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Microsoft has release a Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 update  for Windows Mobile 6.0 Pocket PC and Smartphone. The new release includes the following fixes:

• Homescreen support for new homescreens in Windows Mobile 6.5+ phones.
• Integration within the phone dialer for Windows Mobile 6.5+ phones.
• Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 now recognizes when the phone is roaming, and by default does not sign in to roaming networks.
• Additional support for joining conference calls from a Windows Mobile appointment. To do this, press Menu, and then press Join Conference.
• Enables users to log on with a username of the format user@example.com, in addition to domain\user.
• When placing Call via Work calls, callbacks are now automatically accepted.
• Microsoft Installer (MSI) installation on Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) fails. In this situation, users should install Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 by using a .Cab installation.
• AT&T FUZE devices set for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) connection cannot handle voice and data at the same time. This causes Call via Work calls to fail unless the device is reverted to 3rd Generation (3G) by disabling HSDPA.

 Download here:

Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 for Pocket PC

Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 for Smart Phone

Today I finally did the OCS 2007 R2 exam (070-638) and passed it with 955 points. I’m a little bit proud of myself . The exam contains 65 questions and some of them are about R2. So what’s next……mmm.

If you are an OCS administrator you probably already know there are a lot of server roles. Depending on your company you will implement some or all the server roles. To find out which roles can and can’t be combined, I’ve posted a simple overview table. This speed up your search in the various OCS 2007 R2 whitepapers.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of MS Press, Microsoft will give away free e-books every month. This month they give away two OCS 2007 R2 e-books.

Get the OCS 2007 e-book here: Free e-books: All OCS all the time!
All 2009 free MS Press e-books

Microsoft Press has anounched a new Unified Communications title: “Programming for Unified Communications. This book provides hands-on guidance when planning to integrate OCS 2007 with your enterpirse applications.

Click here for more information.

To provide remote access to an OCS infrastructure you will need to implement an OCS Edge server in your DMZ network. Implementing an OCS Edge server can become a very complicated task. Microsoft released a new OCS Edge planning tool, to help you implementing an OCS 2007 R2 edge server.

Downland: Edge Planning Tool for Office Communications Server 2007 R2

Troubleshooting connection problems with Office Communicator can be a hard thing to do.
Debugging tracelogs, eventlogs or using the snooper tool from the resourcekit are possible ways the detect connection problems.

The Office Communicator 2007 R2 version has a very useful new function to help you find possible problems. When you holding the CTRL key and right click the Communicator icon you will notice a extra option “Configuration Information”. When selecting this option a dialog box opens with connection information.
 

Source: http://communicationsserverteam.com/archive/2009/04/08/400.aspx

Microsoft released a OCS 2007 R2 Management Pack for Operations Manager 2007.

The Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Management Pack monitors Standard and Enterprise Edition of Office Communications Server 2007 R2. This release also incorporates the Quality of Experience (QoE) MP which was previously a separate Management Pack. Monitored types are event log entries, performance counters, as well as stateful monitoring of QoE. Note that this version of the Management Pack only monitors Office Communications Server 2007 R2, and cannot be used to monitor Office Communications Server 2007.

Download: Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 SP1

The March issue of Microsoft’s Technet Magazine is all about OCS 2007 R2. This issue contains some very interesting articles about Microsofts latest UC product. Some of the articles are:

• Office Communications Server: What’s New in Office Communications Server 2007 R2
• Office Communications Server: How Remote Call Control Powers OCS 2007 R2
• Office Communications Server: Securing OCS with ISA Server
• Office Communications Server: Managing OCS 2007 R2 from the Command Line
• Office Communications Server: A Powerful Tool for OCS Planning and Deployment

Link: Technet Magazine March 2009

I recently upgraded my OCS 2007 server to the latest R2 release. After the upgrade I did some test with the new Communicator R2 client. When I tried to call my voicemail or the voicemail of somebody else, I received the following error.

“Incompatible security setting.
 The call could not be completed because security levels do not match“

At the Communicator client side it’s also possible to configure 3 levels of security.
These levels can be configured with a group policy settings (use the communicator.adm file) or by manually editing the registry.

After some research I found out, there are 3 levels of security you can configure on your Exchange server UC dial plan. The following table shows the 3 security levels:

At the Communicator client side it’s also possible to configure 3 levels of security.
These levels can be configured using a group policy setting (import the communicator.adm file) or by manually editing the registry.

The following security settings are availible:

0 = Support encryption, but do not require it. Should only be used with the TLS network protocol. (default)
1 = Require encryption. Unencrypted calls are not accepted. Should only be used with the TLS network protocol.
2 = Do not support encryption. Encrypted calls are not accepted.

After all it seems there are two possible solutions to solve the security error:

• Change the Exchange UM dialplan VoIP security setting to Secured
• Change the Communicator encryption level to Support encryption