Communication Tools

Some additions to IE4, which can be optionally installed, are a set of tools for communication and collaboration that can be tightly integrated with other items on the Active Client. These include:

• Outlook Express for messaging (Email and newsGroups)
  
  
• NetMeeting for conferencing and application sharing
  
  
• NetShow for the receipt of video and audio broadcasts

We're not going to cover Outlook Express or NetMeeting within this book since they can't be accessed or controlled from a web page. However we do look at NetShow in chapter 13, in our overview of components, because this is scriptable from a web page. As this is a basic overview of all IE4's new features, will very briefly touch upon what each of the products can do.

Outlook Express

Outlook Express provides support for the common messaging protocols (POP3, SMTP, NNTP, LDAP and IMAP) and a number of productivity features. Features include:

• Hierarchical folders for both email and newsgroups
  
  
• Support for multiple mail server and newsgroup servers
  
  
• Facilities to format messages using HTML , enabling the rich formatting that we are accustomed to with Web pages
  
  
• Support for Secure MIME (S/MIME) that enables messages to be encrypted (using public / private keys) and digitally signed
  
  
• Inbox assistant so that messages can be automatically moved, copied or forwarded
  
  
• Support for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) to provide access to white pages servers
  
  
• Support for the messaging protocols provided by Outlook Express can be incorporated into your own applications.

NetMeeting

NetMeeting provides multi-user conferencing facilities over the Internet or corporate enterprise and enables users at remote locations to participate in meetings as if everyone was at the same location. This obviously cuts down on the much time wasted spent travelling to meetings. Features include:

• A text based chat application allowing multiple users to hold conversations
  
  
• Facilities for Internet telephony and video conferencing allowing users to talk face-to-face in real-time
  
  
• The ability for all conference participants to see the same view of an application running on one machine, for example, watching a PowerPoint presentation or discussing a problem around an electronic whiteboard

The conferencing facilities provided by NetMeeting are open and extensible, and can be incorporated into your own applications. A NetMeeting Software development Kit is available from Microsoft.

NetShow

The NetShow client component is an important part of IE4 and is used for receiving and playing the broadcasted show. Features include:

• Delivery of audio, illustrated audio (synchronized sound and image) or video content in real time
  
  
• The show is played as received and unlike some previous multimedia Web technologies it avoids the frustrating delays of users having to wait for the complete file to be received before commencement
  
  
• NetShow provides a high quality playback yet uses sophisticated compression algorithms reducing storage requirements and network bandwidth
  
  
• Simple integration with IE4 provides high impact and exciting Web pages – alternatively, the show can be played in its own external frame
  
  
• Hyperlinks can be included in the show's visual images