MS Exchange Blog

Symantec to buy MessageLabs

Symantec announced it is acquiring e-mail security company MessageLabs today.  MessageLabs claims it services over 19,000 customers across 86 countries through its e-mail security-as-a-service model.  Symantec is growing its SaaS offerings. This is probably $695 million well spent.

William Lefkovics

RFC2821/2822 Updated and Replaced with RFC5321/5322

A pair of the most referenced RFCs have again been updated. The RFCs used for SMTP and e-mail message formatting have been replaced with new RFCs. The AntiSpam Blog at MailChannels.com has good coverage on what has been changed.

RFC 5321 obsoletes 2821 for Simple Message Transfer Protocol.

RFC 5322 obsoletes 2821 for Internet Message Format.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft announces Microsoft Certified Masters Program

Microsoft recently introduced an updated set of certifications for the advanced professional. The Microsoft Certified Masters (MCM) series takes Microsoft certification to another level. It actually bridges the gap between the Professional certifications that most of us are used to hearing about and the elite Microsoft Certified Architect (MCA) certification.

The MCM program currently offers certifications in Windows Server 2008 Directory Services, SQL Server 2008, and of course Exchange Server 2007.  This is a three week course currently offered in Redmond, WA only and only in English. It carries a significant price tag as well.

The pre-requisites for the class are as follows:

• Five or more years of hands-on experience with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003: installing, configuring, and troubleshooting
• One or more years of hands-on experience with Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: installing, configuring, and troubleshooting
• A thorough understanding of Microsoft Exchange Server design and architecture
• A thorough understanding of Active Directory, Domain Name System (DNS), and other core network services related to Exchange Server
• Ability to speak, understand, and write fluent English

You also must have successfully completed certification exams for:

• M70-236 Configuring Exchange Server 2007
• M70-237 Designing Messaging Solutions with Exchange Server 2007
• M70-238 Deploying Messaging Solutions with Exchange Server 2007

Finally, you need to be either an MCSE in Windows Server 2003, or you need to have passed M70-640 Windows Server 2008 Directory Services.

The first classes run in October 2008.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2007 SP1 SDK for August 2008

Microsoft has released an update to the Exchange Server 2007 Software Development Kit. The Exchange 2007 SP1 SDK for August 2008 includes documentation and code samples for developing Exchange applications.

William Lefkovics

iPhone Exchange Issues List

Microsoft Senior Lead Program Manager Omar Shahine has started a wiki to gather together the iPhone/Exchange issues.

iPhone 2.0 Released

As if you didn't already know, the 3G iPhone was released on Friday July 11. "Twice the speed at half the price" combined with ActiveSync for Exchange means administrators will be faced with supporting the iPhone 2.0. Apple has published an iPhone and Microsoft Exchange Server Deployment Scenario whitepaper for administrators.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2007 SP1 Update Rollup 3 Released

Microsoft released Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Update Rollup 3 and Exchange 2007 RTM Update Rollup 7. There is an important security update included in these rollups that affect Outlook Web Access as outlined in the M08-039 Security Bulletin which describes "Vulnerabilities in Outlook Web Access for Exchange Server Could Allow Elevation of Privilege (953747)"

Exchange 2007 SP1 Update Rollup 3 addresses issues outlined in 18 different knowledge base articles. These are listed in MS KB 949870

Remember, these update rollups are cumulative. You do not need to install update rollup 1 and then 2 before installing 3. Also, if 1 and 2 are installed, they do not need to be uninstalled first. Just apply the latest one.

William Lefkovics

Hyper-V goes RTM

Microsoft's Windows Server 2008 Virtualization implementation has been released to manufacturing as outlined in the official press release.

Unlike Virtual Server, Hyper-V (Hi Pervy!) supports 64-bit guest operating systems. This is good news for Exchange 2007 administrators looking to consolidate hardware and streamline their messaging infrastructure. There is certainly some demand for Exchange 2007 to be virtualized and we are eagerly awaiting the formal Microsoft statement on supportability for Exchange 2007 SP1 on Hyper-V. According to Scott Schnoll, this commitment should be published within 60 days of Hyper-V going RTM.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2007: The Complete Reference Kindle Version

I do not own an Amazon Kindle (yet), mostly because I can't get over adding yet another electronic device to the hardware I haul around with me now; however, with all the reading I do, perhaps it is best not having to cart around heavy IT books and instead read off a screen able to focus on a single purpose.

Our book, Exchange Server 2007: The Complete Reference now has a Kindle Version.

William Lefkovics

Exchange Server 2007: The Complete Reference

After stressing the fine folks at McGraw-Hill a little, we finally completed our Exchange Server 2007 book.

We think this is the first book for Exchange Server 2007 that also encompasses Service Pack 1. Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: The Complete Reference (Complete Reference Series) was published through McGraw-Hill about a month ago.

We have established a companion site for content that we could not get into the book and any errata we have found along the way.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2007 SP1 Rollup 2 Released

As outlined in MS KB 948016, Microsoft has released Rollup 2 for Exchange Server 2007 sp1 which makes a number of fixes. This is a cumulative update and therefore includes all interim updates released since sp1 for Exchange 2007. Exchange 2007 with Service Pack 1 is a prerequisite. In addition, any updates applied after Rollup 1 need to be uninstalled.

The 34.2 MB rollup file can be downloaded here.

William Lefkovics

New Mac Messenger for OCS

According to Eric Swift, Senior Director of the Office Communications Group at Microsoft, they are working on a new Messenger client for Mac with a beta coming later this year.

The new Mac Messenger (Office Communicator for Mac?) may not have feature-parity with its Windows-based counterpart, but it will have peer-to-peer video and audio conferencing, rich presence, GAL search and dual sign-on. Your Mac clients will be able to integrate with your Office Communications Server 2007 as well.

William Lefkovics

 

Exchange 2007 Protocol Documentation

So you have a week off from work and you don't have any specific plans for that week.  Well have we got a solution for you!

Microsoft has made available on MSDN yesterday the Exchange 2007 protocol documentation as part of their earlier announcement to publicize protocols and APIs for Microsoft products. At this time the documentation has been marked as 'preliminary' and the set of PDFs totals a 44.0MB download.

So grab a fine beverage, or a few, and get comfortable in your favorite chair and .....

William Lefkovics

Apple licenses Activesync for iPhone 2.0

By now you have already heard that Apple made the expected, yet still surprising announcement that, in response to customer demand, they are licensing Microsoft's Activesync protocol to expand and improve the corporate market potential for the next iPhone. At the same time, they announced an iPhone Enterprise Beta program as well. 

The iPhone SDK is available in the Apple iPhone DevCenter downloads area.

William Lefkovics

Leap Year bug in Exchange 2007

Many have experienced what appears to be a February 29th bug in Exchange 2007. You might see an error with text something like:

"The Exchange server address list service failed to respond. This could be because of an address list or email address policy configuration error."

There is a TechNet forum thread on the issue as well.

Microsoft is frantically trying to resolve this. Since the problem appears to go away when changing the system date to March 1 (not a solution), perhaps by midnight the issue will resolve itself... at least for four more years.

Update: Nino clarifies the leap year situation at the Exchange Team blog stating that "We are working on a permanent fix for this and will update this blog post when it becomes available."

William Lefkovics

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange 2007 SP1 Released

A few days after Rollup 6 for Exchange 2007 RTM was released, Microsoft has followed up with another between-service-packs update for Exchange 2007. Update Rollup 1 for Exchange 2007 SP1 is an accumulation of several fixes listed in the description for this rollup in MS KB 945684.

Exchange 2007 SP1 is a prerequisite for this update.

William Lefkovics

Update Rollup 6 for Exchange 2007 RTM

Is now available here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0b2993a3-d290-453e-85fe-108867865731&displaylang=en&tm

The corresponding KB is 942846 but it's not available yet.

Windows Server 2008 goes RTM

Microsoft announced today that Windows Server 2008 has been released to manufacturing. If you haven't tried Exchange 2007 on Windows Server 2008, hey, now is a good time to try!

Oh, there was something about an operating system called 'Vista' having a service pack released today, too.

William Lefkovics

TrainSignal.com Releases Exchange 2007 CBT

Fellow Exchange MVP David Shackelford lends his expertise to a new instructional video set on Administering Exchange 2007 through Train Signal. The Press Release for this set is found here. The Table of Contents for the videos is fairly thorough and found on the Exchange Server 2007 Training Videos product page.

Historically, I do find Train Signal produces quality videos, though I have not yet viewed this offering.

In the press release, the Train Signal Director of Sales and Marketing claims that there is a limited amout of training videos available for Exchange 2007. This is true. It is limited to almost all of his competition, including LearnKey and CBT Nuggets who both had Exchange 2007 training videos out last year.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac released

In conjunction with the MacWorld Expo, Microsoft has finally released Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac.

Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Entourage make up a visually appealing and functional package for Mac users. Entourage is used to connect Mac users to Microsoft Exchange Server. Instructions on creating an Exchange account in Entourage is available in the online help.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 due November 30

According to the latest Technet Flash email newsletter of November 28, 2007, Exchange 2007 with Service Pack 1 will be accessible for download (it's not there yet...UPDATE:Download link is working today 11/29) on November 30, 2007. The Exchange 2007 Download Center mentions sp1 as well suggesting you might "watch for the impending release announcement on the Exchange TechCenter homepage."

Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 is incorporated into Exchange 2007 RTM. This is important to meet requirements for installing on Windows 2008 Server. It also makes it easy to deploy for new installations without requiring a separate service pack installation. Windows 2003 needs to have Service Pack 2 applied prior to Exchange 2007 sp1.

Much of the current documentation in the Exchange TechCenter has referenced the following for quite some time: Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1.

William Lefkovics

Essential Business Server 2008 Announced

Microsoft announced as part of the upcoming wave of Windows Server 2008 products next year, a new bundle of joy called Windows Essential Business Server 2008. It is intended for the small business market for businesses a little larger than would use Small Business Server. EBS will benefit companies up to 250 workstations.

"Windows Essential Business Server is an integrated server infrastructure solution designed for the unique needs of midsized organizations. Combining the technologies of Windows Server 2008, Exchange Server 2007, Forefront Security for Exchange, System Center Essentials, the next version of ISA Server and SQL Server 2008 into an “all-in-one” solution." - Steven VanRoekel, Director, Windows Server Solution Group

I think this product will help dynamic businesses with around 100-200 users. Hopefully it will not restrictively bound like SBS. Windows Essential Business Server is expected in mid 2008.

William Lefkovics

eBook: The Shortcut Guide to Exchange Server 2007 Storage Systems

The complete version of Jim McBee's eBook The Shortcut Guide to Exchange Server 2007 Storage Systems is now available for download from Realtime.

Exchange Webcasts for September

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2007 Deployment and Migration (Level 200)
Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time
Bryan Von Axelson, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation

TechNet Webcast: Technical Overview of Forefront Security for Exchange Server (Level 200)
Friday, September 14, 2007 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Matthew Hester, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation

TechNet Webcast: Giving the Administrator More Control with Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)
Friday, September 28, 2007 - 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time
Chris Avis, IT Pro Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation

Small Business Webcast: Outlook Just Got Smaller with Outlook Mobile (Level 200)
Wednesday, September 19, 2007 - 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM Pacific Time
Carl Preston, Small Business Solutions Advisor, Microsoft Corporation

Exchange Unplugged Returns

Exchange Unplugged is making a return in Oct/Nov...

