I installed Domino on a dual processor Compaq Proliant DL380 server running Windows 2000 Advanced Server. The Notes client ran on various desktop PCs running Windows 98SE and 2000, with Internet Explorer 6 as my browser. Installation of Domino was surprisingly easy and the wizards in Notes took all of the hassle out of client configurations. Throughout testing, the Domino server ran well without a crash or incident, and the Notes clients did likewise.
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At a Glance |
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| Lotus Notes and Domino 6 | |
|---|---|
| Rating |  |
| Company | Lotus Software IBM Software Group |
| URL | www.lotus.com |
| Price | Lotus Notes and iNotes client licenses start at about $70 per client and $49 per client, respectively. The Domino Mail Server is $894 per server. |
| Pros | Domino 6 has excellent directory support, scalability, and clustering capabilities. Notes 6 continues to shine as a groupware client and personal information manager. |
| Cons | No native Active Directory connectivity. iNotes Web Access does not refresh your view when new mail arrives. |
Smarter Client
Making Notes easier to use was a major motivation behind release 6, and the changes are subtle yet useful. Available for all Windows 32-bit platforms and Macintosh OS 9 and X, Notes now includes action buttons on the Welcome page that allow you to quickly create new messages or calendar items, and you can dynamically switch frame content, such as between the Inbox and the Calendar, in the same frame. Originally available in Notes R5, Quick Notes has been enhanced to provide additional functionality. It allows you to create a new message, view contact information, make a journal entry, and view reminders without having to first open the associated database.
Another enhancement is the widespread use of wizards for setup. Much like the user configuration wizard found in Microsoft Outlook 2002 (Office XP), the Connection wizard steps you through defining a mail profile, setting up POP, SMTP, and IMAP servers, choosing a Domino server, and setting a default newsgroup feed. (If you use Notes as a full PIM/email client, setup has been streamlined in R6.) It will also import email and addresses from Eudora and Outlook. The Notes Setup wizard helps you configure the Notes environment and the Welcome Page wizard lets your end users decide how and what type of information will be displayed on startup.
A new feature lets users share a machine and still retain individual Notes settings. The Roaming user feature allows a user to have access to all of his or her personal databases and settings from anywhere in the enterprise. When a user first logs on from a different machine, all personal information is replicated to it, providing access to all preferences, address books, etc. Security freaks don't need to worry-clean-up options are available to remove this local information either on logoff or after a set number of days. Both the multiuser and roaming user support are only available for Windows.
Excellent Web Access
Formerly Lotus WebMail, the new Web-based mail client iNotes Web Access, shown in Figure 1, takes Microsoft's Outlook Web Access for Exchange 2000 Server a few steps further in terms of features and customizability. iNotes leverages XML and DOM Level 2 to provide drag-and-drop capabilities between the Windows desktop and the iNotes interface, something not available in the somewhat dowdier Outlook Web Access. As a Web-based email client, iNotes is easy to use and quite functional. I had no trouble sending, receiving, and managing email via iNotes using Internet Explorer 6.
 [click for larger image] The new iNotes Web Access browser-based interface provides you with an easy to use yet powerful way to get to your email, calendar, and to-do list from any Web-enabled device. |
A Calendar and To Do list are also available through iNotes, but advanced database operations, such as opening a specific database and setting access control lists, are not. iNotes shares the same rules and folders as the normal Notes client, smoothing the transition from a Windows-based client to a browser-based one. A feature unique to iNotes is the Notebook tool. As the name implies, Notebook allows you to make simple topic-based notes to yourself, kind of like digital scratch paper.
Server-Side Enhancements
Much like Notes 6, Domino's enhancements and improvements are mostly found behind the scenes in the areas of administration and performance. For example, Domino 6 can now use compression at the network layer between both the server and clients to increase performance, especially on slower connections. Domino 6 also has a new IMAP interface that improves its performance and scalability by eliminating the translation of IMAP requests into NSF requests. Now, folder contents and message attributes are stored inside IMAP-enabled mail files, allowing direct access from your IMAP-compliant mail client.
To ease remote administration of your Domino 6 server, the Web Administration Client has been updated with a browser-based system that's functionally equivalent to the normal Windows-based administration tool. While it isn't a direct replacement, the Web Administration Client does complement the Windows-based tool and allows you to administer Domino from any platform. One feature that I really liked is role-based permissions with the Web client. This allows you to delegate administrative control among your users using the built-in Domino security model.
One of the biggest improvements to Domino 6 is the ability to integrate it into multiple disparate directories-imagine having an extranet set up with multiple vendors/suppliers, and you want to tie all directories into Domino for one big mail system. LDAP was available in past Domino releases, but version 6 comes with many improvements in LDAP support including extended ACLs and directory virtualization. New to Domino 6 is support for Microsoft's Active Directory by way of the Active Directory Synchronization Tool. This tool allows you easily register, rename, and delete users and groups in both Active Directory and the Domino Directory using only the Microsoft Management Console.
You could do a lot worse for your groupware needs than spending the money on Notes Domino 6. It's stable and packed with features. The highlight of the test was the iNotes Web Access-it's what Outlook Web Access wants to be when it grows up.
Keith Schultz ([email protected]) is a technology journalist and president of NetData Consulting Services.
