| Author |
Message |
    
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2130
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 12:16 pm: |     |
I have a truly geek question... I am interested in setting up a permanent contact directory that can integrate with my family's email. I run a mail server in my home, and my wife and I use three or four computers in house, and two computers out of the house, to send mail.
What I assume I need to do is set up an LDAP server, but I have no real experience with LDAP or directory services. I'm using NT4 (working fine, not interested in upgrading right now), so there is no Active Directory to set up.
Has anyone done this, either at home or at work? Is it something worth undertaking? We both tend to add a number of contacts each month, both personal and professional. |
Ligeti
Citizen
Username: Ligeti
Post Number: 534
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 12:52 pm: | |
I use a small spiraled addressbook that I bought at Drugfair for $2.95. I wrote "Contacts" on the front with a sharpie.
I am NEVER unable to produce an address or telephone number, as is frequently the case with my wired up colleagues.
|
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2133
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 12:56 pm: | |
Thank you for sticking your nose into yet another thread where you have no idea what you're talking about.
I did not ask what you do. I asked if anyone with technical competency has set up the system that I need. Given that you have a single notebook, it would be difficult for you to share it with a spouse when you are not with him/her. So your solution is useless to me.
Reject useless solutions. Reject people with useless solutions. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 8274
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 1:08 pm: | |
You could always export the contacts into HTML and put them in a password protected directory. Not sure how many you have, but LDAP sounds like it may be overkill. |
Ligeti
Citizen
Username: Ligeti
Post Number: 535
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 1:09 pm: | |
Of course she can use it, silly. It's sitting on the coffee table by the phone. She just picks it up and looks up a number, HELL-LOWWW?
I thought I was helping! |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 11762
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 1:27 pm: | |
LDAP may be overkill for the time being, but I hope it soon becomes as easy to set up a family or small business LDAP server as it is to buy a domain or share photos.
I might be doing something like this in the near future. Send me email if you want to keep in touch about this matter. noglider@pobox.com. In fact, I might be able to offer free namespaces so you can have the Rastro family directory separate from the Reingold family directory.
|
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2136
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 1:34 pm: | |
Ligeti, since you didn't read my post, I'll simply ignore the rest of yours. To explain, we're not at home together all the time. See my first post about working in the house and out of the house.
I thought it would be overkill as well, but we're quickly approaching 1000 contacts. We have five sets of contacts - personal, my wife's previous business, and my home business (we share those three). We also have my work contacts and her work contacts.
The advantage of LDAP, to me, is that it integrates with every mail system we use (Outlook, Thunderbird and Mozilla Mail).
Oh well. I might just jump into it and see what I come up with. Worst case is not getting a directory, but spending a few hours learning a new technology. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 8275
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 1:51 pm: | |
Hours? |
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2138
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 3:16 pm: | |
Not to build my own - to check out what's available as open source, and learn how to configure it. Or did you think it would take minutes?  |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 8278
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 3:34 pm: | |
I've never tried, but have heard people complain lots about even configuring it. |
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 1828
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 3:42 pm: | |
LDAP can be a pain in the arse at times, but when it's working as it should...
Some possible links of interest?
DeskNow: Free
WinMail Server: $99.00
MailEnable: Free & up
EmailArchitect Email Server: $99.95 & up
|
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2139
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 11:32 pm: | |
Hmmm.. I already have a mail server that works for me just fine. I don't see LDAP services mentioned, but maybe I'm looking for the wrong thing on the web sites.
Anyone know if Thunderbird supports ph services? |
Tom Reingold
Supporter
Username: Noglider
Post Number: 11791
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, January 5, 2006 - 11:49 pm: | |
What does ph stand for? It does allow ldap lookups, if that's what you mean.
A colleague of mine said his web hosting company also offers ldap. Google "ldap hosting" and it seems you might be able to pay for this or maybe even get it for free. The top hit is surfnet in the Netherlands.
|
TarPit Coder
Citizen
Username: Tarpitcoder
Post Number: 5
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 6, 2006 - 9:56 am: | |
Setting up LDAP isn't *super* horrible - but it does sometimes cause flashbacks to X.500 and other OSI stuff... :-) FWIW I think I used AE SLAPD (this was back on NT 4.0). I'd probably go for a totally open source solution now.
I can't remember why I used AE SLAPD but I am pretty sure it was because I really wanted SLAPD and was stuck on NT. Anyway - my app was to interface an LDAP directory server to a WIB running inside the SIM (not handset) of a GSM Handset - I am sure heaps has changed since then.
Have a gander at these:
http://www.umich.edu/~dirsvcs/ldap/doc/guides/slapd/toc.html
http://ldapman.org/articles/tree_design.html#planning |
Rastro
Citizen
Username: Rastro
Post Number: 2145
Registered: 5-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 6, 2006 - 11:13 am: | |
I've been messing around with OpenLDAP on Windows, and have it configured, but am having trouble accessing it with a client. Posted a few questions to the inappropriate lists, but no answers so far. I'm less concerned with the data - I'm a geek, I can figure that part out.
This is a config error that I can't seem to get. The config file for slapd can be very basic - about 8 lines. Nothing should be too tough, but something is not right.
Part of the problem is that a lot of the documentation is for Linux or unix, and I'm on windows. The differences seem to be subtle...
Tom, I'll check out LDAP hosting. Never thought of that. I'd kinda like to figure this out for the funa dn knowledge, but I don't want to waste too mcuh time.
TarPit Coder, I'll take a look at those. Quickly looking makes me think they're Linux-centric, but maybe I can pull a few nuggets.
Tom, Ph is a precursor to LDAP for directory services. |
Closed: New threads not accepted on this page