Communicator requires a connection to Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 or a compatible server. You may need to find out from your system administrator what settings are necessary, but you usually need only enter your SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) address. A SIP address is often the same as your e-mail address. If you do not know your SIP address, contact your Live Communications Server administrator for your user name and password. Depending on the type of phone communications you want, you might need additional hardware, or you might have to configure additional settings for phone control or conferencing support.

To set up the account to use with your Live Communications Server

1. In the Microsoft Office Communicator window, on the Actions menu, click Options.
2. On the Accounts tab, in the Sign-in name box, type your SIP address.

Communicator can also integrate with a personal information manager like Microsoft Office Outlook®. If you use Outlook as your personal information manager, Communicator will automatically connect to the e-mail server by using your default Outlook profile. For more information about selecting your personal information manager, see the Personal tab topic.

Note  If the connection to your corporation’s e-mail server or to its phone server is not successful, two icons will appear in the status area of the Microsoft Office Communicator window. Hover over or double-click the icons to see detailed messages.