24th October 2007, London: Exchange Unplugged in association with BT
25th October 2007, London: Exchange Unplugged in association with Dimension Data
26th October 2007, London: Exchange Unplugged in association with Fujitsu
30th October 2007, Sheffield : Exchange Unplugged in association with Lynx
31st  October 2007, Manchester: Exchange Unplugged in association with Lynx
1st November 2007, Maidenhead: Exchange Unplugged in association with Nortel
2nd November 2007, Warwickshire: Exchange Unplugged in association with Post CTI
5th November 2007, Glasgow: Exchange Unplugged in association with Capito

Sessions will include:

Exchange Server 2007 including SP1,  an architectural overview and details on how it integrates into the rest of the UC suite

How to migrate from your existing platform to a new UC platform.  Its not just ‘move mailbox’.  This section will cover other parts of migration including storage, public folders and hardware.

How email and voicemail are coming together in Exchange 2007 in Unified Messaging.  Also covered in this section is how Outlook Voice Access give can give you another way in which to interact with your inbox.

Real world experience from a partner including a customer case study (slightly changed for EPG version – to just customer)

Mobility and how Windows Mobile,  Exchange 2007 and Office Communications Server 2007 provide secure and scalable communications such as email,  calendaring, presence and IM across an array of mobile devices.

Office Communications Server 2007.  Communication can be seen, typed or heard.  Hear about the latest entrant into the Unified Communications stack and how it will change the way in which people will communicate forever.

Update Rollup 4 for Exchange Server 2007

Microsoft is issuing another update rollup for Exchange 2007. Details of the set of patches is found in MS KB 940006.

Here is a list of what is included:

930463 - Missing Recipients on Edge cause 5.1.1 NDR, Edgesync does not Sync objects from Other domain trees in Same Forest

937656 - Change to DST transition dates in New Zealand time zone starting 2007

936300 - Mailbox Moves Blocked due to store deadlock

932561 - Implement Western Australia DST time zone

937861 - Exchange Gives Borked Address Type Array to Client, Causing NDR

938359 - Store.exe crash while composing a standard reply for moderated email-enabled public folder

938698 - LLRPerf: Long running open transactions are causing the checkpoint adv to be tricked into thinking it needs to version pages

936716 - Date format in body of read receipt confirmation does not match OS regional settings

940052 - Unable to reconnect a mailbox through EMC

933314 - ADSizelimitExceededException when GetDefaultAcceptedDomain() is called

939560 - EcGetSTF will only return maxPageSize number of OABs, not enough for hosting systems

as well as these issues...

Dismount Fails When Run As Local System

Cancelling a backup from replica writer leaves store in backup in progress state, store restart is required in order to continue the backups successfully

Test-edgesync needs to compute proxyaddress hash only once to avoid false positive in multi-edge server scenario

William Lefkovics

Xandros licenses ActiveSync and MAPI

Recently Xandros (formerly Corel Linux) acquired Scalix, giving the Linux distro a Messaging and Collaboration server product to market. A month later, Xandros has announced that they have licensed two Microsoft protocols for communication with Microsoft Exchange server: ActiveSync and Outlook-Exchange Transport protocol (MAPI). This agreement will allow Xandros to "enhance the interoperability of Scalix email servers with various mobile and personal computer-based email applications that utilize Microsoft® email protocols."

Xandros now has a Scalix Xandros Edition 11.0: "a Microsoft Exchange-like e-mail and group calendar server. Deliver all the functionality of Exchange with Outlook compatibility at a lower per user cost."

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Unveils Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 in Technology Preview

"REDMOND, Wash. — Aug. 13, 2007 —Microsoft Corp. today announced Exchange Server 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and opened a technology preview for the software. Exchange Server 2007 SP1 features enhancements such as support for Windows Server^® 2008, enhanced integration with Microsoft^® Office Communications Server 2007, and improved mobile device management and advanced security technology. " .... continued...

OCS 2007 is RTM...apparently

I've had an email from Arthur saying that OCS 2007 is RTM.  No wonder Microsoft just dumped all that documentation onto the downloads site - I thought RTM must just be around the corner.  You can read Arthur's post about it here.

MSExchange.org Wins a 2007 Apex Award for Excellence

This is cool and not just because I'm one of the authors there!  The msexchange.org site has won a 2007 Apex Award for site content and writing.  You can read more about this on the msexchange.org site.

It's good to see the recognition for the site.  And to think that these articles are free, too!

UK Messaging & Mobility User Group - August Meetings

The UK Microsoft Messaging & Mobility User Group will be having two meetings in August.

London Event:

This event will be held in London at the new MS offices near Victoria. This month we have two speakers. Firstly, Richard Jones from BinaryRefinery will be speaking about builindg business applications for Windows Mobile devices and how they can increase productivity and save you money. Secondly, Russ Kirk from Grey Convergence will be giving an introduction to Office Communication Server (OCS) 2007, showing the future core of MS communication products.

The meeting will be held on Thursday 23rd August.  Sign up for this event here.

The meeting will be a mixture of PowerPoint and Discussions so there will be plenty of time to run through your questions.

The agenda for the meeting will be as follows: (although I may tweak the timings slightly)

18:15 - 18:40            Arrival

18:40 - 18:45            Introduction to speakers and the aims of the group

18:45 - 19:30            1st session; led by Richard Jones, BinaryRefinery; Building Reliable Business Applications for Windows Mobile devices. How to improve productivity and save money.

19:30 - 19:50            Food!

19:50 - 20:45            2^nd session; led by Russ Kirk, Grey Convergence. An Introduction to OCS 2007

20:45 - 21:00            Q and A; Summing up and suggestions for future meetings.

21:00                        The End!

Liverpool Event:

This event will be held in Liverpool at Gardner Systems on Wavertree Technology Park. For this inaugural event, we will have a variety of great Exchange content ranging from Unified Messaging with Exchange 2007 to using NetApp storage with Exchange. For more see below.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday 29th August.  Sign up for this event here.

The meeting will be a mixture of PowerPoint and Discussions so there will be plenty of time to run through your questions.

The agenda for the meeting will be as follows: (although I may tweak the timings slightly)

18:15 - 18:40            Arrival

18:40 - 18:45            Introduction to speakers and the aims of the group

18:45 - 19:30            1st session; led by Eileen Brown, MS and Paul Stringfellow; Introduction to Exchange 2007 and a look at UM and OCS.

19:30 - 19:50            Food!

19:50 - 20:40            2^nd session; led by Paul Hargreaves, (Net App) and Declan Conroy,  Exchange HA including the use of NetApp Storage

20:40 - 20:55            Exchange Questions and Answers

20:55 - 21:00            Summing up and suggestions for future meetings.

21:00                        The End!

 

Comment Spam

There was way too much comment spam on this blog, so all comments will now have to be approved before being published.  There may be a slight delay before comments are published, but at least no spam comments will be published any more.

Microsoft Messaging & Mobility User Group - July Meeting

The Microsoft Messaging & Mobility User Group has a meeting arranged for July.  If you are in the UK and want to know more about Exchange 2007 and high availability, then this one is for you.  You can sign up for the event here.

Here are the details:

This event will be held in London at the new MS offices near Victoria. This month Greg Taylor from MCS will be speaking. He will cover all things High Availability looking both at new Exchange 2007 features and also what you can do with earlier versions.

The meeting will be held on Wednesday 11th July. Directions to the venue can be found below.

The meeting will be a mixture of PowerPoint and Discussions so there will be plenty of time to run through your questions.

The agenda for the meeting will be as follows: (although I may tweak the timings slightly)

18:15 - 18:40            Arrival

18:40 - 18:45            Introduction to speakers and the aims of the group

18:45 - 19:30            1st session; led by Greg Taylor, MCS; Introduction and in depth look at HA  for Exchange.

19:30 - 19:50            Food!

19:50 - 20:45            2^nd session; led by Greg Talyor, Chalk and Talk - Exchange HA

20:45 - 21:00            Summing up and suggestions for future meetings.

21:00                        The End!

Quest: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 - Effective Migration Strategies

Is your organisation looking for the right solution to migrate to Microsoft® Exchange Server 2007 —and the tools to effectively manage this new Exchange environment?

Join our experts at one of our half day Seminars (09:00 - 13:00)

17th May, Guinness Store House, Dublin
22nd May, Radisson SAS Hotel, Manchester Airport
7th June, (Venue TBC) Central London
12th June, Microsoft TVP, Reading
19th June, Microsoft TVP, Edinburgh

The seminar will discuss and include:

- Assessing your Exchange 2007 readiness
- Options for migrating to Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 (from 5.5, 2000, 2003, Notes or GroupWise)
- Managing your new Exchange 2007 environment
- Open lunch/questions

... registration...

RIM Announces New BlackBerry Application Suite for Windows Mobile-based Devices

"Waterloo, ON - Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced plans to expand its support for Windows Mobile®-based devices with a new software application suite that will enable devices from third-party manufacturers to benefit from the popular BlackBerry® software applications and services*. RIM plans to begin offering the new software application suite later this year for select devices based on Windows Mobile 6. Once installed, the software will provide users with a virtual BlackBerry application experience, including support for BlackBerry email, phone, calendar, address book, tasks, memos, browser, instant messaging and other applications developed for the BlackBerry platform. Devices running the BlackBerry application suite will be able to connect to BlackBerry services via BlackBerry® Enterprise Server as well as BlackBerry® Internet Service. " ... press release...

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange Server 2007

Microsoft has released what they are calling an 'Update Rollup 1' for Exchange Server 2007. The description of the update can be found in KB 930809 which states:

Update Rollup 1 for Exchange 2007 includes the following fixes:
- 932487 The Microsoft Exchange Information Store service stops unexpectedly when the Exchange Server 2007-based server replicates the Public folder 
- 929756 The DoSnapshotSet method may stop responding in the Exchange store, and a backup application stops responding on an Exchange 2007 server

The patch at almost 30MB is available for download here.

William Lefkovics

Update for Outlook 2007 (KB933493)

"This update fixes a problem in which a calendar item that is marked as private is opened if it is found by using the Search Desktop feature. The update also fixes performance issues that occur when you work with items in a large .pst file or .ost file."

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unleashed

Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unleashed has just been published by SAMS.. you can read a sample chapter here.

