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Outlook 2003 Cached Mode Vs No Cache

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by jgeldenhuys 1 view

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Does anyone have a answer to why one would use outlook 2003 with caching disabled in a large org where there are a lot of laptop users who move around? Surely cached mode would be better for them so that they could still have access to calenda's, tasks email, etc rather than setting up offline folders in outlook 2003? And for network bandwidth, cached mode is lighter, especially if you have a 100 users connecting a the exchange server. or am i missing something here? is there a scenario where you wouldnt want to use cached mode?

7 replies

by faradhi

You would not use cached mode if security was the top priority. With Cached Mode, all the emails are downloaded to the laptop and placed in an OST file. This created the poential of internal communications being compromised.

That is the only reason I can think of not using cached mode.

In the specific case you stated, I would use cached mode. In fact, I administer a network where we are moving to exchange. We have 30 people who have laptops and plan to use cached mode.

There may be other reasons not to use cached mode but I think that is the main one.

I hope this helps.

Bryan

by jseal66

I generally use Cached Exchange Mode only for notebook users or those that access the network via VPN or dial-up. Reason being those users are often offline or on a slow connection.

Remote offices where they do not have a local domain controller or Exchange server may be a good idea also.

Generally LAN users do not have a compelling need for Cached Exchange Mode. But it depends really on your business requirements, SLAs, etc.

Also be aware of how to troubleshoot synchronisation issues with Cached Mode. The Microsoft Knowledge Base has some good articles there.

by roninv

I know this thread is old, but the gist of its may answer my question. Our network is a mixture of Win2000SP4, WinXPSP2, and one Vista PCs. This network was setup before my arrival, and what I'm running up against are users "losing" emails when they login to a PC that is NOT their main PC. With Cache Exchange Mode enabled, and unless the user deletes an email from the server or a PC they are logged into, that user should be able to see all emails no matter where they login?

by office

I just had a problem today:
server is Exchange 2003.
Most users have Windows XP, and Outlook 2003. A few users have new laptops with Vista and Outlook 2007.
In my case also office users don't use Cache Mode, only laptop users and those connecting via VPN.

Today on laptop was replaced. So, after creating VPN the user configured for himself the Outlook 2007 client to connect to the server in Cached Mode.
Then he find out that as the Outlook was synchronizing with the Exchange server the messages started to disappear from the server... (saw this on his BlackBerry device).

To keep the story short ... problem was that Outlook was configured to deliver new messages to a .PST (local) file - instead of an .OST file

Could be the same in your case...

by roninv

The Exchange network I inherited previously set everyone to use Cache Exchange Mode. When the user logged in to a computer that was not his own, he set up Outlook and chose NOT to use Cache Exchange Mode. It pulled every email he had to that computer. So of course, when he gets back to his computer, all his emails are gone. Correcting the problem was easy enough (export/import), but I've been convinced that unless one is using a laptop ALL THE TIME, CEM is the way to go. The security and retention issues of not using CEM are freaky though. As a precaution, I always suggest that users use OWA (Outlook Web Access) when access Outlook from a computer that is not their own.

by jak

I know this post is old, but this last statement is not accurate. If you choose not to use Cache Mode, it does not download all the messages to the local computer. This is considered "Online" mode and everything is still on the server. If you are accessing Exchange from multiple computers, this is how you should do it. Cached mode leaves a copy on the server and brings a copy local so that if Exchange is not accessible, you can still view your messages. The only reason that the messages would be delivered locally and not remain on the server is if you setup the account to deliver your messages to personal folders instead of your Exchange mailbox.

by terryrey

The only thing I can think of because i have a server that is the same senerio as the new one that don't work I setup Outlook before puting it in the domain don't make much sinice but there has to be a why to do this

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