Frequently Asked Questions

PSTWay for OWA

1. How does PSTWay work?
PSTWay is a server based software add-on module that integrates on your Outlook Web Access Frontend servers Only. PSTWay does not install on your Exchange backend servers. Once installed it will read your pst files and publish your Messages, Calendar, Tasks and Contacts in their appropriate OWA folders. PSTWay utilizes OWA existing folder format and Access is natural and intuitive. PSTWay allows for complete read and write access to your pst file.

2. Does PSTWay install on the Exchange Back End server?
No, PSTWAy installs only on the Exchange Front-end servers and never touches the Exchange backends.

3. What happens if I have multiple Exchange/ OWA front end servers?
PSTWay installs on each Exchange Front-end you that want to give users access to PSTWay through.  If you have an Exchange Front-end without PSTWay installed on it the users of that front-end will not have access to their pst’s.

4. What pst or Public Folder  Information can I access?
Everything in your pst is accessible. Your pst Information is published in the OWA Folder tree along with your Exchange Folders. Including Messages, Folders, Calendar, Tasks and Contact information. 

5. Is PSTWay Secure?
PSTWay is 100% dependant on the security infrastructure currently in place to support  Outlook Web Access. Your existing forms of authentication and encryption are supported and transparent to PSTWay.    In addition you may choose to integrate or SecureView for OWA providing secure attachment and calendar access to OWA. It keeps important documents from ending up in browser caches and being left behind.

6. Can I create new pst files from OWA?
In PSTWay v1.3 and later users can create new pst files from OWA.

7. Where does PSTWay install?
PSTWay has several components. It’s Front-end component has to be installed on Exchange 2003 or 2007 Front-end server.  All other PSTWay components can be installed anywhere including the Exchange Front-end. PSTWay is very flexible in its installation.

8. What Versions of OWA are supported?
PSTWay supports Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2007 with all service packs.

9. What versions of pst file formats does it support?
PSTWay is designed to be enterprise flexible. It supports all pst files from Outlook 97 to Outlook 2007. In addition different pst formats maybe supported at the same time and mixed by the user.

10. Does the pst need to be stored on a network Share?
No and Yes, You may store the pst on a centralized network share location. As well you may leave the pst on your Network PC local drive and create a share and share it to yourself.

11. What type of  Share is required?
This is not important since we will have a network browser button.  The user browses to each pst location

12. Can I access a pst on my desktop PC drive?
If you use a networked home directory and it points to your "C:" drive then you will have access to it too as long as the machine is powered up.

13. Who Administers the pst File in OWA?
PSTWay adds an add/delete pst function to the users option menu in OWA. Users can easily add and remove their own pst folders by navigating their shares according to Active Directory etc . From their they choose each pst file and name the folder accordingly.

14. How many pst files can is supported for each user?
It is unlimited from within reason.

15. Does PSTWay support password protected psts?
Yes you can use both password protected pst and non password protected files.

16. Does PSTWay support pst Encryption?
No PSTWay does not support encrypted pst files at this time. Please contact us with your requirements.

17. How large of a pst can be utilized?
pst size is transparent to PSTWay and rather a factor of the pst file version being utilized. Two Gb and 20Gb respectively for Outlook 97/2000 and 2003/2007 pst file versions.

18. Will Large pst Files effect user performance?
No we support the same functionality built into OWA for added Exchange message folders by using server side caching and paging . Not to be confused with client side caching. The http display is broken down to the number of pages. To increase read performance PSTWay adds server side caching of the pst. This greatly adds to user performance of network reads traditionally found with reading pst files over the network. In addition PSTWay installs at the Exchange Frontend server and directly reads the pst file vs. relying on the Exchange backend message store to fetch and read the file.

19. Are .ost, .uni, .pab, or .oab file types also supported?
The quick answer is no, the other answer is they could be as their format is similar to .pst. At this point they are not in our development plans but help us indentify your needs in this area. Here in more information on these additional file types .ost: Offline Storage Table (Offline Personal Folders) , .uni: Personal Folders File that can store Unicode data, supported in Outlook XP only, .pab: Personal Address Book file, the companion file format to .pst,  or .oab: Offline Address Book file.