Options to Replace Public Sharefolder

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Office Community.

It is not recommend to share a PST file on a shared website. Instead you may setup a Hotmail.com, Outlook.com, or Live.com email account in Outlook 2013 using Exchange ActiveSync and synchronize the data across multiple devices.

You may follow the steps in the link below to add a Hotmail.com, Outlook.com, or Live.com email account using Exchange ActiveSync in Outlook 2013.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/outlook-help/add-an-outlook-com-or-other-exchange-activesync-mail-account-to-outlook-HA104025313.aspx  

You may also refer to the following link which discusses a similar issue and check if it helps.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-outlook/how-to-sync-outlook-2010-between-multiple-home/550ff6fd-083b-40ae-865f-cedc3e59f03a

Hope the above information is helpful. Let us know if you need any further assistance and I will be glad to help you.

Thank you.

The first half of your reply seems to indicate you did not understand the question. I never said I wanted to use a shared website.

The second link is relevant, but it does not address the question.  I am aware that such third-party programs exist and I'm using one.  However the one I'm using seems to no longer be supported, so I posted here looking for recommendations of other programs that people in the community have actual experience with and use.

The link you provide does not give such feedback.  So my question remains unanswered and I would appreciate hearing from anyone using one of these programs with success.

Thank you.

A.

Actually, the first part of Deepak Ramesh's reply is to indicate that your request falls out of the recommendation and support scope for the use of pst-files.

Using a mail account type which supports server-based synching rather than client-based synching is the recommended approach as it also allows you to synch with clients other than Outlook and also offer web access. Using Exchange Online is the most flexible way to go and comes with a 50GB mailbox but isn't free. Outlook.com is offered for free and offers synching support for mail, contacts, calendars and tasks. Any IMAP account can sync all mail folders.

If you still want to go for a client-based synching approach, then CodeTwo Outlook Sync and/or CodeTwo Public Folders might be interesting to you.

Thank you for your reply.

Microsoft effectively ignored the realities of small businesses that run peer-to-peer rather than server-based networks, but still have the need to share contacts, tasks, calendars, etc.  Using a hosted Exchange server was also not an option when I started using Public Sharefolder in 2004.  Public Sharefolder was one of the first programs to serve as an alternative to Exchange for companies with only a few users and did so very well.

I have looked at the CodeTwo products and even demo'd one, but the Outlook sync requires the creation of copy or "master" .PST folder to which the individual .PSTs sync.  Public Sharefolder, on the other hand, allowed a second computer to simply access my .PST where it resides in the Public Documents folder on my computer.  There is no web-based sharing involved.

I have looked into Hosted Exchange options and found that the hosting companies want to treat each email address as one user, so if you are a one-man firm but have email addresses like "postmaster," "abuse," "permissions," "info_request," and your own email at say, three different domains, they will require each one to count as a user.  This results in a monthly cost for Hosted Exchange well above the budget of most small businesses.

So I'm on the lookout for a program similar to Public Sharefolder that does not require the creation of a separate PST but instead operates by allowing a second user to access my PST, which is fundamentally the "master" PST.  And, ideally, any thoughts from those who have experience with the program or programs.

Thank you again.

I have looked into Hosted Exchange options and found that the hosting companies want to treat each email address as one user, so if you are a one-man firm but have email addresses like "postmaster," "abuse," "permissions," "info_request," and your own email at say, three different domains, they will require each one to count as a user.  This results in a monthly cost for Hosted Exchange well above the budget of most small businesses.

You might want to review the Exchange Online offering from Microsoft again. You only need to pay for user mailboxes. Shared mailboxes and aliases are free and you can use it with multiple domains as well. It is only a $4 a month per user which should be well within the budget of basically any serious small business.

http://products.office.com/en-us/exchange/exchange-online

Thank you for this response.

I note that your website is one I have visited recently while trying to resolve the missing Activities tab in Outlook 2013 (an essential feature; why would they delete it?!!) and found missing pages.  You may want to give your site a check-up.

You're welcome! :-)

Which pages/links are you having problems with?

I just checked the guide you referred to and the links within the guides are working.

Thanks for the feedback.

It works here though. If you continue to have issues, it could be caused by your virus scanner or the integration of your security suite with your browser. Since it is a custom code-file, your security suite might be overly protective ;-)

Otherwise, let me know which other issues you run into with the site and I'm happy to check it out.