Managing Communications on Your Intranet

Outlook 2000 and Internet Standards

Microsoft Outlook 2000 provides a central point from which to communicate with others through the Internet.

As an administrator, you have many ways to set up your e-mail system to send and receive Internet e-mail messages by using Outlook 2000. If you use Microsoft Exchange Server, the Internet Mail Connector handles Internet e-mail messages. However, e-mail messages can be exchanged directly over the Internet by using any other e-mail service provider that is compatible with the Internet Mail Access Protocol (IMAP) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) or Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) and SMTP. SMTP and POP3 are MAPI service providers that are installed by default with Outlook 2000.

With an Internet mail connection, your workgroup can use Internet messaging for the following activities in addition to sending and receiving messages:

• Connect to the Internet from a remote location and download messages.

  For example, a traveling salesperson can check for new e-mail messages while on the road.

• Use rules to process incoming and outgoing e-mail messages.

  For example, a user can have an Outlook file with all the messages from a specific Internet address in a separate folder.

• Send and receive group scheduling meeting requests.

  For example, a meeting organizer can send a meeting request to offsite clients or suppliers.

• Assign tasks, and then receive notification when tasks are updated or completed.

  For example, a manager can send a task request to an employee who works at home.

When a user types an Internet e-mail address in the To box, Outlook automatically resolves and formats the address by removing spaces and changing commas to periods.

Outlook 2000 automatically recognizes Internet addresses (URLs) in the body of e-mail messages and then converts them to hyperlinks. Outlook 2000 recognizes the following commonly used Internet URL protocols:

• file
• mailto
• http
• News
• nntp
• outlook
• ftp

When you type one of these Internet protocols in an e-mail message or other item, Outlook creates a hyperlink from the text. However, when the Internet address includes spaces, you must enclose the entire address in angle brackets (< >). For example:

<file://C:\My Documents\MyFile.doc>

Outlook 2000 contains advanced Internet messaging and collaboration standards and protocols. Outlook 2000 is closely integrated with the Web and provides mail functionality regardless of the Internet service provider or browser. Outlook provides the following standards to enable communication on the Internet:

• POP
• SMTP
• LDAP
• IMAP
• S/MIME
• NNTP
• Dynamic HTML
• vCard
• vCalendar

You can use Outlook 2000 as your primary Internet-messaging client or as an enhanced Microsoft Exchange client.

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Support for creating and sharing vCards

Outlook 2000 supports vCard, which is the Internet standard for creating and sharing virtual business cards. Outlook users can save vCards in their Contacts folders. You can send or receive vCards as e-mail attachments, and you can import vCards as files. All contacts that are stored in Contacts folders can be shared in the vCard format with other users.

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Support for iCalendar and vCalendar standards

Outlook 2000 has enhanced support for the iCalendar (iCal) standard for calendar information, including appointments, meeting requests, and displaying free/busy times. In Outlook 2000, you can save, import, and export vCalendar appointments.

To save an appointment as a vCalendar appointment

1. On your Calendar, select an appointment.
2. On the File menu, click Save As.
3. In the Save as type box, select vCalendar Format.

To import or export information, use the Import and Export command (File menu).

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HTML-based e-mail messages

Outlook 2000 allows you to format your e-mail messages in HTML format. A recipient can read an HTML-based e-mail message as long as the mail client of the recipient supports HTML.

HTML-based e-mail messages also allow you to communicate professionally by using:

• Colorful backgrounds
• Bulleted and numbered lists
• Hyperlinks
• Embedded images

When you send an HTML-based e-mail message, Outlook 2000 also sends a plain text version of the e-mail message so that all mail clients can read your message.

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Support for POP3 and SMTP

Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) are the two most commonly used protocols for sending and receiving e-mail messages over the Internet. Outlook 2000 provides support for POP3 and SMTP, including full support for the following:

• Multiple Internet e-mail accounts.
• Authenticated SMTP.
• Distributed Password Authentication (DPA).
• The ability to store messages on the server.

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Support for IMAP4

Internet Mail Access Protocol version 4 (IMAP4) is an Internet standard for e-mail and server-based mail storage. IMAP4 provides a superset of POP3 and SMTP features, including the ability to store e-mail messages in multiple folders. Outlook 2000 supports IMAP4, including full support for multiple IMAP4 e-mail accounts.

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Support for LDAP

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is an Internet protocol that allows a user to find other e-mail users on the Internet or your organization’s intranet. LDAP is currently being used as the primary means of searching global directories that are available on the Internet. Outlook 2000 fully supports LDAP, including specification of multiple LDAP Internet information accounts.

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Support for S/MIME

The Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) features of Outlook 2000 allow users to exchange encrypted and digitally signed messages with any S/MIME-compliant mail reader. Messages are encrypted or digitally signed by the sending client, and then they are decrypted by the recipient, thereby providing end-to-end secure communications across the Internet.

By using S/MIME features, you get the following security elements in your e-mail messages:

Identification   Digitally signed messages allow recipients to verify the identity of the sender.

Data Integrity   Digitally signed messages confirm that the messages have not been altered in transit.

Nonrepudiation   Digitally signed messages contain enough information to prevent the sender of the message from denying that he or she actually sent it.

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See also

The S/MIME features rely on each user having a unique Digital ID. For more information about Digital IDs, S/MIME, and Outlook 2000, see Using Security Features in Outlook.