I spent some time today helping a colleague sort out a problem that they were having with a customer.  The customer had accepted a Microsoft Office Groove 2007 invitation to join a workspace but could not get the workspace despite having gone through the complete invitation process.

What was interesting for me was that the customer always appeared “offline” in Groove presence even though they were showing as a member of the workspace.  We did some diagnostics and discovered that the customer’s IT security folk had blocked Port 2492, outbound, on their routers.  This can cause problem with Groove if you are creating a new coalition with another organisation.

Groove’s native port for SSTP is 2492 and is registered with the IANA.  This port needs to be open for outbound traffic only to give optimal performance for Groove.  If this port is blocked Groove will failover to port 443 and attempt an SSL connection.  If 443 is blocked then Groove will attempt an encapsulated HTTP session over port 80.  This behaviour is not user configurable so our prescriptive guidance is to open port 2492 for outbound traffic and let Groove take over the security and perform at optimal efficiency.

Here is a network topology diagram to show how the different protocols and ports are designed to be used in a network supporting Groove.  For much more detail why not visit our Groove TechCenter on Microsoft TechNet.

From Istanbul to Gloucester, UK – what a week of contrasts, Istanbul airport has changed a lot since I last visited Turkey in 1985.  It’s a great airport – a bit tricky inbound but the departure process needs to be studied, copied and replicated everywhere!  12 minutes to get into the departure shopping area!  And probably the friendliest boarder-guards I have ever met!  The Gloucester countryside is still beautiful!

TOP TIP!  When you get off the plane, before you queue for Passport Control, you need to buy a Visa.  costs about 10 Euro, depending on where you are a citizen, but you can pay in Euro, Sterling or US You can’t get these in advance.  Look out for the desk to the left of the Passport Control section.  A Visa Dollars and what is cool is that they will give you change in the same currency that you use to pay!  Be warned they don’t give receipts – a surreptitious sign advises that you photocopy your visa stamps for a receipt.  While you are queuing for Passport Control you can take illicit pleasure in grinning smugly at the folks who run straight to the Passport desk only to be sent back for a visa! J 

We recently rolled out Groove in Turkish and my colleagues there had some great questions about the different types of trial code available, so “strap in”!

After 60 days all Microsoft Office Groove 2007 trial products will revert to “Reduced Functionality Mode” (RFM).  RFM means that the user can continue to use all of the workspaces that they have joined or created but they cannot create new workspaces or invite new users to existing workspaces.  They can still accept invitations to new workspaces from other users.  Read below for some guidance about future consequences of which trial bits do what.

There are basically two types of Trial Bits available (“Bits” is the name I’ve given to the code that you download):

1.             OOffice Live Groove:  (OLG). This code is aimed at small business and individual consumers who do not have a volume licensing agreement with Microsoft or business people in large companies who might want to try out Groove before the greater organisation starts to deploy it. The OLG bits when activated using the Trial Activation Key will give you full access to all of Groove functionality, using our Public Relay service for 60 days.  At the end of 60 days the OLG trial will revert to RFM or you can opt to buy a full activation key, at anytime which will give you a one-year subscription to full product using the Public Relay.  These licences can be managed using either the Office Groove Hosted Enterprise management Services from Microsoft or you company’s in-house 2007 Groove servers.  Once they become “managed”, however, they cannot revert to being “un-managed”. These Bits cannot be activated using VL keys.

2.             VVolume Licensing Trial: (VLT). VLT bits allow IT professionals engaged in trials to download the Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise Edition, which contains the Groove and OneNote bits they can use their Microsoft Office Volume Licensing keys to activate the trials OR download VLT trial keys to carryout tests etc.  These Bits can all be managed BUT you should bear in mind that VLT bits activated by VLT keys cannot be converted to “full product” after the trial period.  They must be un-installed, re-installed and activated using a valid VL Microsoft Office Key.

So, a word to the wise, think about what your long-term intentions are when trying out Groove.  This may be a little confusing, on the first pass, but we are trying hard to make Groove available to very different audiences who have different needs!  No matter what; having free Groove, even in RFM, for your contractors and partners is pretty cool.

OK I’m off to Sweden next – drop in again soon!