February -April Webcasts/Labcasts

24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 05 of 24): Transitioning and Migrating to Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)

Monday, February 5, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 06 of 24): Configuring Exchange Server Introduction (Level 200)

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 07 of 24): Configuring Exchange Server Conclusion (Level 200)

Friday, February 9, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 08 of 24): Introduction to Windows PowerShell (Level 200)

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 09 of 24): Using PowerShell for Exchange Management (Level 200)

Friday, February 16, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 10 of 24): Recipient Management, Policies, and Permissions (Level 200)

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 11 of 24): Messaging Policies and Compliance (Level 200)

Friday, February 23, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 12 of 24): Configuring Edge Transport Servers (Level 200)

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 13 of 24): Maintaining Anti-Spam Systems (Level 200)

Friday, March 2, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 14 of 24): Maintaining Antivirus (Level 200)

Wednesday, March 7, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 15 of 24): Using Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server 2006 for Secure Exchange Server Publishing (Level 200)

Friday, March 9, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 16 of 24): Outlook Web Access in Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 17 of 24): Unified Messaging (Level 200)

Monday, March 19, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 18 of 24): Mobility (Level 200)

Friday, March 23, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 19 of 24): Introduction to Exchange Server 2007 Disaster Recovery (Level 200)

Monday, March 26, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 20 of 24): Exchange Server 2007 Disaster Recovery (Level 200)

Friday, March 30, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 21 of 24): Monitoring (Level 200)

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 22 of 24): Using the Toolbox (Level 200)

Friday, April 6, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 23 of 24): Troubleshooting MAPI and Client Access Server Clients (Level 200)

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: 24 Hours of Exchange Server 2007 (Part 24 of 24): Troubleshooting E-Mail Flow (Level 200)

Friday, April 13, 2007

11:30 A.M.–12:30 P.M. Pacific Time

Exchange Server 2007 Guided Labcasts

Live Webcasts

TechNet Webcast: Labcast Series (Part 1 of 8): Installing Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)

Friday, February 2, 2007

11:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2007 Guided Labcast Series (Part 2 of 8): Analysis Tools in Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)

Monday, February 12, 2007

11:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2007 Guided Labcast Series (Part 3 of 8): Compliance and Retention (Level 200)

Monday, February 19, 2007

11:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2007 Guided Labcast Series (Part 4 of 8): Using Management Console and Shell (Level 200)

Monday, February 26, 2007

11:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2007 Guided Labcast Series (Part 5 of 8): Remote Client Access with Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)

Monday, March 12, 2007

11:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2007 Guided Labcast Series (Part 6 of 8): Using Local Continuous Replication (Level 200)

Friday, March 16, 2007

11:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2007 Guided Labcast Series (Part 7 of 8): Using Cluster Continuous Replication (Level 200)

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

11:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Pacific Time

TechNet Webcast: Exchange Server 2007 Guided Labcast Series (Part 8 of 8): Configuring an Edge Transport Server in Exchange Server 2007 (Level 200)

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

11:30 A.M.–1:00 P.M. Pacific Time

IMF Update on January 17, 2007

According to Scott at the WSUS Team Blog, there will (finally) be an update to the Exchange 2003 Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) on January 17, 2007.

It seems they 'paused' in December.  The spammers sure didn't pause.

William Lefkovics

New York spa offers "Blackberry Thumb" Massages

The Dorit Baxter spa in New York is offering Blackberry Thumb and Tech Neck massages to help release the muscular tension brought on by BlackBerries, Treos and the like. (I know a few Directors in London who could almost certainly take advantage of this!.. personally, I refuse to be a CrackBerry type user (I mainly just use mine for monitoring) and my thumbs and neck are in good shape, I think!)

"Is your Treo making your fingers ache and your face break out with zits? The city’s high-end spas are selling fixes for such ailments as “BlackBerry thumb,” “tech neck,’’ and “cell-phone clog.’’ “These are repetitive-stress injuries that people used to get in their fifties and sixties; now they are afflicted in their twenties and thirties,’’ says Dr. Thomas Scilaris, an Upper East Side orthopedic surgeon. Dorit Baxter spa on West 57th Street offers “Tech Neck” and “Tech Hand” treatments, recommended weekly at $59 per half-hour for each, which combine hot compresses and acupressure to relieve inflammation and “pins and needles.”

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS07-003

Vulnerabilities in Microsoft Outlook Could Allow Remote Code Execution (925938)

Published: January 9, 2007

Version: 1.0

Summary

Who Should Read this Document: Customers who use Microsoft Outlook

Impact of Vulnerability: Remote Code Execution

Maximum Severity Rating: Critical

Recommendation: Customers should apply the update immediately

Security Update Replacement: This bulletin replaces a prior security update. See the frequently asked questions (FAQ) section of this bulletin for the complete list.

Caveats: Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 925938 documents the currently known issues that customers may experience when they install this security update. The article also documents recommended solutions for these issues. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 925938.

Tested Software and Security Update Download Locations:

Affected Software:

•	Microsoft Office 2000 Service Pack 3 • Microsoft Outlook 2000 — Download the update (KB921593)
•	Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 3 • Microsoft Outlook 2002 — Download the update (KB921594)
•	Microsoft Office 2003 Service Pack 2 • Microsoft Outlook 2003 — Download the update (KB924085)

Microsoft UK Technical Roadshow 2007

"Get to grips with the very latest advances from Microsoft at the Technical Roadshow." ...

It's free :-) and includes "A look at Exchange Server 2007 featuring manageability, scalability, consolidation of servers and end user capabilities including voice integration, unified messaging and digital rights management"

Community launch event for Windows Vista, 2007 Office System and Exchange 2007

"24 January 2007 09:45 - 24 January 2007 17:15 GMT, London
Welcome Time: 09:00

Register online

Microsoft Ltd
Chicago 1&2
Building 3
Microsoft Campus Thames Valley Park Reading Berkshire RG6 1WG
United Kingdom

Event Overview

The Community Launch of Windows Vista, 2007 Microsoft Office System and Exchange 2007 Launch. This event is a first for Microsoft in the UK, it is a joint effort between the UK User Group communities being hosted for us by Microsoft at TVP. We will bring you an independent view on Microsoft’s new range of products.

The day will begin with the leaders of the relevant UK User Groups introducing the product range and showing you how things work in the real world. Throughout the day there will be plenty of chance for you to discuss your questions with both the user group leaders and Microsoft personnel.

The day will end with an afternoon of demonstrations showing how the products will affect both users and administrators. This will be a chance to see how all products integrate and to see workflow in the new environment.

Demos:

·         A day in the life of a User with Windows Vista, 2007 Microsoft Office System and Exchange 2007

·         A day in the life of an Administrator with Windows Vista, 2007 Microsoft Office System and Exchange 2007"

Exchange Permission Manager - Voted MSExchange.org Readers’ Choice Award Winner - Administration Category

"Exchange Permission Manager was selected the winner in the Administration category of the MSExchange.org Readers’ Choice Awards. Quest Spotlight on Exchange and NetIQ Exchange Administrator were first runner-up and second runner-up. "

PC Pro Review Outlook 2007

"This update to Outlook has so many good features that we're prepared to forgive its split personality of both menus/toolbars on the main window and the Ribbon UI elsewhere. Users have been asking for calendar overlays, time zones, better search and better email editing for ages - and Microsoft has now delivered big time." .. Rating 5 stars out of 6.

Full review.. (registration required)

Exchange 2007 - Download on MSDN / TechNet

Exchange 2007 is now available for download on MSDN and TechNet Plus Direct.

December 2006 Exchange 2007 SDK available

Microsoft has released the first post-RTM SDK for Exchange 2007 for December 2006. Hopefully they will continue the quarterly tradition of updating the SDKs for Exchange.

"The Exchange Server 2007 SDK December 2006 Documentation and Samples assist developers building applications for Exchange Server 2007. This release of the SDK provides new and updated information and sample code to help you develop collaborative enterprise applications with Exchange."

William Lefkovics

Management Pack for Exchange Server 2007 for MOM 2005

Microsoft has released a Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Management Pack for Exchange Server 2007. Obviously, this is for your 64bit Windows 2003 system running Exchange Server 2007.

"The Exchange Server 2007 Management Pack includes rules and scripts to monitor and report on performance, availability, and reliability of all Exchange 2007 server roles including Mailbox, Client Access, Hub Transport, Edge Transport and Unified Messaging."

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2007 Evaluation available for download

Microsoft has Exchange Server 2007 Evaluation available for download. It is available in both 32bit and 64bit versions, with only the latter for production of course.

This is a 120 day evaluation. "You can upgrade your server running Exchange Server 2007 evaluation software to full product at the end of the 120 day evaluation period with your product key."

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2007 RTM Friday December 8

Exchange Server 2007 will be going RTM tomorrow, Friday, December 8.

Update: Or earlier, as confirmed by Terry Myerson's post on the Exchange team blog.

William Lefkovics

Powershell 1.0 Released

As you already know by now, Windows Powershell (not the original Powershell) has been released with version 1.0 available for download for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Powershell for Vista and Longhorn is still a couple of months away, however.  It makes sense that Powershell week was just a little while ago.

The Exchange Management Shell is an extension of the Windows Powershell and is installed with Exchange Server 2007. If your company allows you to download .exe files from websites (it's an HTML page... why not just .zip it? Or perhaps a web server might do the trick?), the Exchange Management Shell quick reference is available as well.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2007 to RTM in December

I guess Redmond Mag was a little premature.  David Lemson announced at Exchange Connections in Las Vegas this past week that Exchange Server 2007 will get Released to Manufacturers (RTM) in December, as posted by Paul Robichaux in attendance.

What a winter - Vista. Office. Exchange. Expression.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Exchange 2007 Administrator's Pocket Consultant

I had a Messaging Newsflash email recently from Microsoft and one thing that I noticed at the end was a link for the new Exchange 2007 Administrator's Pocket Consultant book.  It's interesting to see that a few Exchange 2007 books are now beginning to surface on Amazon, together with their forthcoming anticipated release dates.  It looks like the pocket consultant book will be first available, scheduled for 31st January 2007.  One for your shopping list...

Three Exchange 2007 Exams?

A colleague has just sent me a link which I'd not read before.  It was from last week (12th September) and talked about the upcoming Exchange 2007 exams.  A couple of key things I read were:

* There will be three Exchange 2007 exams, one on your breadth and depth of knowledge and two on applying that knowledge in realistic situations.

* The beta Exchange 2007 exams will likely be released this fall.  Or Autumn if you're on this side of the pond.

The full story can be found here.

UK Partner Exchange 2007 Ignite Training

I've seen from a couple of different sources that the Exchange 2007 Ignite Technical Training is now being offered again to Microsoft partners in the UK, so I feel it's worth a mention here in case it slipped under anyone's radar screen.  The original training dates were in April and were limited, but now Microsoft UK is offering the training again from October through to January at various venues across the UK.  You're best advised to book early, though.

All the details can be found here.  Don't forget - this is for partners.

Phoenix and Las Vegas Exchange User Groups

Since we have a string of UG posts...

Harold Wong of Microsoft has got the Phoenix Exchange User Group up and running with an eye to Las Vegas, NV.

If you are in Las Vegas, NV, or Phoenix, AZ, and are interested in participating in a regular Exchange User Group meeting, feel free to drop me an email (LV@lefkovics.net)

William Lefkovics

Another Exchange User Group

It must be Exchange user group season.  Chris Haaker posted a comment on my recent blog entry that I wrote about the new UK Exchange user group.  It seems that there is now a Southern Ohio Exchange User Group which is due its inaugural meeting in September as well.  I thought it best to create a new post so that his comment is not overlooked.  Chris writes:

"The Southern Ohio Exchange User Group's inaugural meeting is on September 12th and the group is based in Cincinnati, OH. The first meeting will be held at the Microsoft Offices in Cincinnati. Microsoft's Matt Hester and Chris Reinhold will be speaking on Exchange 2007 and the new Antigen security features. The meeting details and registration can be found here and the group's homepage is here.

Kindly, Chris Haaker, SOEUG Leader"

Good luck with the user group Chris!

UK Messaging User Group Inaugural Meetings

As I advised in a recent post, the UK has a new user group for Microsoft messaging and mobility.  Two meetings have now been arranged as follows:

Wednesday 13th September, 2006 at the Microsoft TVP offices in Reading

Thursday 14th September 2006 at the Microsoft offices in Soho, London.

