Microsoft has done an incredible job over the past 4 years increasing performance of Outlook on an Exchange server. In older versions of Outlook and Exchange every time you changed folders or opened an item in Outlook it would have to request that item or list of items from the server directly. This made Outlook very slow if you had any network or Internet issues and made accessing Outlook data when you were not on-line impossible. So much for working on the plane!

Well now things are much different. When you configure Outlook to run in Cache Mode (which is really easy to do and a default setting for newer versions of Outlook) not only can you access your Outlook Data when you are off-line but it also speeds up Outlook considerably.

What is Cache Mode?

It is a simple concept really. What Outlook does in cache mode is it keeps a copy of all your Outlook data on your computer and makes sure that copy is always in sync with your mailbox on the Exchange server. So when you change folders or open an item it does all this looking at the copy on your computer instead of having to go over the Internet or network to get it from the server every time.

How do I get Cache mode to work on my pc? 

If you want to make sure you are running in cache mode or want to know how it is done - watch the quick 2 minute video below.

Video - Outlook Cache Mode

We must get 5 customers a day asking us about all these undeliverable messages they are getting that aren't messages they even sent to people. It looks like someone has used your email account to spam someone else and you are getting the undeliverables from it.. scarey! Well it seems scarey but let me shed some light on what is actually happening...the spammers are getting smarter.

Here is what they do in simple terms.

1. Find or create a mailbox somewhere on the net that they know will create an undeliverable message when mail is sent to it.
2. Create a wonderful spam message and put the email address of the people they want to receive it (LIKE YOURS) in the "FROM" field.
3. Send those messages to the mailbox in step 1 above.

So the spammer sends the message from a server somewhere on the Internet (Usually China - Russia - Africa) to a mailbox that will bounce the message back to you because they put your email address in the "FROM" field.  Then you get the undeliverable and wonder to yourself "Umm an important message I sent came back undeliverable I better look at it" and you open it to find their spam message they wanted you to get.
Though this seems clever (many other words come to mind as well but I will spare you) it is quite simple and easy for them to do.

Some important points to know:

• They DID NOT hijack your email account to send those messages. They used some other server and spoofed your email address in the "FROM" field of the email so you would get the undeliverable/spam message of theirs.
• Hosted Exchange Providers like us at the moment cannot stop them from doing this.
• It is UNLIKELY that you have a virus sending these out but it is always good practice to run the latest anti-virus software.
• You can set-up separate rules in outlook to handle undeliverable messages in a certain way. Like if you don't want them forwarded to your mobile phone for example.
• Here is a document released by Postini our Spam Filter company on what they are doing to decrease the number of these undeliverable spam messages in your inbox. - PDF Download

All in all this is another deceptive practice used by spammers to get their junk into our inboxes and render a normally useful tool like undeliverable messages a victim of spammer exploitation.

Many people believe that once they delete an email from their "Deleted Items" folder in Outlook or empty their "Deleted Items" folder that those emails are gone forever. Well if you used Outlook on a POP account that statement would be true. Since most of us used Outlook on POP accounts for so long many of us who are now on a Microsoft Exchange server don't even know it has a handy feature called "Recover Deleted Items."

Before I go into how to use this very simple feature of Exchange and Outlook let me state that each exchange server can have a different policy set-up for how long the server will keep the items you removed from your "Deleted Items" folder. Currently the servers at Link2Exchange retain them for our customers for a period of 72 hours. Other hosted exchange providers or in-house IT departments will have different policies for how long they retain those messages for you.

Now on to the fun part.. how can I get back that important email I lost when I emptied my "Deleted Items" folder?

First you need to open Outlook. Then click on any email folder like your Inbox for example. Then click on the "Tools" menu and select "Recover Deleted Items" from the menu. Below is a screen shot of this step. 

The next screen that pops up will show all the items that have been deleted that you can "Recover." You will notice that you can sort the messages by "Subject", "Deleted On", "From" or "Received" fields. This can make it easier to find the message you are looking for. There is also a button at the top to "Select All" the messages and a button to "Recover Selected Items." so the next step to recover your important email is to find the email and select it then click the "Recover Selected Items" button at the top. 

Next navigate to your deleted items and look for the email you just recovered...pretty sweet huh? I bet quite a few business people have thanked the Microsoft Gods for adding that handy feature.

If you are not already an Exchange user I encourage you to give one of our Hosted Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes a try - we offer a 30 Day Free Trial.

(: Just can't resist a little guiltless self promotion once in a while :)

Do you have a need to view multiple times zones at once in your Outlook Calendar?

Here is a little tip on how to make Outlook show you the times on your calendar for two time zones in the same view - it's quite handy and reduces confusion especially if one time zone uses daylight savings and another may not throughout the year.

Not to mention they recently changed the dates for when DST begins and ends. Hopefully we are saving some energy as I know it confused a ton of people over the past 12 months (many of which missed important appointments because of it)....oops I digress..back to the instructions on how to use this nifty Outlook feature.

First click to view your calendar. Then be sure that you are in day or week view. You will see the hours of the day listed in the left. Right click anywhere on the left where the hours of the day are listed. Then select "Change Time zone". On the next screen check the check box "Show an additional time zone" Then below it select the additional time zone you want to see. You can label each one as well by entering whatever you want to call each one in the "Label" field.

Then simply click "OK" as your last step and now you can view two timezones in your calendar at once.

Simple and handy isn't it?

Simply put hosted exchange is Microsoft's email and collaboration server (Microsoft Exchange) which is designed to work with Outlook. The term hosted means that the exchange server is located at a data center and managed by another company for you. In the past microsoft exchange server was cost prohibitive for small to medium sized businesses to use as an email and collaboration tool because of the high cost of hardware, software and technical staff to manage it.

Now Microsoft has partnered with service providers allowing anyone the ability to use microsoft exchange for a low per user per month fee and avoid all the upfront and ongoing maintenance costs of an in-house server which are typically thousands of dollars per year even for a small 5 person company. Hosted Exchange providers typically charge between $9.95 and $24.95 per user per month depending on the number of mailboxes your company commits to and the diskspace you require for each mailbox.

Now your business can have the email and collaboration power of Microsoft Exchange Server with no management and cost of hardware, software, back-ups or even technical support to your users. Hosted Exchange providers give you a far superior solution at a fraction of the cost.