BPOS Rocks

BPOS Sign In Application

I've been using BPOS quite some time now. One of the main questions people ask me is where they can download the BPOS Sign In Application.

The Sign in Application for BPOS can be downloaded from a number of locations:

• My Company Portal:
  https://home.microsoftonline.com/Download/Downloads.aspx
  
• Microsoft Downloads:
  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5c2ca866-4107-4ae5-98d5-76bf1b18ff87&displaylang=en

BPOS & Mac

Some time ago I did a post on Mac support for BPOS (http://www.bposrocks.com/2009/11/bpos-now-offers-mac-support.html). Actually this was just a repost of the Microsoft Online Services Team announcing the public beta of Mac support for OS X.

In the meanwhile Microsoft has released its final Single Sign In tool for the Mac OS X. You can download it from here: Download Sign In application for Mac OS X. The sign in applications allows you to use single sign in with the applications like Entourage 2004/2008/2008 EWS, Live Meeting and My Company Portal.

The usage of the Sign In application has some limits:

• SSO only works with Safari 4 or higher must be the default browser. If another browser is used there will be no automatic login to My Company Portal.
• Communicator is not currently available for the Mac
• Document Connection can be used but will not be auto configured

When you open the package make sure you install it in the Applications directory. If you place it somewhere else it doesn't work as it is support to and will post an error message stating you have the wrong username and password.

The following software requirements are applicable:

Software	Supported Version
Operating system	Macintosh OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Macintosh OS X 10.4 (Tiger)
System software	Java client 1.4.2
Browser software	Safari 3 (on Macintosh OS X 10.5 or Macintosh OS X 10.4)
E-mail client software	Microsoft Entourage® 2008 Microsoft Entourage 2008 Web Services Edition Microsoft Entourage 2004
Authentication software	Online Services Sign In application
Improved access to SharePoint Online	Microsoft Document Connection for Mac
Office Live Meeting software	Live Meeting Web Access

Although the Sign In application works perfectly a big missing part in Entourage is the possibility to lookup users through the Global Address List (GAL). This problem is created because Entourage uses LDAP to talk to the directory server. Because an LDAP connection is not possible with BPOS / Exchange Online it just doesn't work. There are to workarounds for this:

• OWA GAL Search
• A script provided by the Entourage Help Page

Some additional information:

• Macintosh Support Service Description: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=c54976c5-cddc-4682-afc8-9a1dafd6ed11
• Microsoft Online Services Sign In for Mac: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=a3f34420-bb96-47ce-9844-4eab1eb9026d

Single Sign In Tool: Unable to establish a secure connection

Today we faced a strange problem with the Single Sign In tool of one of our customers. The tool displayed after trying to sign in:

"The client was unable to establish a secure connection with the server. Please try signing in again. If the problem persists, please contact your system administrator."

   

Finally we solved this problem by changing the system time to match the server time. The system time was 5 minutes behind the server time.

 

BPOS now offers MAC support

From the Technet Blog:

Because many of you have asked to use your Macs with Microsoft Online Services, we've been developing a Mac Sign-In application to provide Mac users with the same "single-sign-in" functionality provided to our PC users.

After installing and signing-in to this application, you can send and receive Exchange Online e-mail and access SharePoint Online sites from your Mac without having to sign-in multiple times. This application will also configure Entourage to connect to your Exchange Online mailbox.

Preview the Mac Sign-In Application

To get an early look at the Mac Sign-In application, register via the Microsoft Connect site using this Invitation ID: MAC-Y689-6QBR. After downloading the application and the documentation, you're ready to get started.

If you have any issues connecting to the site, downloading or using the sign-in application, send e-mail to the BPOS Mac Preview Program team.

Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 Configuration

Today one of our clients started using Office Communications Online. We helped them get their subscription. After logging in to their Company Portal (https://home.emea.microsoftonline.com/Home/Home.aspx) they received the following error message:

You have not been assigned any services that you can use from My Company Portal. Your assigned services can be used only from your desktop. If you have questions about your services, contact your service administrator

Normally the company portal shows several services like a link to all SharePoint Online sites, Outlook Web Access and Live Meeting. Because they don't have any of these services assigned their homepage for their Company Portal is empty.

In order to get them going we helped them with downloading the Microsoft Online Services Sign In Application and installing Office Communications Server. Both can be downloaded via the Downloads page on the Microsoft Online Services / My Company Portal:

After they installed both these applications they still couldn't sign in to the environment. After talking to them they pointed out the Sign In Application showed an error message:

This application was not configured successfully

Via the Options Tab under Advanced Options a link is available called Reconfigure my desktop applications. Clicking that link solved all problems:

Microsoft Online Services (BPOS) USA gets update

Over the next few days BPOS usa will get an update. This update will provide some extra functionality but does require some changes to SharePoint Online and the Directory Synchronization tooling. Next to this you'll have to update the SSO tool.

The message send by the BPOS team is copied below:

Upgrade Timeline

3/26 The new version of the Sign In application is available for download 4/15 Optional upgrade notifications appear in the Sign In application 5/15 Mandatory upgrade notification appears in the Sign In application

We are writing to inform you of three changes to the service that may require updates to your environment.

1. Sign In Application

In mid-May, Microsoft Online Services will require an update to the Sign In application. The options for deploying this upgrade are:

Allow users to automatically upgrade the Sign In application when prompted (no administration required)     Suppress the display of update notifications until you are ready to upgrade     Deploy the Sign In application to your users' computers

See Upgrade Your Sign In Application to assist you in planning for this change to your environment.

2. SharePoint Online Update

Have you customized your SharePoint Site Collections? If you have changed the SharePoint Online master page or uploaded a custom master page, you will need to take action before the April upgrade. See Update Your Microsoft SharePoint Online Site Collections for more information.

If you have not customized your site collections, no action is needed.

3. Directory Synchronization Update

Do you use the Microsoft Online Services Directory Synchronization tool? If so, you will be interested to learn that Windows Update recently released a high priority update that will stop your Directory Synchronization service. After installing this update, you will need to restart Directory Synchronization. For more information, see Directory Synchronization Update.