• Article

Configuring IM Provider Support on Edge Servers

Topic Last Modified: 2009-03-06

Public instant messaging (IM) connectivity enables users in your organization to use IM to communicate with users of IM services that public IM service providers provide, including the MSN network of Internet services, Yahoo!, and AOL. You can authorize use of public IM connectivity for your entire organization or on a per-user basis.

Use the IM Provider tab of Edge Server Properties to manage the IM service providers that are allowed to federate with your organization. You can add or remove an IM service provider, and change other settings for any IM service provider (including temporarily blocking the IM service provider). The settings you specify for each IM service provider includes the following:

  • Whether the IM service provider is permitted to federate with your organization.
  • The IM service provider name.
  • The network address of the IM service provider’s Access Edge, which you specify using the FQDN of the Access Edge service of the IM provider.
  • Whether or not this is a public IM service provider.
  • The filtering option for incoming communications:
    • Allow communications only from users on recipient's contact list. This setting means you do not trust verification levels asserted by the IM service provider. If you choose this option, the Access Edge service marks all incoming presence subscription requests as unverified. If the sender is already on the recipient’s Allow list, the internal server responds to that request. Otherwise, the request is rejected. Similarly, requests for an IM session that are marked unverified are rejected by the client.
    • Allow communications only from users verified by this provider. This setting is the default. It means you trust the IM service provider's verification level and handle incoming messages accordingly. Requests marked as unverified are handled as described for the previous option. Requests marked as verified are handled as described for the following option.
    • Allow all communications from this provider. This setting means that you accept all messages regardless of whether they are verified or not. If you choose this option, the Access Edge Server marks all messages as verified. The recipient's home pool or server notifies the client, and all messages are handled according to settings on the client. In the case of presence subscription requests, the settings determine how the message is handled. (The values are Allow, Block, and Prompt: Allow indicates that the sender’s request is accepted and the sender will be able to see the recipient's presence information, Block indicates that the request is rejected, and Prompt indicates that the recipient is asked whether to allow the sender to see presence information.)

In the case of IM invitations, the response depends on the client software. The request is accepted unless external senders are explicitly blocked by a user-configured rule (in the user’s Allow and Block lists). Additionally, IM invitations can be blocked if a user elects to block all IM from users who are not on his or her Allow list.

Note

By default, the MSN network of Internet services, AOL, and Yahoo! are available in the list, but are not enabled. For a public IM service provider, public IM connectivity requires the purchase of additional service licenses and provisioning the connections. For details, see the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 licensing information at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=144873. Pricing and licensing information for public IM connectivity are available through Microsoft Volume Licensing programs. For details, see the Microsoft Volume Licensing page at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=144874.

Use the following procedure to configure IM provider support on an Edge Server. If you want to provide support for one or more IM service providers, use the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 snap-in to configure server-side support at the global level (for the forest) and enable and disable support for each user. For details about configuring the global setting, see Enabling Federation and Public IM Connectivity and Configuring Routing of Inbound and Outbound SIP Traffic. For details about configuring the user settings, see Configuring Federation, Remote User Access, and Public IM Connectivity for Individual Users.

To configure IM provider support on an Edge Server

  1. On the Edge Server, open Computer Management.

  2. In the console tree, expand Services and Applications, right-click Office Communications Server 2007 R2, and then click Properties.

  3. On the IM Provider tab, do one of the following:

    • To add an IM provider, click Add. In the Add IM Service Provider dialog box, specify the appropriate options, and then click OK.
    • To view or edit the settings for an IM service provider, in the Edit IM Service Provider dialog box, click the name of the IM service provider, and then click Edit. In the Edit IM Service Provider dialog box, view or change settings, as appropriate, and then click OK.
    • To temporarily block any IM service provider in the list, click the name of the IM service provider, and then click Edit. In the Edit IM Service Provider dialog box, clear the Allow this IM service provider check box, and then click OK. This blocks the IM service provider until you later select the check box, but it does not delete the configuration information.
    • To permanently remove an IM service provider from the list, click the name of the server, and then click Remove. If you later want to add the IM service provider again, use the procedure described earlier in this procedure to add the provider and specify all settings.