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LDAP Services

Short for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol, LDAP is the foundation of the various "white pages" directories on the Internet and can also be used within an organization to provide a group address book. Outlook includes support for LDAP, beginning with Outlook 98, while Outlook 97, Exchange and Windows Messaging can use third-party tools to connect to LDAP servers. 

If you have Windows 2000 Server running on your LAN, you can configure Active Directory, which supports LDAP right out of the box. See How to Configure Address Book to Query Users in Active Directory for details on how to configure Outlook; follow the instructions in the Downlevel Client Considerations with the Address Book section to set the server, user, password, and port in Outlook's LDAP service.

The utilities on this page operate as MAPI transports and, therefore, do not work with Outlook 98 or Outlook 2000 in Internet Mail Only mode.
 

Outlook 98 & Later Versions | Other Tools | Notes | More Information

Outlook 98 & Later Versions

 Microsoft Outlook 98 includes LDAP support built into Internet Mail Only mode and as an additional component that can be downloaded or installed from the CD for Corporate/Workgroup mode.

Microsoft Outlook 2000 and 2002 install LDAP either automatically or when you first use it. (Keep that CD handy.)

In Corporate/Workgroup mode, use Tools | Services to add new LDAP address books. In Internet Mail Only mode, use Tools | Accounts.

Also see:

  • OL2000 (CW) Corporate Workgroup LDAP Service Does Not Support SSL -- This issue has been fixes in Office 2000 SP-2. 
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    Tools
    Insight AddressBook   Insight AddressBook is an Outlook plug-in that has the same look and feel as Microsoft's Global Address List, from an LDAP server. This application is designed to provide customers, with even very large directory, instantaneous lookups when using the "check name" feature in a new mail message. It has caching capabilities, and queries take less than three seconds for the entire directory. The AddressBook integrates completely with Insight Connector and Outlook. The browsable GAL can lookup and display the name, email, phone numbers, fax, and more for each user. In addition, the schema can be changed to work with other mail servers. Free trial available.
    MasterKeyPlus   LDAP provider that supports browsing of the address book (which Microsoft's LDAP doesn't do) with additional features and an ActiveX developer's kit available
    NEXOR Defender for Outlook   Provides X.400 and P772 military messaging support to Outlook users. Includes LDAP address book component.
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    Notes

    		 With Microsoft's LDAP provider in Outlook 98 and 2000, you generally don't browse all the available addresses as you would with other address books. Instead, you perform a search and browse the search results. Third-party LDAP providers may support browsing.

    Outlook 2002, on the other hand, does allow browsing of the LDAP address book, at least if it's relatively small.

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    More Information
  • An LDAP Roadmap & FAQ  -- good starting reference by Jeff Hodges, Stanford
  • XCLN: How to Return X.400 Addresses with Outlook LDAP Service (MSKB)
  • Dietrich Kracht's LDAP Page -- in German
  • Dawn -- Utility to import LDAP/LDIF data into Outlook 98/2000
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    Updated Apr 07 2008
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