OCS and Communicator have the ability to communicate with the Public IM contacts – specifically users on MSN (now Windows Live), AOL, and Yahoo!. There are a few known issues and limitations that I wanted to recap for the benefit of others.
Functionality Available for Communication with Public IM Contacts
A reminder that communication with Public IM Connectivity (PIC) contacts today is limited to peer-to-peer (no multi-party), and Instant Messaging and Presence information only – no audio, video, desktop sharing, or file sharing.
Special Format to Use when Adding an MSN Contact that has a Non-MSN Domain
When a Communicator user is adding an MSN contact with a non-MSN domain, the user needs to add the contact using the special format: user_name(domain.com)@msn.com. See “Communicate with MSN, AOL and Yahoo! users” for more information.
Issue with the ‘Add Contact’ Wizard when Adding an MSN Contact with a non-MSN Domain
There is an issue in the Office Communicator client such that when a user attempts to use the “Add Contact” Wizard to add an MSN Messenger contact who has a non-MSN domain, they receive an “Address is not valid” error:
The workaround is to use the Communicator contact Search text box to add the contact.
Other Public IM Usage Reminders
- If you do not add your public IM contact to your Contacts list, the contact’s presence status is always displayed as Status Unknown.
- More Public IM Connectivity issues are described in Microsoft KB article 897567: Known issues that occur with public instant Known issues that occur with public instant messaging and Communications Server.
Lastly, recently Additional Windows Live Messenger PIC/Federation IP Addresses (as reported on the Microsoft OCS team blog) have been added to increase federation capacity. You should read the above blog entry if your organization federates with MSN via specific IP addresses.
