Category Archives: Google Apps

Check here for news regarding our partnership with Google Apps. This will include Google Updates, Release Notes and more!

Integrating Microsoft Outlook and Exchange with Google Apps

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After introducing many small and medium sized businesses to Google Apps it became clear that most were only scratching the surface of the capabilities built into the Google products.

Google does an outstanding job of creating clear documentation explaining how each of the Google Apps work. We wanted to share how these innovative features can be used in your day to day business work flow.

We hope that these documents help you maximize the impact of your efforts by utilizing Apps to their full potential.

Google Apps offers a range of options to ease your migration from Microsoft Outlook and Exchange. If your users will continue to use Microsoft Outlook to access their email and calendars, follow the instructions below to get started.

1. Seamless Integration with Outlook

Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook allows you to use Microsoft Outlook 2003 and 2007 effectively with Google Apps. Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook provides seamless integration with your Google Apps email, contacts and calendar.

2. Alternate Outlook Integration Options

Alternatively, you can access your Google Apps email from Outlook using the IMAP protocol. For more information and step-by-step instructions see the supported IMAP client list.

To configure calendar synchronization between Microsoft Outlook and Google Calendar, use the Google Calendar Sync tool.

3. Connecting Calendaring on your Exchange Server to Google Apps

The Google Calendar Connectors are a set of services, typically deployed by our Google Enterprise Partners, that allow Google Calendar to interoperate with Exchange 2003 servers through the bi-directional sharing of Calendar Free / Busy information. Each of the tools is installed in the local Exchange environment and must be maintained and configured by an Exchange Administrator.

4. Dual Delivery options for Exchange and Google Apps

Dual delivery allows incoming mail to be delivered to your current email infrastructure as well as Google Apps Email. This lets your organization test Google Apps Email without interrupting current systems, making it a nearly risk-free pilot. It also allows users to test Google Apps without having to abandon their current setup.

5. Migrating Email to Google Apps

If you’re interested in migrating mail from Exchange Server, an Outlook Client or another email system to Google Apps, review the list of migration options.

6. Single Sign-On and Directory Sync

While Google Apps provides single sign-on (SSO) support for SAML based systems. With Google Apps Directory Sync, you can automatically provision users and groups based on the user data in your LDAP server, such as Microsoft Active Directory or Lotus Domino. Google Apps Directory Sync connects to your Google Apps account and adds/deletes user accounts to match your existing organizational schema.

MxToolBox is proud to be a certified Google Apps Reseller. We would be happy to talk with you to determine if Google Apps would be appropriate for your business. We help our clients with initial configuration, planning the migration of existing data, and deployment so that they can take full advantage of all the services and features provided by Google Apps. Please contact us at 866-MXTOOLBOX or sales@mxtoolbox.com.

Google Apps: Gmail Labels

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After introducing many small and medium sized businesses to Google Apps it became clear that most were only scratching the surface of the capabilities built into the Google products.

We hope that these documents help you maximize the impact of your efforts by utilizing Apps to their full potential.

Google Apps Gmail has many great features that can simplify your email work flow and organization. One of these features is the labels, Google’s alternative to folders.

Most users are used to a traditional email client with a tree structure of folders and sub-folders. Almost all users manually maintain their folders by dragging messages from the inbox to their final resting place. Not only is this extremely time consuming, but it is also not uncommon for a message to get placed into the wrong folder. Filters are not commonly used to automatically place messages in folders because they are complicated to create and more importantly, users want the messages to come into the inbox first.

Labels can provide the same type of organization you get from traditional folders, but give you a few extra bonuses.

Gmail makes creating filters incredibly easy. You can either manually select messages or perform a search which selects messages, then click “filter messages like these”.

The filter can apply a label (which is the same as putting it into a folder) and still have it show up in the inbox as well.

You can’t be in two places at once. Traditional folders force you to decide where a message should be. Labels allow messages to appear in multiple labels, including the Inbox. So your filters can run automatically as messages arrive but are not lost in a folder where you won’t see them.

You can view all the messages with a label by clicking the label name along the left side of any Gmail page. For the screen shot below I choose the label Craig, you can see that all messages tagged with Craig are shown but if a message has more than one label it is available as well.