Both meetings start at 6pm running through to approximately 9pm.  The full agenda can be found at the links below.  I urge all UK-based Exchange professionals to attend one or both of these meetings, and to take part in this community development.  Eileen Brown will be presenting two sessions, one on an introduction to Exchange 2007, the other on Exchange 2007's Unified Messaging feature.  Nathan Winters, the founder of the user group, will also be presenting a session on mobility with Exchange 2003 SP2.  Food has also been arranged, always a good thing.

To register your interest, please go to the user group web site and respond to the relevant forum threads that I've linked to below.  To post in the forums, you'll need to become a member which is a quick and straightforward process (and you'll obviously be able to post general questions thereafter, too).  I'll be at the TVP meeting, so might see some of you there.

Reading event - click here.

London event - click here.

Microsoft ForeFront for Exchange Released as Public Beta

Microsoft acquired Sybari in early 2005. It has now evolved into Microsoft ForeFront, at least part of which Microsoft has released as a public beta along with Exchange 2007 beta 2. The beta for Microsoft ForeFront for Exchange Server should be available for download very shortly from here.

According to Yahoo! The Forefront Security for Exchange Server beta provides the following:

    * Advanced protection against viruses, worms, phishing and other threats
      by utilizing up to five anti-virus engines simultaneously at each layer
      of the messaging infrastructure
    * Optimized performance through coordinated scanning across edge, hub and
      mail servers and features such as in-memory scanning, multithreaded
      scanning processes and performance bias settings
    * Centralized management of remote installation, engine and signature
      updating, reporting and alerts through the Forefront Server Security
      Management Console

To see the path and products involved in the ForeFront effort, we can see the ForeFront Road Map here. We can see Exchange is only one part of the overall secure collaboration environment vision.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2007 Beta 2 Released to Public

Microsoft has released beta 2 of their next version of Exchange server for public consumption.

Exchange Server 2007 can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/beta2. Even though that is the location announced at Yahoo! and the Exchange Team blog, it is not yet available it seems.

The Exchange Team blog has a list of 10 items that they are "focusing on delivering to you," but it may well translate into 10 reasons to consider Exchange 2007.

The Exchange 2007 portal on the Microsoft website is here where you will find Exchange 2007 documentation.

(Update: Of course the download was available by the morning of July 24, 2006)

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Messaging & Mobility User Group UK

Following on from the recent UK-based Microsoft Unified Communications user group that I wrote about recently, another brand new user group has recently been formed.  It's called the Microsoft Messaging & Mobility User Group UK (which makes MM&M UG UK).

I've just been having a chat on the phone with the creator of this user group, Nathan Winters, about the user group's aims and, more importantly, the thoughts around the first meeting to be held somewhere around late September 2006.  If you have any thoughts on what you'd like to see at the first meeting, join the forums and post to this thread.  The idea of the site is to host blogs, articles, links, forums and downloads and members are already beginning to join the site.

I'll post updates to this blog as and when events will be happening, and I aim to post useful articles to the user group website and monitor the forums as often as I can.  See you there!

Marketing, Press Releases, and Recovery

One thing about corporate Press Releases... they are not vendor neutral.

Around the time Mimosa Systems was announcing their Disaster Recovery Option for Mimosa NearPoint for Microsoft Exchange Server, Lucid8 was "correcting and replacing" their press release because of "multiple revisions" announcing their new partner program.

Both companies promise to provide rapid recovery of Exchange Systems (and one the opportunity to overmanage your databases cough*goexchange*cough). They are members of a growing group of products that might well become somewhat obsolete when Exchange 2007 comes through with its logshipping (Local Continuous Replication) solution.

I cringe when I read lines like "the industry's only solution to provide application intelligent recovery..." and "SingleTouch recovery" and "One-Click" restores. Hitachi Data Systems has "SplitSecond Rapid Recovery Solutions". McData, EMC, Cemaphore, Doubletake and Neverfail (what a great software name) all have replication solutions for or including Exchange recovery.

I enjoy reading the press releases for these products (and others) because they make me wonder how anyone could live without them. Maybe they're right.

William Lefkovics

Oh great...

Looks like Typepad had a burp yesterday and the first two posts on here in months have been lost!  I can't recall that happening before.  Typical.  I can't be bothered to re-create them as new posts and duplicate all the information, so I'll just briefly restate the only important piece of information from yesterday:

If you're in the UK and you're into Exchange 2007 Unified Messaging, or the new upcoming Unified Communications suite of products from Microsoft, go here now.

Microsoft Announced Exchange Hosted Services

Microsoft recently annouced the availability of Exchange Hosted Services (EHS).  The concept is not new, as many enterprises have provided hosted Exchange solutions over the years, however, the methods for Microsoft are more refined as they both learn from their mistakes and leverage acquisitions, such as Frontbridge Technologies.

EHS is an option, but not one that fits everyones needs.  It may not be sufficient for enterprises under strict compliance guidelines, or companies that experience frequent internet connectivity issues, for example.  The main EHS Microsoft website is here.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Office System 2007 RTM expected October 2006

Microsoft confirmed that the 2007 Microsoft Office System (1), which will surely be known as just Office 2007, is on track to be RTM in October 2006, with retail and OEM to "coincide with the retail and OEM availability of the Windows Vista operating system in January 2007."  Of course this includes "Outlook 12".

(1) Why do they keep moving the year around in the name?

William Lefkovics

RIM announces Blackberry Enterprise Server 4.1

Shortly after millions of Blackberry addicts users breathed a collective sigh of relief, Research In Motion (RIM) announced the availability of Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) 4.1. 

BES 4.1 works with Exchange 5.5 through Exchange 2003 sp2 (as well as Lotus Domino 5.0 through 7.0). They also promise tighter integration with Live Communication Server and IBM Lotus Sametime.

There are also gains for the developers among us:

“This release will also provide developers with a new and powerful visual tool to create mobile applications based on the open standard of Web Services.” - Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at Research In Motion

William Lefkovics

Redmond Mag Article: Message Hygeine

Redmond Magazine, a self-proclaimed independent voice of the Microsoft IT Community, has a great 2 part article on Message Hygeine with Exchange Server 2003 written by Joern Wettern.

The articles appeared in January and February 2006:

• Message Hygeine: Microsoft Style Part 1
• Message Hygeine: Microsoft Style Part 2

William Lefkovics

Sony Ericsson Licenses ActiveSync

Sony Ericsson has now joined the many wireless device manufacturers to license Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol.

"The first implementation will be on the new Sony Ericsson P990 and M600 phones, which will be available in the second quarter of this year."

William Lefkovics

Exchange is Now Part of the Unified Communication Group at Microsoft

In a reorganization move Microsoft announced that the Exchange Server product group joins the Real-Time Collaborations (RTC) team in the newly formed Unified Communications Group (UCG).

"The merger of these two groups simply ensures our customers will see even deeper, more seamless experiences among our products in future releases." - Anoop Gupta, Microsoft VP/Head of UCG.

I wonder if this means we will see Instant Messaging merged back into the Exchange product in the future.

Now if we can only get them to stop using the term 'silo'. 

William Lefkovics

Best Exchange Killer of 2005

You know you're good when they have a performance category based on dethroning you.  Back in January, InfoWorld Magazine, as part of their InfoWorld Technology of the Year awards declared Gordano Messaging Suite as the Best Exchange Killer of 2005.

William Lefkovics

Exchange Lotus Notes/Domino Migration Tools To Be Updated

In January, Microsoft announced they would be updating their Lotus migration tools to ease the burden of migrating from Lotus Notes/Domino to Exchange Server 2003.

The toolset includes the following:

       Microsoft Application Analyzer 2006 for Lotus Domino. This tool,
       available in the first quarter of 2006, will significantly improve the
       process of analyzing a Notes/Domino application environment and provide
       a framework for making recommendations to transition those applications
       to the Microsoft platform.

       Microsoft Data Migrator 2006 for Lotus Domino. This new tool, available
       in the second quarter of 2006, will allow organizations to migrate data
       from Lotus Domino template-based applications to Windows SharePoint
       Services Application Templates.

       Additional Windows SharePoint Services Application Templates. Building
       on the success of 30 application templates released in August 2005,
       Microsoft announced three new application templates available today
       developed for customers using similar Lotus Notes/Domino templates
       today: Discussion Database, Team Work Site and Document Library.

       Updated Messaging and Coexistence Tools. To assist companies with the
       transition from Lotus Notes/Domino messaging to Microsoft Exchange
       Server, Microsoft is providing enhanced functionality and increased
       stability for Exchange Calendar Connector for Lotus Notes/Domino,
       Exchange Connector for Lotus Notes/Domino and Migration Wizard for
       Lotus Notes/Domino.

Migrating the data is not too difficult, in either direction, actually.  But where there exists custom applications, migrating application logic is another issue.  Historically, the Application Analyzer, and the Application Converter did not do a very thorough job, and were only helpful for the most basic applications.  Hopefully the updated version improves greatly on that.

I would expect these tools to be made available along side their other interoperability and migration tools for Exchange

Also note Microsoft's support policy for Exchange for migration and coexistence with Lotus Notes.

William Lefkovics

MS06-003 TNEF Encoding Vulnerability Patched

Included in the January 2006 patches released on January 10, 2006, is a critical patch to fix a TNEF decoding vulnerability: "Vulnerability in TNEF Decoding in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Could Allow Remote Code Execution (902412)"

The affected Exchange systems, for which patches are available, are:

•	Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0 Service Pack 2
•	Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Service Pack 4
•	Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 Service Pack 3

Hopefully this is not lost in the aftermath of the WMF scare.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Announces Exchange “12” Beta 1

"Beta 1 of Exchange 12 is a private one that will be released to a mix of 1,400 customers and partners worldwide"

Thankfully, Beta 1 will be available to testers in both 32bit and 64bit.  Obviously, the benefits of 64bit will not be realized by the testers who deploy the 32bit version, but there is still plenty of opportunity to run the product through its paces and report on the new features.

Beta 2 is anticipated in mid-2006 and the final release in early 2007, according to Sr Product Manager Megan Kidd, as referenced in this ARNNet article.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 12 to be Exclusively 64 bit

As announced at the sold out Microsoft IT Forum 2005 in Barcelona, Spain, Exchange 12 will ship exclusively for 64 bit hardware.

"To help customers take full advantage of the power of 64-bit computing, products including Microsoft(R) Exchange Server "12", Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003, Windows Server(TM) "Longhorn" Small Business Server, and Microsoft's infrastructure solution for midsize businesses, code-named "Centro", will be exclusively 64-bit and optimised for x64 hardware."

William Lefkovics

ONTRACK DATA RECOVERY INTRODUCES POWERCONTROLS™ VERSION 4.0

"Ontrack Data Recovery™, the industry’s leading data recovery provider, today announced the availability of Ontrack® PowerControls™ 4.0 software, the newest version of its widely used mailbox recovery tool. This upgraded version helps Microsoft® Exchange administrators save time and deliver better recovery performance with more powerful searching and reporting capabilities, and expanded backup format support for CommVault® Galaxy™ and UltraBac Software.

