Assigning Costs on the Public Folder Referrals List

Costs are a method of prioritizing servers in the public folder referral list. You define costs for each connector in your organization using network connectivity and available bandwidth as criteria. You then assign the lowest cost to the connectors that have the best network connectivity and the most available bandwidth. Exchange uses higher-cost servers only if lower-cost servers are not available.

When you select the Use Custom List option and create a list of servers that are available for referrals, the Public Folder Referrals tab displays both the name of each server in the list and any costs that are associated with those servers. If you want to prioritize the order in which Exchange uses the listed servers, you must change the costs associated with each server, assigning lower costs to those servers that you want Exchange to use first. For detailed instructions, see How to Assign Costs on the Public Folder Referrals List.