Notes, and any other application, there will eventually be no "client"
for sametime. It will just be part of every other application. This
is where IM is going on the desktop, and I welcome it. But then again,
users will always have a buddy list…. and no doubt that is where M$ are
going to spend time on the look.
[
If you are pushing out Notes 6.5x and you want to use the built in IM client, there is a very useful feature in the User Preferences that forces a single sign-on between the Notes client and sametime. Simply put, this means that when you log onto Notes, an authenticated "token" is passed to sametime and the user is logged in. SSO configuration needs to be done between the authentication server (possibly LDAP server) and the Sametime server for this to work.
It works great, but this feature (as yet) cant be pushed down to clients using the policy configuration. So, if you want to enable this, add the following line to the notes.ini of the clients using install scripts or an agent.
IM_Enable_SSO=1
Feature is then enabled on the clients.
]
[
Two significant announcements in relation to the acceptance of SIP as a communication standard. Microsoft's "enhanced SIP" statement and now Jabber's SIP gateway statement for IBM (posted by Ed). I may be jumping off the mark but I am getting an soft tingly feeling about this.
Any regular readers (yes both of you) would know that I had a SIP gateway running here (http://sip.pmooney.net) for anyone to conduct SIP testing off. No takers at the time (Build it, and they will come.... - nope). I have already implemented a SIP gateway between my company and one of our major cusomters and the benifit is outstanding. The corporate presence is a powerful feature as my customer can talk to any member of our company just like talking to a internal sametime buddy. We are listed in their buddy list, but with our own email address. Its all encrypted, and we are virtual staff members but retain our identity.
So.. I am willing to give it another go here if anyone is interested. Would anyone like me to re-set up the SIP gateway?. If so let me know. I am also offering to put together an article on SIP and IM. Again, if there is a significant number of interested parties, I will write it (now its "come, and I will build it).
]
[
Hats off to Carl Tyler and Instant Technologiesfor a neat product. I had to recommend a Sametime logging tool to a customer and downloaded the trial version of IMtegrity available on their site.
The product takes about 15 minutes to install and records all chat that occurs on the server to text files and/or XML. Then, its nice enough to run an agent that copies all chats to a database for review/searching. The configuraiton is easy and the interface and databases are sweet. My only little requests as a "would be nice" is that the notice that the chats are being logged (for AOL users) could be set to appear at the start on intra-sametime chats.
Its no biggie - excellent product!
]
Working on enabling the site for sametime chats using the STLinks feature so the server will be going up and down like a yo-yo for the next few evenings. Getting the feature to run should be easy enough but I have my reservations that my old desktop running this site will be able to handle the staddin task. I decided to revert back to 6.5.2 to get this running but that leads to a question. Has anyone tried to overlay ST651 on an ND7 server yet? I may give it a try and post results when everything else is working.
[
Sitting in Dublin Airport waiting to head off to bonnie Scotland for a weekend of server upgrades, clustering and enhancement implementation for a customer. Dublin Airport has free Wireless Access (pretty good aswell) in numerous hotspots up until June 30th. Ireland is currently holding the presidency of the European Union and good old Eircom thought it would be a nice feature to offer travellers. Of course, starting July 1st, you will have to pay through the nose for access..
Apologies if its a repost but I haven't seen anyone mention this new 652 feature which will come in quite useful for some IM clients of mine.
IM enhancements in Domino Web Access
In Domino Web Access 6.5.2, users will be able to use the Lotus Sametime Connect for browsers 6.5.1 as the Instant Messaging (Chat) client. Using the Sametime Connect contact list manager, users can share contact lists with the Notes client. Domino Web Access Instant Messaging lists can be transferred to the Sametime server, so that existing Domino Web Access lists do not have to be recreated.
Taken from release notes...
Transferring Existing Domino Web Access Instant Messaging Lists
To use existing Domino Web Access Instant Messaging lists, users must transfer their existing Instant Messaging lists in the Domino Web Access Chat client before the Sametime Connect for browsers 6.5.1 client is implemented. To transfer Instant Messaging lists, users need to follow these steps:
Setting Sametime Connect 6.5.1 as the Chat client
The default Chat client in 6.5.2 is the Domino Web Access Chat client, which is the same client used in Domino Web Access 6.5.1. To use the new Sametime Connect for browsers 6.5.1 as the chat client, use the following NOTES.INI setting:
Syntax: iNotes_WA_SametimeJavaConnect=value
Description: Use this setting to use the Sametime Connect for browsers user interface, rather than the Domino Web Access chat user interface.
1= on
Applies to: All Domino Web Access clients
Default: 1
UI equivalent: None
New List Management Capability
In previous releases, the integrated Domino Web Access chat client stored Instant Messaging lists locally. However, in 6.5.2 using Sametime Connect for browsers 6.5.1 client in Domino Web Access, Instant Messaging contact lists are stored on the Sametime server, so that Domino Web Access users and Notes client users can share the same lists. Private Instant Messaging lists that were created and stored in the user's mail file in previous versions of Chat on Domino Web Access, can be synchronized with these public lists, before implementation of the Sametime Connect for browsers client, so that users do not have to recreate their private Instant Messaging lists on the Sametime server
]
Not had much time to post recently. In the past two weeks, I have
set-up an unusual Blackberry installation for one customer site and today
finished my first live SIP proof of concept installation with a customer.
Once the DNS entries were sorted out, it worked a charm and I must
say, after seeing it in operation with real customers, there was an immediate
business benefit to be gained. Immediately our customer could just
post questions to the office regarding dates, pricing, licenses and could
see when the support staff were on-line, and then post a question to them.
For all those that would like to test
their SIP gateway, http://sip.pmooney.net
is up and running. If you want to test your connection over unencrypted
SIP connection, just mail me on pmooney@pmooney.net and we can exchange
connector details. I hope to get the server broadcasting using TLS
in the next few days. I will keep up the server as long as
there is interest in testing connections over the internet. Although
SIP has a limited "standards" life span, houses are starting
to implement, specificially for Sametime – Sametime communication.