“Email management continues to be a challenge for storage administrators as storage requirements increase in both volume and complexity,” said Jim Reinert, senior director of Software and Services for Ontrack Data Recovery. “PowerControls 4.0 helps simplify email management by giving administrators more control over their storage environment. The Advanced Searching capabilities in the newest version of PowerControls allow for quicker response to restore requests, translating to faster support for end users.”... press release

Exchange Tools Update

Yesterday Microsoft released several updates to important tools for Exchange:

First, the PFDAVAdmin tool has been updated to version 2.4 and finally been made a supported tool, which it wasn't before.  You can get the latest version here.

Also, you can download the latest version sof the Exchange Server Analyzer tools.  These include the Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool (ExBPA) v2.5, the Exchange Server Performance Troubleshooting Analyzer Tool v1.0 and the Exchange Server Disaster Recovery Analyzer Tool v1.0.

For those of you running Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM), note that the Exchange Server Management Pack and Exchange Server Management Pack Configuration Wizard were also updated on the download site.  I'm not clear on what changes were made yet so I'm off to have a look.

Update 7th November 2005:

Scott Schnoll of Microsoft has kindly provided some information on the changes within the Exchange 2003 Management Pack.  Scott writes:

"The following list of rules highlights some of the changes that were added in this update to the Exchange Server 2003 Management Pack for MOM 2005.  Some of the rules added in this release of Exchange Server Management Pack relate to features added in Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). For information about Exchange Server 2003 SP2 features, see What's New in Exchange Server 2003.

Note: Exchange 2000 Server Management Pack has not been updated

Rules have been added to provide enhanced monitoring in the following areas:

Exchange database size limits

Exchange ActiveSync configuration settings

Exchange ActiveSync Up-to-Date Notifications performance

Exchange ActiveSync errors

Monitor intelligent message filtering performance

Intelligent message filtering for errors

Sender ID configuration errors

Sender ID errors

Disk read/write performance

DSAccess settings

Public folder replication"

"Quest Software Offers New Product to Ensure Continuous Availability of Exchange, Even During System Outages"

"New Availability Manager for Exchange Automatically Detects Outages, Moves Traffic to Alternate Servers with No Disruption or Data Loss

IRVINE, Calif. (Oct 31, 2005) – Quest Software Inc. (Nasdaq: QSFT), a leading provider of application, database and infrastructure management solutions, today introduced Availability Manager for Exchange 1.0, a new product that ensures the continuous availability of e-mail send/receive functionality by automatically moving users to a defined Exchange server, where they will continue to receive uninterrupted service during the outage.  Once service is restored, they are switched back to their original server with no data loss.  The designated backup server can be any Exchange server in the enterprise, so no dedicated backup servers are required." ... read on...

Exchange 2003 on Hardware Virtualization Software

Late last week Microsoft released the following information:

"One of the most commonly requested Microsoft applications that people want supported on Virtual Server is Exchange.  Until today Microsoft has stated that Exchange is not supported on Virtual Server.  Today is a new day.  We have officially introduced support for Exchange 2003 SP2 and later on Virtual Server 2005 R2.  The complete details are located at the link below.

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=320220

The article below will be updated with the new info.  It has not yet been updated to reflect the change but is being worked on and should be updated shortly."

KB: 897614 Windows Server System software not supported within a Microsoft Virtual Server environment

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=897614

"BBC suspends Blackberry network after mixed-up emails"

"The BBC has suspended its Blackberry email service after a bug in Research In Motion's server software mixed to gether snippets from different messages between senior executives... "... read on...

Exchange 5.5 UK Unplugged Tour

In the UK and considering upgrading from Exchange 5.5? If so, the Exchange 5.5 Unplugged Tour taking place in eight locations across the country could be for you...

Don't Forget... "Microsoft to retire Exchange Server 5.5 by year's end"

"Microsoft Corp. will be retiring Exchange Server 5.5 and support for the product at the end of the year and is recommending users upgrade to the latest version, the company said Wednesday...."

Microsoft Exchange Insider Articles

Nino Bilic's world famous Exchange Tech Bulletins are now public Exchange Insider Articles!

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 Released

"Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) enhances your messaging environment by adding improved mobile e-mail, better protection from spam, and advanced mailbox fundamentals."... Download.

US Still Worst Spamming Nation

... or Best Spamming Nation depending on your perspective.

Security firm Sophos released its 'Dirty Dozen' spamming nations in this report.  While the percentage has dropped significantly for the US, it is still well ahead of other nations, with better than 1 in 4 spam emails originating from a US-based computer. 

The 'Dirty Dozen' according to Sophos:

April - September, 2005  (April - September, 2004)

1. United States	26.35%	(41.50%)
2. South Korea	19.73%	(11.63%)
3. China (incl Hong Kong)	15.70%	(8.90%)
4. France	3.46%	(1.27%)
5. Brazil	2.67%	(3.91%)
6. Canada	2.53%	(7.06%)
7. Taiwan	2.22%	(0.86%)
8. Spain	2.21%	(1.04%)
9. Japan	2.02%	(2.66%)
10. United Kingdom	1.55%	(1.07%)
11. Pakistan	1.42%	New entry
12. Germany	1.26%	(1.02%)

Others

18.88%

(18.10%)

William Lefkovics

Security Patch Week - 9 Patches including 1 for Exchange

On Tuesday, October 11, Microsoft will provide 9 security patches for its products.  One of these is rated 'Important' for Microsoft Exchange Server.  Microsoft's Advance Notification page suggests the Exchange patch will require a restart.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft System Center Capacity Planner 2006 - BETA

Microsoft has announced the availability of a public beta version of System Center Capacity Planner 2006.  This will be of interest to Exchange professionals due to the fact that it currently covers both Exchange 2003 and MOM 2005.

Overview:

Microsoft System Center Capacity Planner 2006 (BETA) delivers state of the art easy-to-use modeling technology to bring unprecedented functionality and flexibility to the process of performance analysis and planning of system deployments of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Operations Manager 2005. Microsoft System Center Capacity Planner 2006 (BETA) provides the IT professional with the tools and guidance required to architect a deployment in the most efficient manner, while facilitating future planning by allowing for "what-if" analysis.

System Center Capacity Planner 2006 (Beta) provides the following benefits:

• Proactive Performance Planning
• Infrastructure Planning and Optimization
• Performance Analysis and Predictive Reporting
• Cost Analysis and Justification

The beta version can be downloaded here.  A community forum for the product can be found here.

Office 2003 Service Pack 2 Released

"SP2 contains a new Phishing Protection feature to be used with the Outlook Junk Email Filter. Phishing is the luring of sensitive information through e-mail, such as passwords and other personal information, by an attacker masquerading as someone trustworthy. Phishing attacks can result in a user divulging sensitive information, including financial information, that can result in a loss of privacy or money. Phishing e-mail is hard to identify, because attackers make their e-mail appear genuine and often mimic recognizable e-mail sent out routinely by legitimate organizations such as banks and credit card companies."... info/download. 

Exchange 12 Media to be DVD only

Microsoft wants you to know well in advance that the next version of Exchange will ship on DVD media only.  This gives you plenty of time to ensure you have a DVD readable device available to install or copy the installation files to the network.

This was announced in the Exchange Team Blog and covered by ENT Magazine today.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Acquires Teleo

"Microsoft is bolstering its presence in the fast-growing internet telephony market by acquiring Teleo, a privately owned technology company based in San Francisco..... Will Collins, the product manager for Microsoft's MSN service, said: "Teleo has a number of technology solutions that are exciting to us. Their innovative data offering allows calls to phones and PCs but it's integrating that with Outlook and Internet Explorer with a click-and-call function which is what's interesting to us." Full Story.

New Blog - fixingemail.org

Fixing Email "...on a mission: to encourage and motivate all email users to report spam and email fraud. Think “Neighborhood Watch” for email."

New Book: BlackBerry Hacks

BlackBerry Hacks: Tips & Tools for Your Mobile Office - due to be published by O'Reilly in October.

Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 Community Technology Preview Now Available

As mentioned earlier, the Community Technology Preview build of Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 is now available for download.  You do have to register with a valid Passport to download.

Don't forget to read the Release Notes for Windows prerequisites and an overview of what's new in sp2.

Microsoft stresses that this is NOT intended for production servers and as such is NOT supported. 

William Lefkovics

Microsoft® Exchange Connections - Oct 31-Nov 3, 2005 - San Diego, California

"Microsoft and Windows IT Pro magazine partner to produce the premiere Exchange event bringing IT professionals from around the world together again. Join your community as Microsoft reveals exciting advances impacting Microsoft Exchange, experience cutting edge sessions, take your skills to new levels, attend the new hands-on trouble shooting course, explore the expo hall, and network at awesome parties. If you use Microsoft Exchange this conference is a must to stay competitive."

Community Technology Preview Build of Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Coming on Friday

"Microsoft is set to release an early build of a key enabler of its promised push e-mail solution by the end of this week. On August 19, Microsoft is set to post for download a first Community Technology Preview (CTP) build of Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack (SP) 2, according to a blog posting from Microsoft senior Technology Specialist Harold Wong.

The Exchange team "has opted to release a CTP to provide the Exchange community with an early look at a product that has yet to be released (SP2)," a Microsoft spokeswoman verified. "The idea is for Exchange customers to get early access to SP2 so customers/partners can plan their own technology roadmap."... Full Microsoft Watch report.

Microsoft Solutions for Infrastructure and Management Exchange SLA Scorecard

Tony Soper's blogged details on the new Exchange SLA Scorecard that's currently in the beta phase.

"As we move into more complex and interdependent applications, it becomes increasingly difficult to track the capabilities of various IT services. Furthermore, it seems that there is no single formula or presentation mechanism to easily roll up the data and demonstrate that IT is in fact meeting the needs of the business and achieving its service level agreement (SLA) targets.

Microsoft IT has become a world-class IT organization, possessing much experience in managing a large enterprise and achieving great success in messaging service delivery. Microsoft IT is diligent in its operations management processes and metrics management. They track key components and derive measurements that truly show how IT services are performing against business needs. They measure service delivery based on IT scorecards and SLAs. These metrics and measures allow them to fine tune services and achieve high availability with the Microsoft® Exchange Server messaging platform. However, since there is no industry standard for measuring services, customers frequently ask, “How does Microsoft do it?” The SLA Scorecard Solution Accelerator for Exchange provides customers with best practices for measuring the service delivery of Exchange." ... read on...

New Microsoft Mobility Blog - Mr Mobile

Jason Langridge, a Mobility Manager with Microsoft in the UK has a new blog. Jason gets to play with all the latest toys, long before they hit the shelves of course, so it'll be interesting to read his thoughts on the many new mobile devices that are due for release over the next few months, and will be Windows Mobile 5 powered, as required for the 'push e-mail' functionality of Exchange 2003's forthcoming service pack 2.

(Don't forget that the Windows Mobile Team also have a blog)

Star Developers Join Exchange Team

"The Microsoft Exchange team has brought aboard two highly-respected developers known for their expertise in collaboration software. Julio Estrada, a former star at Lotus Development who went on to found Kubi Software, has joined the Exchange Server team, sources said. Also joining Microsoft is Bob Congdon, who was at IBM till recently..... The company (Microsoft) seems to be trying to boost Exchange Server's profile both inside and outside of company under vice president Dave Thompson, who took the reins late last year." Full news report.

Webcast Today!

