Set Up the Service

After you have planned your Instant Messaging deployment and installed Instant Messaging Service on one or more Windows 2000 servers throughout your organization, complete the following tasks to set up Instant Messaging servers and users. For information about deploying the service, refer to Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Planning and Installation.

Important   Verify that you have sufficient administrative permissions to manage Instant Messaging Service for your organization.

To set up the service:

1. Create at least one home server to host Instant Messaging users.

   Important   If you plan to create only one Instant Messaging server, it must be a home server.

2. If you create two or more home servers, create at least one Instant Messaging router.
3. If you are using HTTP Digest authentication, Set the password policy on the domain controller.

4. Note   Using HTTP Digest authentication with your Instant Messaging deployment is optional. If you will be using Integrated Windows authentication instead, this step is not necessary.

5. Give users access to the service.
6. Distribute the Instant Messaging client software to your users.