You can manually apply labels as well by manually dragging the label over one or more selected messages. In the screenshot below I dragged the label Wendy and applied it to the message.

If your users are using the Google Apps Sync Tool then their Outlook folder structure will reflect exactly on their Google Apps Gmail account as well.

The below image shows a typical Outlook folder structure before Google Apps.	The Google Apps Sync Tool applies labels which are identical to their Outlook folder counterparts.
Outlook with Folders and Sub-Folders	Google Apps Gmail with Labels

For more details on adding, creating and changing labels go here. For a great video that explains labels even more, go here.

Google Apps: One button to merge all duplicate contacts

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As Google Partners we love to see the adoption of Google Apps and we love to see all of the updates!

Managing a big address book can be a challenge, so it’s no surprise that the top request for Google contacts is a fast, easy way to merge duplicate contacts. You’ve been able to merge contacts one-by-one for a while, but now we’ve added a single button that merges all your duplicate contacts at once. To clean up your contact list in one fell swoop, just click the “Find duplicates” button in the contact manager, review the merge suggestions (and uncheck any suggestions you don’t want merged), and hit the “Merge” button.

If you’ve been considering getting all your contacts into Gmail or syncing your Gmail contacts to your phone, now’s the time to do it. As we’ve written about previously, you can sync your contacts to a wide variety of devices (including Android, iPhone, Blackberry, SyncML, etc). So if you were dreading spending hours getting your contacts in order, now you can do it with a couple clicks.

For more details, go here.

Ten Email Related Websites to be Thankful For

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Happy Thanksgiving!

To celebrate Thanksgiving we thought it would be fun to put up a list of the ten email related websites that we are thankful for. If you know of a tool that needs to be added to the list, please add it below in the comments. Keep in mind that this list is not in any particular order but is just a sampling of our favorites.

Whatismyip.com – Helps users determine their server IP quickly. This tool is helpful for local PC IP addresses or if you need to determine the IP of your mail server.
Telnet Test – Oftentimes it is very helpful to remove your mail server from the equation to see if there is an underlying network / reputation problem blocking mail flow. Telnet enables helps you manually send a test message using the telnet command built into every operating system.
Mail Relay Testing – This service will check your server to see if it is possible for a third party to relay mail from your server and will also test several techniques for sending relayed mail, but no mail will actually be sent to your server.
Google Apps – If you are looking for the best hosted solution out there, we would highly recommend Google Apps! Google’s web-based communication, collaboration and security apps are user friendly and the best of the best.
Net Stat – This tool is helpful for determining if a local PC or mail server is blasting out spam. Keep in mind that this tool will only show you this type of activity if the trojan/virus is currently blasting spam. You can run this command from the cmd line: ‘netstat -a’ (without ‘) and if the computer is currently blasting spam it will reference SMTP or :25 // for example: TCP eTools-Dev4:4534 outbound-a1.mx-route.com:smtp ESTABLISHED
Traceroute – Traceroute tracks the path that a packet takes from your computer to a destination address. A traceroute also shows how many times your packets are being rebroadcast by other servers until it gets to the final destination. For windows users, the command is tracert. For Macintosh OS X users, its traceroute. We wold also like to mention the NetStat Agent product that is available for free download, seems to have some great features.
Google Docs – We know that Google Docs aren’t really related to email but the way we are evolving to use this product does mean that email is included when sharing documents. While we love all Google products, we feel the recent improvements to Google Docs in particular are the most useful. Google’s new feedback systemseems to be a huge accomplishment for end users as our feature requests are being includedLast but not least, we would like to include three of our own tools which help make troubleshooting, diagnosing, and monitoring your email easier.
Server Monitoring – Server Monitoring Takes the guessing out of server management. If something is wrong with your email server, you need to know right away. MX Toolbox’s Free Email Server Monitoring lets you rest easy by sending you alerts when there is a problem with server performance, availability or reputation.
MxToolBox Super Tool – This all-in-one tool includes a critical tool package for all system administrators: MX Lookup, Blacklists, Diagnostics, Header Analyzer, SPF Records, DNS Lookup, Reverse Lookup, Port Scan, Whois Lookup, ARN Lookup and CNAME Lookup.
Blacklist Checker – The MxToolBox Blacklist Tool checks your IP against a list of over 150 Real Time Blacklists. If your mail server has been blacklisted, some email you send may not be delivered.