TechNet Webcast: Mastering Exchange Server Scripting (Level 300)

Start Time:   Tuesday, August 09, 2005 9:30 AM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) 
End Time:   Tuesday, August 09, 2005 10:30 AM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) 

Event Description 
Tackle one of the toughest customers in the scripting world: Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. This webcast examines the Microsoft technologies that make Exchange script-accessible, including Collaboration Data Objects (CDO), CDO for Exchange Management, Windows Management Instrumentation, ActiveX Data Objects, and Active Directory Service Interfaces. Get an in-depth look at scripts capable of monitoring and managing Exchange, and learn about the capabilities and limitations of Exchange Server scripting.

Presenter: Don Jones, Microsoft MVP, Book Author, and Founder of ScriptingAnswers.com, & Jeffery Hicks, Contributing editor to ScriptingAnswers.com, Principal Consultant, JDH Information Technology Solutions

GFI MailSecurity 9 Released

"London, UK, 2 August 2005 – GFI today announced the release of a new version of GFI MailSecurity for Exchange/SMTP, its email content security solution. Version 9 provides administrators with far greater ease of use and highly reduced maintenance requirements while retaining the product’s proven multi-layered defense system – in the form of multiple virus engines, content and attachment checking, spyware and exploit detection, and Trojan/executable scanning. Through its new quarantine filters, search options and web-based configuration, GFI MailSecurity 9 will help administrators ensure that their email servers are secure and efficient with a minimal amount of effort."

NewsGator Technologies Introduces NewsGator Enterprise Server

"NewsGator Technologies, Inc., the leading RSS platform company, announced today the launch of NewsGator Enterprise Server (NGES). Available in Q3, NewsGator Enterprise Server is a revolutionary new product for aggregating and reading RSS content within the enterprise. It brings the power of NewsGator's existing RSS engine, services and capabilities behind the firewall, providing enterprise class security, manageability and deployment. In addition, NGES optionally integrates with Microsoft Exchange and Active Directory, which eases deployment for enterprise IT departments and provides a user interface that employees are comfortable with. " ... full press release

New BlackBerry Book

Professional BlackBerry by Craig J. Johnston.

Microsoft Speech Technologies Coming to Exchange Server

"There is some really good work that's being done by people who do add-on products to Exchange. One in particular I know about... is the Octel product." - Bill Gates

That was at Comdex in 1997 here in Las Vegas, NV.  Octel Unified Messenging allowed people to access email and voicemail through a single interface.  It was an expensive add-on for Exchange 5.5.  Well Octel is now Avaya.  The sun is setting on Exchange 5.5.  Exchange 2000 then 2003 have been released.  And now unified messaging is expected to be a part of the next Exchange version - Exchange 12.

According to this ENT Magazine article by Scott Bekker of Redmond Magazine, Microsoft will be adding its speech technologies to Exchange.  Speech-enabled unified messaging.   

We knew it was coming.  But when? 

"Microsoft did not specify whether it would attempt to ready the technology for the next release of Exchange, the Exchange 12 release currently planned for sometime in 2006."

Microsoft Speech Technologies go beyond voice-to-text 'translation'.  I've been using the built-in speech recognition technology in Windows Vista beta 1 for common commands ("Computer.  Switch to Notepad.") instead of using the mouse or keyboard.  For years, I've been barking commands, mostly unreasonable ones, at my Exchange Servers.  Maybe one day they'll listen.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft to Acquire FrontBridge Technologies

Microsoft announced their intention to purchase FrontBridge Technologies, formerly BigFish, a messaging security company. 

This may be good news for the future of secure Exchange messaging, especially in hosted environments.  Microsoft's press release covering the acquisition is here.

It is not clear how this would affect the many FrontBridge customers who do not run Microsoft Exchange servers. 

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2003 SDK June 2005 Update

The quarterly update of the Exchange Server 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK) Documentation and Samples is available for download.

"The documentation and samples assist developers in building applications for Exchange 2003 Server."

William Lefkovics

DataViz Launches RoadSync for Sony Ericsson P900/910 Series Smartphones

"At Microsoft Tech*Ed 2005 Europe, DataViz, Inc., leading provider of Office compatibility solutions for over 21 years, today announced that its new RoadSync solution for Symbian UIQ smartphones is shipping. Based on the Exchange ActiveSync protocol licensed from Microsoft, RoadSync is the first commercially available software solution to provide secure, wireless and direct synchronization with Exchange Server 2003, thereby extending the existing mobile benefits of Exchange Server 2003 to reach non-Microsoft devices. RoadSync for Symbian UIQ offers full mobile access to corporate Outlook e-mail, attachments, calendar and contacts, making the popular Sony Ericsson P900/P910 series smartphones the first non-Microsoft devices to support the full Exchange ActiveSync implementation.".. read on...

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) v2.0 Released

Microsoft released a new version of the free Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA).  The new MBSA v2.0 is compatible with the new Windows Server Update Service (WSUS); whereas, the previous version MBSA v1.2.1 remains compatible with the older, soon to be obsolete, Software Update Service (SUS).

What does that mean?  Well, if you maintain Exchange 5.0 or Exchange 5.5 Servers, then you will still need to use MBSA v1.2.1 in order to scan those applications to confirm they have the necessary security updates applied to them.  MBSA v2.0 will only scan Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 servers at this time.

Review MS KB 895660 to confirm whether you still need MBSA v1.2.1 prior to uninstalling. Also, v2.0 and v1.2.1 can actually run on the same machine if necessary.

William Lefkovics

Spam: Use Sender ID or we'll junk you, says Microsoft

"Microsoft is to wage war on spam by pushing for all emails to have Sender ID or risk being identified as junk mail by Hotmail and MSN.

Around November, Hotmail and MSN will flag as potential spam those messages that do not have the tag to verify the sender, according to Craig Spiezle, a director in the technology care and safety group at the software maker. The move is meant to spur on the adoption of Sender ID, he said." ... read on...

Microsoft Completes Acquisition of Enterprise Security Provider Sybari Software

"Microsoft Corp. today announced the completion of its acquisition of Sybari Software Inc. Originally announced Feb. 8, the acquisition of Sybari adds a critical security component to Microsoft’s efforts to help enterprise customers become more secure. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft, Sybari will continue to offer enterprise protection products for the Microsoft^® Windows^® platform.

“Customers have told us they want powerful security solutions for the enterprise to help protect their messaging and collaboration servers from viruses, worms and spam,” said Mike Nash, corporate vice president of the Security Business & Technology Unit at Microsoft. “Sybari’s award-winning and innovative products coupled with its strong industry partnerships and deep integration with such products as Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 will deliver immediate value to Microsoft customers.” ... read on...

TechEd 2005 Simulcast Available: Microsoft Exchange 2003: Tips Tricks and Shortcuts

Microsoft has released 12 of the better TechEd 2005 simulcasts as On Demand Webcasts.  Included in this is Scott Schnoll's presentation for Exchange 2003, called Exchange Server 2003: Tips, Tricks and Shortcuts (Level 300).

Other Exchange related TechEd 2005 Webcasts available on demand:

Managing Exchange 2003 with MOM 2005: Better Together (Level 200)

How Microsoft IT Does Storage Design In Exchange Scale Up Deployments (Level 200)

Troubleshooting Exchange Server 2003 (Level 200)

Understanding the Exchange Store (Level 300)

William Lefkovics

Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter

This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail.

Exchange Patch Coming June 14

Among the 10 patches to be released by Microsoft this coming Tuesday, June 14, there is one for Exchange Server.

The maximum severity rating for this update is 'important' and a restart should not be required.  The vulnerability will be detectible through the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) and the Enterprise Update Scan Tool (EST).

As usual, there is a Technet Webcast the following day covering the June patches.

William Lefkovics

Sybari Antigen Management Pack for MOM

OK, so I'm straying into MOM territory once again, but it's somewhat Exchange related...

Sybari has announced the release of it's Antigen Management Pack for MOM, which you'll definitely want to get hold of if you use both Antigen and MOM within your Windows infrastructure.  You can obtain all the necessary information here.

Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) Released

After a thorough beta, Microsoft has announced the release of Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).  WSUS is a big step from SUS.  It is a free application to help administrators with a big cornerstone of security - patch management.

In addition to Windows versions and SQL Server, WSUS initially allows for updates for both Exchange Server 2003 and Office 2003 (at least).

Microsoft has a newsgroup to discuss WSUS at microsoft.public.windows.server.update_services.

There are also an email-based community at Patchmanagement.org and a web forum at wsus.info. 

William Lefkovics

Tech-Ed Diary

Microsoft's Scott Schnoll is at Tech-Ed this week... read about the latest news and announcements in the Tech-Ed diary.

Exchange 2003 Standard 16GB Limit: Good Riddance

Possibly the biggest improvement introduced with the upcoming service pack 2 for Exchange Server 2003 is the lifting of the 16BG store limit for the Standard version.  SP2 adds a 75GB limit.   This is great news for those of us in the small to medium business market.

Microsoft summarizes the SP2 and its improvements noting the release expected in the second half of 2005.

Other improvements include true push email to mobile devices and the addition of SenderID protocol support.

William Lefkovics

Do You Have SLAs For Exchange?

If you use MOM 2005 to monitor and manage Exchange, note that Chris Harris, PM for the Exchange Management Pack at Microsoft, is after your input to make it easier for you to report on service/server availability and to measure SLA compliance.  You can respond to Chris via the public newsgroups here - under the thread titled Do you have SLAs for Exchange?

Chris says:

I'm the PM that owns the Exchange Management Pack at Microsoft. I'm working on the reports for our next major release and I need your help.

I want to make it easier for you to report on service/server availability and to measure your compliance with Service Level Agreements.

Please tell me how your orgainization measures availability or defines Service Level Agreements (SLA) for Exchange. Or, perhaps more importantly, how you would like to measure or define them.

Examples:
* Outlook clients must be able to successfully connect to the server 99.5% of the time during normal business hours.
* The Exchange databases must be mounted 99.9% of the time

Please provide the following:
1. Current SLA and availability definitions
2. How do you measure it today?
3. Preferred SLA and availability definitions
4. How would you like to measure it?

To make it worth your effort, I've got a number of different software packages sitting in my office, and for the best idea I'll let you take your pick.

Thanks,
Chris Harris

Microsoft UK Messaging Workshops

A number of messaging workshops/surgeries are taking place in Reading over the next couple of months. They have been neatly summarised by Flaphead.

Veritas Backup Exec - Voted MSExchange.org Readers' Choice Award Winner - Exchange Backup Solution Category

"Veritas Backup Exec was selected the winner in the Exchange Backup Solution category of the MSExchange.org Readers’ Choice Awards. CommVault Galaxy, Sonasoft's SonaSafe for Exchange, and GFI MailArchiver were all first runners-up."

Small Business Server Service Pack 1 Released

Microsoft has released Small Business Server (SBS) Service Pack 1.  The 206MB download includes Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 and the Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Service Pack 1 for Client Deployment.

William Lefkovics

Nokia Licenses Microsoft's Activesync

Nokia announced it has licensed the Activesync protocol from Microsoft, further expanding the list of providers that have helped grow the mobility potential of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.

"Enterprise Solutions business group today announced that it has licensed Microsoft Corp's Exchange Server ActiveSync protocol to enable wireless and direct synchronization between Microsoft Exchange Server, part of the Windows Server System and future Nokia enterprise mobile devices."

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Announces Windows Mobile 5.0

As many expected, Microsoft announced the release of Windows Mobile 5.0 (code-named Magneto) at the Mobile and Embedded Development Conference (MEDC) in Las Vegas, NV this week.

