Conference rooms in Exchange & Outlook
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I am looking for the best way to handle conference rooms within Exchange and Outlook to make them easy to schedule, update, and access. I have Exchange 2003 on a Windows 2003 Server and I have 9 conference/meeting rooms. Right now I have a calendar setup for each one and the person has to go in and actually put the info in this way. I know there is a better way to do this, that makes it easy to know if the room is available, but not sure what it is. Any articles or steps that can I can be pointed towards is greatly appreciated. Thanks
Software/Hardware used:
Software/Hardware used:
ASKED:
May 8, 2006 4:37 PM
UPDATED:
June 14, 2006 5:24 PM
Answer Wiki:
What you are looking for is Resource Accounts.
Setup the conference room as a user.T
Open the conference room with Outlook (only needed one time). Then, follow the instructions here:
jmw
To see all answers submitted to the Answer Wiki: View Answer History.
Setting up the resource so it can be scheduled is in the Outlook Help:
Set up a resource so that it can be scheduled
This feature requires Microsoft Exchange.
1. This procedure works only if you are the resource administrator or you?ve been given owner permissions.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click Calendar Options.
3. Click Resource Scheduling.
4. Click the options you want. For Help on an option, click and then click the option.
5. Click Set Permissions
6. Click the Permissions tab, and then click Add.
7. In the Type name or select from list box, enter the name of each person you want to grant permissions to, clicking Add after each name.
8. Click OK.
9. In the Permission Level list, click Author.
we were using an account to book conference rooms, cameras, laptops, projectors (any resource really) but it had its own issues. We just completed the implementation of the Auto Accept Agent. It’s working flawlessly thus far.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2003/library/autoaccpt.mspx
Definitely, definitely use AutoAccept Agent. It works beautifully, is easy to install, does not require rebooting of the server and is by far the best free method for this purpose I have come across.
The Microsoft article given by MemphisJim takes you through all the steps you need in a very clear, comprehensive manner. Don’t be put off by the length of the document – it is just very detailed. It took me about 30 minutes to pick out the salient bits that applied to my situation AND install it and get it up and running. It was so simple it made me nervous! But it has worked without any errors, hassle, overhead or IT support calls since I installed it about 4 months ago. Could Microsoft have achieved perfection???
Highly recommended! Good luck!