If you know of a tool that needs to be added to the list, please add it below in the comments.

Google Docs Received More Improvements Last Week

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As Google Partners we love to see the adoption of Google Apps and we love to see all of the updates!. If you would like information on how Google Apps can help your organization, contact one of our Google Apps specialists.

Now for a quick summary of the most recent updates to Google Docs.

Shared Folders

Shared folders: You now have the ability to share entire folders with other collaborators.
Upload multiple files: You can now upload multiple files to Docs simultaneously instead of uploading individually.
Return of ‘Items not in folders’ section.

We at MxToolBox like this update because we know everyone has their own filing structure and so now each user can create their own folders and then share with their neighbor. They also changed the interface a bit and it is much easier to create folders, move documents to those folders and then share the folders as well. They also have tweaked the functions when viewing all of your Google Docs so you can more easily share documents with your neighbors as well.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/10/shared-folders-and-more-in-google-docs.html

Google Doc Editor

Google Docs editors are now more consistent across each product. The links, title area, menus, menu terminology, and toolbar are now nearly uniform across documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

This feature is nice because it was often confusing when the Edit section had different settings for different documents. This change will also help users feel more comfortable as they move from other word processing programs to try our Docs.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/10/google-docs-now-more-consistent.html

Viewing Docs

You can now choose to open docs in a new window or not. You also have the ability to enable/disable the visual update indicators.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/11/new-additions-to-settings-page.html

Google Releases New Export Options and More for Google Docs

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Google has added some new features to the Google Docs list:

New export features which allow you to select multiple documents, convert them into your chosen format and download them as a zip file.
Indicators to show if a document has been viewed already or not.
A ‘New!’ indicator that shows you when a new document has been shared with you.

Editions included:
Standard, Premier, Education, Team and Partner Editions

Languages included:
All languages supported by Google Docs

How to access what’s new:

Select one or more files and then click on “Export” from the “More Actions” menu. Next, pick the format (e.g. PDF, Microsoft Word, etc) you want for your exported files. Finally, click “Continue” and it will create a zip file to download that has all your content. You can “export” up to 500 MB of content in a single zip file. It can sometimes take a few minutes to download so you also have an “email when ready” option to notify you when the zip file is ready.
“Unviewed” files are in bold, while “viewed” files are not. You can toggle this setting by selecting the item and clicking on “mark as (Un)Viewed” in the “More Actions” menu.
When an item is first shared to you, it will be bold (“Unviewed”) and marked as “New!”. Once you view this item, it’s listed normally. If the item is updated by someone else, then it will be marked as “Unviewed” again.

For more information:
http://googledocs.blogspot.com/2009/10/data-liberation-mark-as-viewed-and-new.html

MxToolBox is on Twitter! Make sure to follow us so that you stay up to date on any changes to our system, new blogs, new information etc.

Multiple calendars and more in new version of Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook

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Version 1.6.155.1603 of Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook has been released for new installs and updates.

Editions included:
Premier and Education Editions

Languages included:
Available worldwide with US English interface

How to access what’s new:
– Multiple calendars
You can now create new calendars in Outlook and they will sync with Google Apps. For any of your Google Apps calendars for which you have write permissions, and that appear unhidden in your Google Apps Calendar list, these will also now be synced to Outlook.

– Support for querying free/busy information for Exchange users
If you are using Google Apps Sync in a mixed Google Apps/Exchange environment, you can query free/busy information for Exchange users by implementing Google Calendar Connectors and adding a new registry key to each computer on which Google Apps Sync is installed.

Get information about the Google Calendar Connectors here. Get information about setting up the new registry key here.

For more information:
https://www.google.com/support/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=153463

Attend a webinar to learn how to get this feature and more with Google Apps Premier Edition
11/10 9AM PST / 5PM GMT Register now
11/10 1PM AEDT / 2AM GMT Register now

As Google Partners we love to see the adoption of Google Apps and we love to see all of their updates!. If you would like information on how Google Apps can help your organization, contact one of our Google Apps specialists.

MxToolBox is on Twitter! Make sure to follow us so that you stay up to date on any changes to our system, new blogs, new information etc.