"Windows Mobile 5.0 has familiar features that will help you manage e-mail and Office attachments when out of the office.

The next version of Windows Mobile Software includes Windows Media Player 10 Mobile, a great multimedia experience that will make it easy to transfer songs, videos, and pictures from your PC to your device.

Plus, the new platform offers more ways for developers, mobile operators, and OEMs to innovate."

The announcement came in the keynote address by Bill Gates a couple of hours ago.  You should also be able to see Bill Gates' MEDC keynote address webcast here later today. 

Now all we need is Exchange 2003 sp2...

William Lefkovics

Exchange Server 2003 Patch for MS05-021

Microsoft released an important patch covered in MS KB 894549 (they may still be working on this article) for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. 

This patch fixes the vulnerability outlined in MS05-021 (they may still be working on this article).

William Lefkovics

Update: The links are working now.  This is a critical update and should be tested and applied as soon as possible.  The vulnerability is shown using the MBSA.  There are also separate downloads for Exchange 2000 sp3, Exchange 2003, and Exchange 2003 sp1.

Exchange Patch Coming April 12

Among the expected 8 patches due out April 12, there is one covering Exchange Server according to the Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification information..

"1 Microsoft Security Bulletin affecting Microsoft Exchange. The greatest aggregate, maximum severity rating for these security updates is Critical. These updates will not require a restart. These updates will be detectable using MBSA."

There is a webcast on Wednesday, April 13 covering the April patches.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Exchange is Number One: Forbes

Well most of us knew that anyway.  This Forbes article (IBM in Denial Over Lotus Notes) suggests IBM/Lotus is not aware of this development.

"Now Microsoft's Exchange has clawed its way to the top of the corporate e-mail market, displacing Notes/Domino, which once dominated e-mail and was the main reason IBM paid $3.2 billion to acquire Lotus in 1995."

There are some interesting market research numbers in this article that just by their differences show their true value.

William Lefkovics

Thanks to Paul Robichaux for pointing us to this article.

""Microsoft aims to kill BlackBerry"

"Microsoft's forthcoming Windows Mobile upgrade, code-named Magneto, is designed to be a BlackBerry killer, said sources familiar with the ambitious plan.

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant is on track to freeze the Windows Mobile 2005 ROM code in April and provide new technology in Exchange 2003 Server Pack 2 that will push e-mail out to mobile workers who use Pocket PCs and smartphones. "... read on..

...and how did RIM get to where they are today?... "How BlackBerry conquered the world"

Exchange 2003/Windows 2003 sp1 Cluster Patch

This update only applies to Exchange Server 2003 clusters running on Windows Server 2003 with the recently released Windows 2003 sp1.  MS KB 841561 fixes "'500 - Internal server error' error message when a user tries to access a clustered Exchange Server 2003 back-end server by using Outlook Web Access."

I thought it deserved its own blog entry. 

William Lefkovics

DataViz Licenses Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Protocol

Microsoft realizes that the entire mobile workforce does not use Windows-based portable devices.  To generate greater value for Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft continues to license its Activesync protocol to other companies that they may also access Exchange Server data wirelessly. 

DataViz has announced a licensing agreement with Microsoft to integrate Activesync into its Roadsync application.

William Lefkovics

Windows 2003 Service Pack 1 Released

This service pack is big on security.  The addition of the Windows host-based firewall application could interfere with Exchange connectivity, though thankfully it is not turned on when applying sp1, unless slipstreamed into a new installation.  Certainly test in your lab whenever possible. 

Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Product Overview Guide

Learn About and Install Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1)

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (32-bit) Download

Oh, Outlook Express will now have a Plain Text only option for inbound mail... this is good for all of us who use crappy email clients on our servers.  Unfortunately, there is still no option to uninstall Internet Explorer and Outlook Express.

William Lefkovics

Update:  If you install Windows 2003 sp1 on your Exchange 2003 cluster nodes, you will need the hotfix outlined in MS KB 841561.  (Thank you Steve Antonio and Evan Dodd)

Update: Nino Bilic has covered what you need to know about the Security Configuration Wizard in Windows 2003 sp1 and how it affects Exchange Server in the Exchange team blog.  Thanks Nino.

Exchange Server due out in 2006

"Andy Lees, corporate vice president of marketing for Microsoft's server and tools business, revealed the ship date Tuesday."

This suggests that Exchange 12 will arrive sooner versus later.  It was previous suggested the release date might not be until early 2007.

Lees also indicated that Exchange 12 will support "both the 64-bit extensions and the dual-core technology."  I don't think that includes Itanium.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft UK Events in April

Quest Software presents Exchange - Management, Auditing & Enforcement

14 April 2005 09:30 - 14 April 2005 13:00 (GMT) GMT, London Welcome Time: 09:00 Language: English Radisson SAS Hotel Manchester Airport Chicago Avenue Manchester M90 3RA United Kingdom EACS - Exchange Mobility event with Orange and Microsoft 05 April 2005 09:45 - 05 April 2005 12:45 (GMT) GMT, London Welcome Time: 09:00 Language: English Northampton Saints Sturtridge Suite Franklin's Gardens Weedon Road Northampton NN5 5BG United Kingdom

Looking for a New Job?

Are you looking for a new job? My employer is currently looking to recruit an experienced third line Messaging Specialist. I haven't got a copy of the job spec to post as yet, however, if you have at least 3 years messaging experience supporting 5000+ users, an in-depth knowledge of most of these solutions;

W2K/W2K3 Active Directory

Exchange 5.5/2003 (including migration experience)

Mailsweeper for SMTP v4.3

Ironport

NetApps

SnapManager for Exchange

BlackBerry Enterprise Server

KVS Enterprise Vault

Backup Exec

Faxination

IBM hardware

... and would like to work for a UK FT100 company that is going places, please send me your CV - christopher.meirick at ntlworld.com. Thanks! (Agencies will not be responded to)

Motorola MPx220 Finally Available

At long last, the Motorola MPx220 is available to buy in the UK. I was a very happy MPx200 user, but this replacement model has just taken too long to come to market, with the SPV C500 now more than fulfilling my ActiveSync/OMA requirements.

"The model MPx220 offers familiar software based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone 2003 Edition OS that single-handedly offers the Outlook experience without the desktop clutter."

Misc Web & Blog Round-up

The new Exchange Cookbook is on it’s way soon… some of the scripts included in the book have been published on the Cookbook blog.

Jan Karlsbjerg explains how to create Outlook templates

Alex Scoble had a problem with his Exchange server on Monday – over zealous creation of transaction logs, with a straightforward, but an overall time consuming resolution.

Don Wilwol - Exchange on a SAN

You Had Me At EHLO
Taking a good look at Exchange 2003 Mailbox Manager

Recommended Mailbox Size Limits

Alex Black - OUTLOOK 2003 USING RPC OVER HTTP

Allister Frost
Speed saving attachments in Outlook

Get to your Outlook stuff from your browser

MSExchange.org
Understanding Exchange Databases Disk Consumption

Scripting Exchange Using VBScript and ADSI (Part 1)

Dealing with Outlook Internet Headers

Using SMTPDIAG to Diagnose Exchange 2003 Related SMTP and DNS Problems

Back Online!

It’s been a busy and eventful few weeks (new job, ongoing data center move etc) with a complete lack of reading & blogging time, unfortunately. I’m now also just recovering from some unpleasant flu/virus thing, which finds me bored with daytime TV and in need of getting back into geek-mode. So… it’s a good time to catch-up on all of the stuff that I’ve been del.icio.us tagging, e-mailing myself, and scribbling in the Moleskine during the past month or so. There’s a few posts on the way therefore!

Symbian Licenses Exchange Server ActiveSync

" Symbian Limited today announced that it has licensed the Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync protocol for use in Symbian OS™, the leading open standard operating system for advanced mobile phones."

ExBPA v2.0 Is Here

ExBPA v2.0 has been released and you can grab it here.  This version has support for MOM 2005 which I wrote about yesterday.

There are many improvements, such as the support for MOM 2005, multiple language suppport, DNS collector, scheduling capabilities, a new 'best practice' category, an improved scanning scope, etc, etc.

You can find out about all the new features of this version via the readme.

ExBPA Management Pack for MOM 2005

Microsoft has released the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer Management Pack for MOM 2005.

Overview:

The Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer (ExBPA) Management Pack can be used to deploy the ExBPA tool on computers running Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003. Using a timed event, the tool will run automatically on each server and write any identified performance, scalability and availability issues to the Windows NT Event Log. The ExBPA Management Pack will interpret these events and generate the appropriate alerts on the MOM Management Console.

The ExBPA Management Pack works in tandem with the ExBPA tool:
* Identification of Exchange server configuration issues which could result in poor performance, scalability and unplanned downtime
* Automated analysis and root cause identification
* Support for third-party software and hardware
* Self-updating database and help content
* Links to over 500 articles on the Web
* Works with Exchange Server 2003, Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 5.5 (in mixed mode topologies)

TrendMicro Critical VSAPI Vulnerability

ISS announced a vulnerability in TrendMicro's VSAPI ARJ parsing could allow Remote Code execution.  This issue extends across most of Trend's product line according to Trend's security advisory. 

If you use Trend Micro ScanMail for Microsoft Exchange or any of their SMTP gateway solutions in front of your Exchange Server, get the critical scan engine update from Trend to protect yourself.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 12 Presentation

Adam Field has posted details of a LiveMeeting recording that you can listen to, in which Dave Thompson, Exchange Server Corporate VP, talks about the future roadmap of Exchange, and what can be expected with Exchange 12... it's well worth a listen.

Nokia Licenses Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Protocol

"Nokia Licenses Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Protocol for Integration With Nokia's Business-Optimized Devices"

As companies look to mobility, e-mail is usually the first application (other than voice/phone) that they look at for empowering mobile users.  Nokia knows this of course, as they announced their license agreement for the use of ActiveSync to allow their customers that use Exchange Server 2003 to connect using Nokia Series 60 or Series 80 devices.

Nokia's Press Release

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS05-012 and Exchange Server

Because Exchange makes use of the Windows OLE DB provider (ExOLEDB), the patch associated with the Security Bulletin MS05-12 is critical for all Exchange Servers.  A little more information is available in MS KB 873333.

"Install the patches.  Get others to do the same.  This is an important OS fix for Exchange systems." - David Lemson, Microsoft. 

William Lefkovics

Outlook 2003 Junk Mail Filter Update

There is another update to the Outlook 2003 Junk e-mail filter outlined in MS KB 891067. 

You can get the 3.5MB update from the Microsoft Download site or from Office Update.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft To Acquire Sybari

Microsoft Corp. today announced that it has signed definitive agreements to acquire Sybari Software Inc., a leading provider of security products that help more than 10,000 businesses worldwide protect their messaging and collaboration servers from viruses, worms and spam.

Read the rest here.

(CM: Update - more commentary at InfoWorld)

OWA 2003 "Vulnerability" a Phishing Concern

Donnie Werner of the Exploitlabs Research Team has released an advisory for what is really an old issue - obfuscated URLs through OWA that users mistakenly, innocently, or indiscriminately click.  The user could then be redirected to a URL with malicious intent.

As outlined in the advisory, Microsoft will remedy this in the Exchange 12 release.  Until then, user education is an imperfect treatment, but remains an important layer of defense. 

