hi guys, i need inputs as to how good (or bad?) VPC 7 is. i'm thinkin' of installing it to connect to our corporate network (i'm giving up on our sysad who refuses to tweak our servers to accomodate the mac into the network) and use outlook to send and receive corporate emails. i also would like to know if it will work well (i mean relatively faster than 6.1) with my current memory and processor configuration. i don't intend to install a lot of pc software and applications, i just need to have outlook 2004 (windows version) for the sole purpose of retrieving corporate emails. TIA
I think i saw somewhere that VPC7 is optimized for G5's... Not so sure, but I'm using VPC6.1 with my 1.33 768mb PB and performance is okay, once i'm 'booted' into windows. Super slow otherwise :dry:
what do you mean by "booted?" and, relatively, how much faster is it compared to 'otherwise?"
VPC just to get to your corp email? Can't you set your emails prefs to resend to gmail or something Mac friendly instead? > just need to have outlook 2004 (windows version) for the sole purpose of retrieving corporate emails. Read the minimum System Requirements for VPC 7 Mac VPC is slow, positively a blight to have anyways (unless you wanna show off running all 3 OS at once to wow the unwashed - hah, and it does) and forces you to register the MS OS in a within month's use or so. Ain't worth the bother unless you got a PC only work app that you really really have to use on pain of death. Cherrie
oooh... seems to be a clever suggestion. thanks but no thanks, that would be double the pain of retrieving emails. besides, the nature and confidentiality of our corporate emails wouldn't allow me to do just that.
Somtimes you have to fight tooth and nail just to have your Mac integrated to 'their' network. I feel your pain. I've had numerous encounters with difficult Windows admins, but with persistence and a little Googling, it can be done. Most admins just don't know where to start and some--the destable kind--are just too lazy to accomodate a 'whiny' Mac user. I usually provide links and specific instructions from sites like MacWindows and Microsoft to 'convince' sysads to let me join the network. Good luck! Eric [Edited on 9-21-2004 by Eric]
I feel for you dude. However, I am sort of luckier as i got the trick to connecting to our windows network and getting corp email there. Do you have another PC (note PC, not Mac) in your office? If you want to get your corporate email from anywhere, you can try an application from Globe called MobileMail. It sort of works like Outlook Web Access (OWA) and allows you to access your corporate email on the web securely via SSL. Catch is that your PC must be connected and running a small app for the service to work. Not the best solution in the world since you can't POP or IMAP it but is workable if you need to access corporate email while mobile. It also works with mobile devices as well, like a Treo 600 and a PPC. Best option for a Mac is a VPN. Thats what I use on my Mac if I have a broadband connection and use Entourage via IMAP to get mail. Its actually pretty disappointing that Entourage doesnt support MAPI otherwise it would be the perfect mail app.
Just tried VPC 7 running Windows XP Pro and so far it seems even more sluggish than ver 6.1 on my Powerbook (1.5ghz, 768mb RAM) Was expecting even a slight increase in speed but it takes longer to start up and is perceptibly slower! Anyone using VPC 7 care to share their experience?
Hmmm... Yours truly has iMac G5 (1.6GHz and 256 Mb RAM). I tried VPC 7 by installing WinXP. It took ages just to install WinXp; not to mention I wasn't able to use it in the end (frequently crashing and couldn't properly boot itself). I suggest that if you ever try VPC 7, try using Win2K instead. Is your coporate email housed in MS Exchange servers? If so... Entourage is the best way to go. Entourage comes with Office 2004 for the Mac. It's the Outlook equivalent, in the most recent version of Office fo the Mac. Also... I haven't played much with "Mail", the default email app in OS X. It might have native support for MS Exchange servers; so it's worth a try.
I have used VP6 and now VP7 and VP7 seems to load faster. Actually used it to test Server 2003 on my Powerbook...note the word "test" as I would not recommend it for daily use due to slower performance. The beauty of VP7 is that any windows you install inside will see your network as if it was the only one connected and not passing through your Mac - so you can work with whatever network firewall configuration you have in your office network so at the very least, you can access via VP your office stuff. Again, I suggest you only do so to copy things over to your friendly MAC OS. Entourage works with Exchange, but you may have to tinker a bit with the server settings to get full functionality .... and, you have to ensure that your Exchange is setup to accept RCP over HTTTP as that is the easiest way to hook up your MAC (and other users who wish to connect over the internet).