Hundreds of Thousands of UK Students Move to Google Apps

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Google announced today that several more UK universities are moving to Google Apps for their email infrastructure. Moving over to Google Apps will provide these universities with access to a suite of messaging and collaboration tools including Google Mail™, Google Docs™, Google Sites™ and Google Chat™. Now that these universities are using the Google suite of products, students will have access to schedule lectures, gather information in a shared location for group projects, organise society events and collaborate and communicate with tutors and peers. It will also familiarise them with a useful tool for their professional lives, as the adoption of Google Apps within UK businesses becomes increasingly widespread.

For more details on the UK universities moving to Google Apps, view the press release here.

As Google Partners we love to see the adoption of Google Apps. If you would like information on how Google Apps can help your organization, contact one of our Google Apps specialists.

MxToolBox is on Twitter! Make sure to follow us so that you stay up to date on any changes to our system, new blogs, new information etc.

Configuring iCal to sync with Google Apps using CalDAV

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Recently we were helping a client plan their migration from Microsoft Exchange to Google Apps. The customer requested that we investigate how their OS X users were going to be able to use Google Calendars with iCal locally on their Macs.

As a Google Apps provider, we were happy to work with them to develop procedures that would work for their users with minimal impact on their current work practices. We began researching but were frustrated at first with what we found. We quickly discovered this helpful Google article, but it didn’t include any instructions on how to add additional calendars other than your own primary calendar.

The critical piece of missing information was how to build the CalDAV server address for the all the calendars you have set up in Google Apps. It is important to remember that all of the sharing and setting of permissions for calendars are controlled by the web interface. You will need to go into the settings panel for each calendar to find the Calendar ID for each calendar you wish to add.

The CalDAV address for your primary calendar is always https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/YOUREMAIL@DOMAIN.COM/user where your Google Apps account replaces YOUREMAIL@DOMAIN.COM. On the settings page of each of your calendars there is a section labeled Calendar Adress. To the right of the XML ICAL and HTML buttons you will see the Calendar ID. The CalDAV server address you will use when configuring iCal to sync with the Google Apps servers is https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/{CalendarID}/user.

It would be nice if Outlook could consume CalDAV natively like iCal which would make working with multiple Google Calendars as easy as this in Windows.

Detailed step-by-step instructions are in the full version of this blog post below.

To configure a calendar in iCal to sync with Google Apps using CalDAV

1) The unique Calendar ID needed for the account url is only available through Google Calendar settings. Select the small down arrow next to the calendar that you are importing and select Calendar Settings.

2) This will bring up a page with details for that calendar, scroll all the way to the bottom to the section labeled Calendar Address: and copy the Calendar ID:

3) Open iCal and go to Preferences.

2) This will pop up a list of your current Accounts. Click on the plus sign on the bottom left to launch the Add Calendar window.

3) Fill out the information that is requested including:

Description: (Something that will help you identify the calendar in the list)

Username: (your full Google Apps email address including the domain)

Password: (your Google Apps password)

Server Options (select the small arrow to open this field)

**Account URL: (The CalDAV server address you will use when configuring iCal to sync with the Google Apps servers is https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/{CalendarID}/user.)

**Account URL: The CalDAV server address you will use when configuring iCal to sync with the Google Apps servers is https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/{CalendarID}/user.

4) Once you click Add, the calendar will begin syncing in iCal, but before you close the Accounts window, make sure to set the Refresh calendar to a desirable time:

5) Simply repeat the steps above to add multiple Google Calendars to iCal! Below is a screenshot of iCal with several Google Calendars already synced.

Troubleshooting Tips

This error simply means that the password or username was mistyped and needs to be corrected. Ensure that you are using your full Google Apps email address and your Google Apps password.

This error means that either the URL https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/{CalendarID}/user is incorrect or the Calendar ID is incorrect.

MxToolBox Announces Partnership with Google Apps

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Austin, TX – July 20, 2009: MxToolBox has provided email security using Google products to thousands of customers for the past five years and we are proud to now offer Google Apps as well. Google Apps are best known for their Gmail product, but there are also a number of new products available including Google Docs, Google Sites, Google Calendar, Google Chat and Google Chat with Video. From an email security perspective, Google protects users from spam, viruses and other messaging-based threats. Another great benefit is Google’s incredible storage capacity, 25gb per user, as this provides new email archiving capabilities never before thought of.

