Elisberg Industries
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like
Decent Quality Since 1847

A Big Exchange of Ideas

10/18/2013

0 Comments

 
I work at home on my desktop computer, but have a laptop that I regularly use, often on the road but even throughout my residence.  For a long while, my tech guru has been suggesting I use Microsoft Exchange.  As a simple explanation, this is a protocol that syncs all the features of Microsoft Outlook -- mail, contacts, calendar, tasks -- between all your computers.  I finally took the plunge last week.  It's something you pay for, but depending on who you buy it through, the price can vary.  I bought it directly through Microsoft itself, where it was only $4 a month.  (Private, 3rd-party companies might be a bit more, but likely offer their own benefits, like more personalized service.)

It's a bad news/good news tale.

The bad news is that it's mind-numblingly convoluted to set up.  The good news is that's it's tremendous, and something I wish I'd done years before.

(One important thing:  this isn't meant as a review or a "how to" guide or even anything techie.  There will be some of that in a light way.  But it's meant just to give you a sense of what I've been going through the past week.  And why.)

For a program that works so incredibly easily once it's all set up, the beginning point of Microsoft's website is utterly, screamingly bewildering.  The odd thing about this is that once I was able to figure out the right places to go, their process was brain-dead simple with everything automated.  (For instance, at one point -- because I have a personal domain for my email address through GoDaddy -- all the information on GoDaddy had to be changed, a horrifying prospect.  But once I found where to go on the Microsoft site, it automatically recognized that i was with GoDaddy, and only required I enter my username and password, and it make all the changes itself.  I didn't have to do a thing.  It's just that finding this was a pain.)

I won't go into the horror show of importing data from my desktop Outlook into Outlook with Exchange (which I found out later should have been easy, but they explain it oh-so poorly on their site) -- but happily, my tech guru friend talked me through fixing things over the phone and getting it right -- and it only took him...2-1/2 hours!  Nor will I go through the circles of trying to set Exchange up on my laptop.  But even this has a good side:  I held my breath and called Microsoft's toll-free help line.  And much to my shock they were amazing.

There was no wait time, I was connected to a tech support guy within two minutes, and over the next...er,  hour-and-a-half (!), he connected to my computer by remote control and patiently and politely, step-by-step, worked through the process of trying to resolve the problem.  (At one point, I expressed how frustrating this must be for him.  "Oh, no," he said, "this is what I do.  A few weeks ago, I had to help someone with a different problem and was on the phone with him for four hours.  This is fine.  I just want to solve it.")  He'd explain clearly what he wanted me to do -- then (via remote control access to my system) would move a pointer on my monitor to show exactly what I should click.  It took a loooong time, but was bizarrely painless and stress-free.  And the next day, when I wrote to thank him, he emailed me back a step-by-step print-out with graphics so that I'd have a record of everything we did, in case I had to do anything later myself.  But he'd also already given me his email address, if any other problems showed up.

Picture
The good side of all this is that now that it's set up, it is an utter joy.  Email that shows up on my desktop Outlook, immediately shows up on Outlook in my laptop.  Delete an email from one, and it's gone everywhere.  Same with additions to your calendar and contacts and tasks.  And Exchange will similarly work if you set it up on a Windows Phone.  And wherever you go, if you don't have your computer with you, you can log on to your information through any browser -- and it's the same thing: add a task to Outlook in your browser, and it immediately is available everywhere, on all your devices.

While this uses "the cloud," it's not handled the same as, say iCloud, or such services.  With those, it "pulls" data from your computer (or Smartphone) to the distant cloud, which you can access from your other devices.  But if you lose your Internet connection, you lose access to all that.  With Exchange, the data exists initially on the distant Exchange server which immediately "pushes" it out to you -- as a result, the data sits on your computer.  If you lose your Internet connection, you still have access to all the data.  And everything -- absolutely everything, all your mail, appointments, tasks and contacts -- is in total, near-immediate sync, on all your computers with Exchange, including your SmartPhone or tablet.  (Exchange will work on an Windows, iOS or Android device).

I highly recommend Exchange if you have a need for it.  However, in no way do I recommend Exchange if you don't have a tech guru who can hold your hand.  That said, I do feel comfortable saying how great the Microsoft tech support was, and if you're an adventurous sort, that might suffice.  From my experience, resolving something so convoluted, I suspect they're very good at talking people through basic set-up.  But -- me, I'd just feel most comfortable also having a friend i could call...

The thing that's important to understand is that Exchange isn't intended for personal home use.  It's meant for companies with have an IT expert who understands all these things and can set it up for all the employees.  That's why it's so difficult.  It's not meant to be  "Plug 'n' Play."  But once it is set up, it's as easy and elegant and terrific and "set and forget" as I can imagine.

And that's how I've spent my past week.  Teeth-gnashing and thrilled...
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Picture
    Elisberg Industries gets a commission if you click here before shopping on Amazon.
    Picture
    Follow @relisberg

    Author

    Robert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 

    Elisberg is a two-time recipient of the Lucille Ball Award for comedy screenwriting. He's written for film, TV, the stage, and two best-selling novels, is a regular columnist for the Writers Guild of America and was for
    the Huffington Post.  Among his other writing, he has a long-time column on technology (which he sometimes understands), and co-wrote a book on world travel.  As a lyricist, he is a member of ASCAP, and has contributed to numerous publications.

    Picture
           Available on Amazon

    Picture
           Available on Amazon

    Picture
           Feedspot Badge of Honor

    Archives

    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Categories

    All
    Animals
    Audio
    Audio Land
    Books
    Business
    Chicago
    Consumer Product
    Education
    Email Interview
    Entertainment
    Environment
    Fine Art
    Food
    From The Management
    Health
    History
    Huffery
    Humor
    International
    Internet
    Journalism
    Law
    Los Angeles
    Media
    Morning News Round Up
    Movies
    Music
    Musical
    Personal
    Photograph
    Piano Puzzler
    Politics
    Popular Culture
    Profiles
    Quote Of The Day
    Radio
    Religion
    Restaurants
    Science
    Sports
    Technology
    Tech Tip
    Theater
    The Writers Workbench
    Tidbits
    Travel
    Tv
    Twitter
    Video
    Videology
    Well Worth Reading
    Words-o-wisdom
    Writing

    RSS Feed

© Copyright Robert J. Elisberg 2025
Contact Us    About EI    Chicago Cubs
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Products
    • Books
    • Movies
  • About Elisberg Industries
    • Our Corporate Board
    • Information Overstock
    • Elisberg Industries Entertainment Information
    • Elisberg Statistical Center of American Research
    • Consultancy Service
  • Contact
    • How to Find Us
  • Kudos
  • Good Things to Know
    • The BOB Page
    • Sites You Might Actually Like