Client Side
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On the client side, the primary face of Exchange Online is a new
single sign-on application that offers a common authentication, and a
single launching point, for the various Microsoft Online Services to
which a user has access. What's more, the application will handle
initial setup of a local instance of Outlook 2007 if there's one
present on your client system.
The application's Outlook setup function worked well enough, but
when I fired up Internet Explorer 7 to access OWA, I was prompted for
my password, even though I'd already logged on through the single
sign-on tool. I'm hoping that Microsoft gets its promised single
sign-on support working before it marks this service as RTM.
Finally, I synced one of my Exchange Online accounts up with an iPod
Touch running Apple's new 2.0 firmware. Here, the trick was locating
the correct URL to use to configure the service from my device. I
eventually found the string I needed (red001.mail.microsoftonline.com)
on Microsoft's TechNet Web site, but I would have preferred it if the
ActiveSync-Exchange combo could have managed to automatically discover
the configuration details from my e-mail domain.
eWEEK Labs' Executive Editor Jason Brooks can be reached at jbrooks@eweek.com.