MxToolBox is also proud to offer their rock star support team who will help your company implement any and all changes needed in order to make your transition over to Google Apps as smooth as possible. Switching to a new email service can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be! You can even test our service with a subset of your users and let them explore all the features before completing the transition. “The migration to Google Apps was very simple and painless, and that’s exactly what we were hoping for. I foresee the collaboration tools in Google Apps growing in importance, as our sales partners start to use Google Docs to collaborate with vendors, customers, and folks here at corporate,” said Shawn Faulkingham, Director of IT, Indoff, Inc.

MxToolBox has a track record for innovation and deployment of on-demand solutions. Along with announcement of their revolutionary Zimbra Emergency Mail Product a year ago, MxToolBox has always been on the cutting edge with Email Continuity and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Both the Google Apps and Google Security and Compliance Products are an excellent fit with MxToolBox and we are excited to now be offering these new products to our current and future customers. Google Apps is available for purchase immediately from MxToolBox here or if you have questions about the product, please feel free to call us at 1-866-MXTOOLBOX or email sales@mxtoolbox.com.

Save time and money with Google-powered email, IM and calendar

Essential messaging apps – Gmail and Google Calendar are included.
Continuous innovation – Put the web’s rapid pace of innovation to work for your business. New features
Lower cost – No hardware, software or patches, so you save money. Estimate your savings
Universal access – Access your data from anywhere. Connect with IMAP, POP or from mobile devices.
Enterprise-class service – Google Apps includes a 99.9% uptime SLA. *Phone support is available for critical issues.
Secure infrastructure – Multiple layers of protection keep your business data safe and secure. Learn more

Why businesses use Google Apps for professional email accounts

Get control of spam – Advanced filters keep spam from your inbox so you can focus on messages that matter.
Keep all your important email – 25 GB of storage per user lets you keep just about anything you think may be important down the road.
Unified communications – Email, instant message, and make high-quality voice and video communication without launching a separate application.
- Voice and video chat from your inbox
- IM from your inbox
Find old messages instantly – Google search technology is built in, so you can find emails and instant message conversations quickly.
- Find emails fast
Prevent data leaks – Create custom inbound and outbound policies to keep sensitive information safe with Email Security.

Why businesses manage their time with Google Calendar

Get people together easily – Just pick a time (based on when people are free) and enter meeting details. Google Calendar will send invitations and keep track of RSVPs.
- Schedule a meeting
Keep all your important email – 25 GB of storage per user lets you keep just about anything you think may be important down the road.
Share project calendars – Share whole calendars company-wide or with specific people. Coworkers can have editing rights and see shared events alongside their own schedules.
- Share a calendar
Show event information in context – Embed an internal calendar in Google Sites or publicly on your website, no programming required.
- Show a calendar in Google Sites

The system has already proven itself in real-world situations and the ease of changing over to Google Apps. Mike Campbell, Director of Information Technology at Eli Research, Inc. said “Why move our internal email infrastructure to Gmail? Because I get all the upside of a huge scale upgrade, and I don’t need to revise my budget or put extra equipment in my server rooms or add internal support to ensure uptime, or even teach users to use it. It’s a natural.”

Google Apps is available for purchase immediately from MxToolBox here.

MxToolBox is on Twitter! Make sure to follow us so that you stay up to date on any changes to our system, new blogs, new information etc.

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Category Archives: Google Apps

Integrating Microsoft Outlook and Exchange with Google Apps

Google Apps: Gmail Labels

Google Apps: One button to merge all duplicate contacts

Ten Email Related Websites to be Thankful For

Google Docs Received More Improvements Last Week

Google Releases New Export Options and More for Google Docs

Multiple calendars and more in new version of Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook

Hundreds of Thousands of UK Students Move to Google Apps

Configuring iCal to sync with Google Apps using CalDAV

To configure a calendar in iCal to sync with Google Apps using CalDAV

Troubleshooting Tips

MxToolBox Announces Partnership with Google Apps

Why businesses use Google Apps for professional email accounts

Why businesses manage their time with Google Calendar