I understand all this, but if you read one of MS's Outlook / Exchange
whitepapers they recommend you use Offline Files for remote offices which
don't have a big pipe to the Exchange server. Now assuming we do that and we
want these people to have roaming profiles because they move locations then
we have a problem.  I don't believe that OST's and roaming profiles can be
considered mutually exlusive but this is the way MS wants us to think of
them.

MS should incorporate a way for Offline Files settings to be excluded from
the roaming profile (I know the actual OST is, but when a user with a
roaming profile and an OST logs onto another machine they get an error
message about recreating the OST - not feasible when its a 200MB mailbox on
the other end of a 512k link).

This is just another example of sloppy programming on MS's part. Our option
at this stage if not to use roaming profiles but rather have Profgen
automatically generate Outlook user profiles when a user logs onto a new
machine. But that means no Favorites etc etc.

Regards

Brendon

Offline folders are designed to make it easy for someone using one machine
to take that machine and use it anywhere -- even 30,000 feet up in a
plane -- to work on the data in their Outlook mailbox. In a LAN environment
where people are moving from machine to machine (the conventional definition
of roaming profiles), they can access all the information that's on the
server directly because they're connected all the time. The only thing that
offline folders buy you in that situation is the ability to restart Outlook
and work offline if the server fails. Otherwise, all you're doing is
creating caches all over the place that maybe no one will ever use.

Of course, there are all kinds of network installations and users, so that's
something of an oversimplification. Maybe we can talk about your specific
reasons for using roaming profiles.