Server : Exchange 2007 SP2 installed on Windows Server 2003 x64 Clients : Outlook 2003 and Outlook 2007. Our GAL is up and running with mailboxes, contacts and distribution lists. But we want a global list which staff can add to and update as needed as well as allowing them to search by different criteria. For contacts we want name, address, phone, mobile, email details stored along with some notes on what they do, projects they are involved in etc. As a test we created a public folder and created contacts in it. We found staff can update it easily, searching is very good and setting permissions is easy. After the test they preferred to use the public folder to store the contacts. I have looked at setting staff up as Exchange Recipient Administrators to allow them to edit the GAL but no luck so far. My questions 1) Which is better to use - a GAL or public folder? 2) Can we stop using the GAL and get staff to use the public folder instead? 3) Is there a better way of setting up a global list that we haven't though of? We know of GAL's and Public Folders but there may be a better way of doing this. 4) I've seen on other forums Microsoft are de-emphasising Public Folders and they may eventually stop working. Michael

1. Never a GAL (as you will need to give end users some high level permissions), PF is fine as the contents in the PF can be given to end users to edit.2. Again not a very good idea. Let them use GAL or OAB.3. See, there are only two ways of creating contacts , locally on machine by the end user and in AD with the help of Admin. I must say , contacts in PF was a good idea.I think even MOSS can be a good option for updating the contacts.4. Not till exchange 2007 is supported, so you still have some time to go.Raj

Raj, Ideally we want one global contacts list - if we have both the GAL and the Public folder then we would end up maintaining 2 lists. It's more likely that something will be missed. The Public Folder seems to be much much easier for staff to add to and update. It also looks good for searching afterwards. We just wanted to check if there was a better way of managing a global list - we could get bogged down in looking at the GAL or Public Folder when there could be a much better and simpler way that we have never though of or heard of. At the moment it looks like we will take all of the contacts off the GAL and into the public folder take the email lists off the GAL and into the public folder we will still keep mail account details in the GAL our email lists will be a mix of contacts from the GAL (for internal staff) and the public folder (for the external contacts). But before I do anything I want to be sure we are not setting ourselves up to run into a major problem later. Michael

Again i will not recommend this. Deleting contacts and putting them in a PF is not a good idea. I will suggest (as you really want to do that) keep both of them. Now , when you delete the contcats from AD, you will miss those contacts in the GAL drop down window. Probably some script can update the PF on daily basis after picking them up from the GAL. So this way you will not miss any thing, users can update the PF with there contacts and you will get all the contacts in address list drop down.I am sure the steps that you thinking off, I am sure it will not create any issues (before deleting make sure you have latest system state back up from a DC). How ever it might create confusion or rather inconvience to your users while using Outlook.Raj

Raj, We were going to set their Address Book in Outlook to use the public folder as the main source of contacts. It would mean a small bit of work to change each PC but the user would not notice after that. Script - if the users could update the public folder then the script would have to copy the details from the public folder to Active Directory. Otherwise any changes they made in the Public Folder would be overwritten every day. >Deleting contacts and putting them in a PF is not a good idea Why? Michael

As I said earlier , i will recommend to keep the contacts in the AD as well. Doing check names in OL , thats the only issue i can see , if the contacts are deleted from AD. How ever if they will be using the PF instead of AL, then i think it should be fine.Also the script can copy the latest changes from PF to AD. It will just sync on daily basis. I have done this earlier with the help of a developer. We use to pick up contacts from 12 different forest (as MIIS use to create contacts of each forest on other forests) in note pad and then create ssh connection to the ISP and then upload it to the ISP to do per user routing to fight spam. that piece od code use to to pick up the changes and not rewrite every thing.Raj

Hi guys, I thought I'd join this forum as the issues seem similar to the ones I've got, however, not quite the same. I currently have about 200 DLs and 4400 contacts in my public folders in Exchange 2007. These DLs are formed of different groups such as committees, companies. Any thoughts on the following limitations we have will be much appreciated; · We cannot run any queries in outlook that could tell us which groups (DLs) a contact is a member of; we currently have to remember or go searching for it one by one. · When we update a contact, we need to know which DL he/she is a member of as the update is not propagated to all the DLs, we have to manually go inside each DL and hit “Update now” for the changes to take effect. · When a company changes names or address, we cannot make a bulk change of details such as email addresses, physical address etc; again it’s a manual process. I have tried a number of plug-ins, however, have not yet found one that can really do the trick and be reliable at the same, I have had a few of them crashing on me or simply not working at all. My questions now are: · Should I move these contacts to AD and then create groups to replace the DLs in my public Folders? · If I moved them to AD, would the administration become any easier? Would I be able to query AD and run reports as a user? · What about bulk changes to contacts, would that be possible? · Are there any tools that could assist in the migration? Thanks in advance. Wagner