How to create Contact Objects in the Active Directory

I've had a few questions on this, so I figured I'd answer it out right. If you want to use the White List with contact objects that have external email addresses, you need to create contact objects for them.

To Create a contact object for an external user, you have to:

1. Click Start, Administration Tools, Active Directory Users and Computers.


2. Expand your domain.local, MyBusiness, Users, and select SBUsers.
   
   (Of course you can place them almost anywhere in the AD and they will show up. I mearly suggest this location as it's the holding place for all your users as well, helps keep things organized.)


3. In the right hand pane, right-click and choose New and select Contact.


4. The new Contact Object Wizard opens, enter the First name, last name, etc. and click Next.


5. Ensure Create an Exchange e-mail address is selected and click Modify.


6. From the list of New Email addresses, select SMTP Address and click Ok.


7. On the General tab, enter the email address of the external receiptient, and click Ok, then click Next followed by Finish.

Now you're contact object will exist in the GAL. You can start using it to create your whitelists or distribution lists immediately on the server. However, you won't notice the contact object showing up on clients until the Offline Address Book has been built on the server, and the Outlook clients has downloaded it. Once downloaded, you'll notice that all contact objects have a little globe next to it, so they are easily identifiable in the GAL.

Hope this helps with any questions regarding adding Contacts to your system.