An offline address list is a set of address lists contained in
files generated and stored on an offline address list server. Users
working off-site can connect to Exchange 2000 and download offline
address lists remotely to retrieve information about other users in
the organization.
When you generate an offline address list, address lists
specified for the offline address list are converted to a single
data file and stored in a system public folder. When users download
the offline address list, this data file is used as the source of
information.
What's New
Exchange 2000 uses Active Directory to provide offline address list
services previously provided by the Exchange Directory. These
services are similar to those provided for the offline address book
in previous versions of Exchange.
Best Practices
Select an Appropriate Server to Generate and Update Offline
Address Lists
The more address lists contained in an offline address list, the
harder the server selected for the offline address list must work.
For increased server performance, select a server that is not busy
performing other tasks.
Select an Appropriate Time to Update Offline Address Lists
There are two ways to update offline address lists:
Multiple offline address lists enable you to specify user access
to the offline address lists. You can create one offline address
list per mailbox store. Configure each offline address list to
contain the address lists that best meet the needs of your remote
users. For example:
The offline address list for marketing
department members is configured to contain only the the Marketing
and Sales address lists that members must have to complete the most
important parts of their jobs.
Mixed Environment Organizations
The offline address lists that your users have access to depend on
the version of Exchange running on the server to which the users
are connected. Users connected to an Exchange 2000 server must use
offline address lists generated by Exchange 2000. Users connected
to a server running earlier versions of Exchange must use the
offline address book generated by that version of Exchange.