William Lefkovics

iHateSpam For Exchange V1.6: New Powerful Engine!

"The latest V1.6 of iHateSpam for Exchange is NOW AVAILABLE. It has a new, improved spam detection engine with dramatically improved scanning speeds, more accurate spam filtering - with super low false positives and very regular (daily) updates of the spam signatures. With iHateSpam for Exchange you can protect your organization from the increasing and endless barrage of spam.".. from W2Knews.com

Exchange IMF Update

Microsoft has released an update for the Intelligent Message Filter (IMF).  Grab it here!

Overview:

This update to the Intelligent Message Filter SmartScreen filter contains updated spam characteristics that improve the ability of Intelligent Message Filter to block unsolicited commercial e-mail messages, also known as spam. You must have Intelligent Message Filter installed to install this update.

Note This download is available in English only. For more information, see the Readme

Fujistu-Siemens Computers Sets MMB3 Record

Microsoft created the MAPI Messaging Benchmark 3 (MMB3) as a benchmark standard for performance testing for Exchange Server 2003.  Fujistu-Siemens (FSC) has set a new record using this benchmark - 18,500 MMB3 users on a 4-node cluster.

"The measured configuration comprises a PRIMERGY BX600 blade server system with five PRIMERGY BX620 S2 dual server blades. Four of the server blades formed a 3+1 cluster and the other acted as an Active Directory server. All the server blades were each equipped with two Intel Xeon 3.6 GHz processors, 4 GB of memory and two 36 GB SCSI hard disks for the operating system. Three FibreCAT CX500 with a total of 456 38-GB hard disks were used as the storage subsystem for Exchange data."

I had another source for this article, but the article was pulled.  It remains at AME Info, though.  I will update when it appears in the FSC Press Releases.

William Lefkovics

"Exchange Joins Microsoft's Billion-Dollar Club"

"Microsoft Exchange Server crossed the $1 billion revenue threshold in fiscal 2004, joining Microsoft's enviable stable of products that the software company can rely on for more than a billion dollars in revenues each year."

"Microsoft Office Outlook Live: Outlook Lights Up With MSN Hotmail"

"Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of Microsoft® Office Outlook® Live, a new subscription offering that brings together the power of Microsoft Office Outlook with MSN® Hotmail® in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada (English and French).

Outlook Live connects MSN Hotmail, the world's largest free Web-based e-mail service with 187 million accounts worldwide, with the advanced e-mail tools of Microsoft Office Outlook, providing customers with a way to more efficiently manage their lives. This is the first Microsoft Office product to be made available as a downloadable subscription service. With Outlook Live, customers can now view and manage all their personal information -- e-mail accounts, contacts and calendars -- in one convenient place, from virtually anywhere. With an Outlook Live subscription customers will receive the latest version of Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 for Subscription Services, plus 2 GB of online storage, the ability to send 20MB attachments, and advanced spam and virus protection -- all for an introductory price of $44.951 until April 19, 2005 (regularly priced at $59.95 per year)."

CRN: Exchange 12 in 2006 or 2007

CRN quotes David Thompson, Microsoft VP in charge of Exchange, and provides insight into the future path for Exchange in their 'breaking news' article Microsoft Redrafts Mail Plan With Exchange 12

It is still JET, but it should fly even better.

"The next version of Exchange, or E-12, will build on an improved version of Exchange's current "JET" engine, and surface in the Office 12 time frame, Microsoft executives said this week."

"E-12 ... promises voice mail integration, continuous backup, better search, support for WSDL and other Web services specifications, and 64-bit Windows Server."

"Also on the list are security enhancements, including promised  'Edge Services' incremental updates, as well as new 'policy compliance infrastructure.'"

Update:

Here is a list of some of the major IT News sources covering this roadmap development:

• Network World Fusion
• eWeek
• CNet
• Microsoft Watch
• ZDNet
• Windows IT Pro

William Lefkovics

Microsoft rules out new Exchange data store

"Microsoft has long talked about moving its Exchange messaging software to a new database technology, but it has now decided that the next major version of Exchange will not adopt a new data store. Microsoft executives will publicly reveal a new roadmap for Exchange next week"... read on...

Need Some Help? - CLA Networking Specialists

Two very good friends and ex-colleagues of mine set-up a new Network Support/IT services business last year - Copper Lea Associates. The business has been doing very well with a number of successful projects having been undertaken for a number of UK companies and local authorities.

Anyway, if you're in the UK, and perhaps need some help with VPNs, network management and troubleshooting, firewall implementations and configurations, intrusion detection solutions, desktop support, Windows Server and Exchange Server support and upgrades, cabling, Cisco training…. and more, I would recommend that you give CLA a shout! The staff are all very knowledgeable, helpful and dependable!

Exchange Webcasts

TechNet Webcast: Techniques for Troubleshooting Exchange Server 2003 - Level: 200

Monday, January 10, 2005 - 9:30 - 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Chris Avis, TechNet Presenter, Microsoft Corporation

Would you like to know more about troubleshooting inbound and outbound Internet mail and Microsoft Exchange Server performance problems? In this webcast we will show you how to diagnose and solve challenges involving DNS-related issues with Mail Exchanger records, message size restrictions, alternate addresses, and how to determine whether destination SMTP servers are responding appropriately. Learn how to recover lost or corrupted messages and mailboxes using the latest Exchange tools. We will also review Exchange database and transaction log basics and illustrate how to troubleshoot failing databases.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032266392&Culture=en-US

TechNet Webcast: How Microsoft IT Maintains High Availability for Exchange Server 2003 at Microsoft - Level: 200

Tuesday, January 11, 2005 - 8:00 - 9:30 AM Pacific Time

Gary Baxter, IT Senior Operations Manager, Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft IT, using the latest server and storage hardware products, as well as using Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 clusters, sets a mailbox availability target of 99.99 percent. Join us as we review how Microsoft IT implements strict service level agreements and regular review processes to make sure it either meets it aggressive goals or knows when and why it does not.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032266444&Culture=en-US

Refresh your inbox

From the Guardian... "How many emails did you have to plough through when you got back to work this year? And how many of those were ones you hadn't dealt with before you left for Christmas? We're now sending and receiving so much email - 35bn messages a day worldwide, according to IDC researchers - that it is easy to get overwhelmed."... read on.

"Apple Owes the Enterprise a Better Client"

"Here's what Apple needs in 2005 to beef up its enterprise client.

1. An Exchange Server MAPI client for Mac....."

Deployment Options for Maximizing Exchange Mobility

Deployment Options for Maximizing Exchange Mobility
January 18, 2005
10:00AM - 11:00AM Pacific Time (US & Canada)
1:00PM - 2:00PM Eastern Time (US & Canada)

Accessing Exchange applications - including Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, Outlook Web Access, Active Sync, Pocket Outlook and Outlook Mobile Access - from multiple locations is of tremendous importance to the IT and business professional.

"More than ever, the communication and productivity requirements of organizations revolve around the mobility, accessibility and security of Exchange Server data. With the release of Microsoft ISA Server 2004 and the NS Series Firewall Appliance, users of Exchange now have more avenues for mobile Exchange access and infinitely greater levels of security to protect those users and their data from corruption and attack.

Listen to Dr. Tom Shinder explain opportunities for Exchange access and application-layer security provided by ISA Server 2004 and the Network Engines NS Series Firewall Appliances.

Agenda:
Maximizing Exchange Mobility through ISA Server 2004 -
     Dr. Tom Shinder, Microsoft systems security and ISA firewall authority

NS Series Firewall Appliance-
     John Amaral, CTO, Network Engines

Case study, Brian Woodall-
     Systems Engineer, Xpress Source"

Remote DoS in GFI MailEssentials (Due to a Bug in Microsoft HTML Parser)

CSIS released CSIS Security Advisory: [CSIS2005-1] on January 3 because of a possible Denial of Service (DoS) attack vulnerability with GFI MailEssentials software.

Affected Products:
GFI MailSecurity 8.x
GFI MailEssentials 9
GFI MailEssentials 10.x

"The problem lies in a Microsoft HTML library that is made use of by a GFI library, common to GFI MailSecurity and GFI MailEssentials."

GFI responded quickly documenting the issue and fix in their knowledgebase with KBID002249.

William Lefkovics

Shocking Nature.

With the death toll rising with every updated news bulletin, I just can’t believe the scale of the disaster that has occurred in Asia.  My thoughts are with all those affected by this tragic event.

Just over three months ago I was fortunate to have been in Southern Thailand, and as a tourist, enjoyed the holiday of a lifetime 'in paradise,' visiting many of the islands and resorts that have been affected. I can only pray that the very many happy, helpful, sincere and respectful people that I met are ok. I'm thinking about you.

We must help.

UPDATE... There are a number of ways by which donations can be made to help those so badly affected by this disaster. Money will never be enough, but it will sure help. Details can be found on these sites… BBC: Asian disaster: How to help ... Guardian - How you can help ... The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami...CNN

TechNet Evening: Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool

The event is scheduled for February 9th at the Microsoft UK Campus and will be presented by Paul Bowden... register here.

Microsoft to delay SMTP relay software

"Microsoft's ever-changing messaging and collaboration roadmap is about to get another makeover, as the anticipated Exchange Edge Services platform, originally due out in 2005, is pushed to 2006 and is given a bigger mission... continued...

Hotmail dumps McAfee's antivirus for Trend Micro

"MSN's Hotmail service, which has almost 200 million users worldwide, has dumped McAfee as its antivirus partner in favor of rival Trend Micro.

According to Microsoft, e-mails and attachments sent or received by any of Hotmail's 187 million Web mail customers will be scanned in real time by Trend Micro's antivirus software beginning Monday.

Hotmail's antivirus service was previously provided by McAfee and the reason for the change is unclear. However, Martin Hoffman, chief executive of Ninemsn, which operates Hotmail in Australia and is half owned by Microsoft, said in a statement that Hotmail will be able to provide a "safer online experience" using Trend Micro's products because they provide "deeper antivirus protection." .. full report

Symantec and VERITAS Software To Merge

"Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) and VERITAS Software Corp. (Nasdaq: VRTS) today announced that the companies have entered into a definitive agreement to merge in an all-stock transaction. Based on Symantec's stock price of $27.38 at market close on December 15, 2004, the transaction is valued at approximately $13.5 billion.

The leader in storage software and the leader in security software will provide enterprise customers with a more effective way to secure and manage their most valuable asset, their information. The combined company will be uniquely positioned to deliver information security and availability solutions across all platforms, from the desktop to the data center, from consumers and small businesses to large organizations and service providers." ... full press release

Free IT Forum Highlights Event - Birmingham (UK)

"TechNet IT Forum Highlights
Motorcycle Museum, Birmingham
Thursday 13th January 2005

NEW Microsoft TechNet IT Forum Highlights

Microsoft TechNet is pleased to announce a great new event for 2005 - TechNet IT Forum Highlights. TechNet IT Forum Highlights is a FREE, one day, multi session and multi track event, hosted at the Motorcycle Museum in Birmingham on 13th January 2005. This event offers IT Professionals the opportunity to explore the latest Microsoft products, engage with outstanding speakers, network with UK peers and much more.

What does this mean for you?

You can now choose to attend sessions across multiple tracks covering topics such as Group Policy, Virtual Server, Exchange Server 2003, Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 and SQL Reporting Services (see below for the full list). Build your own agenda to suit your specific requirements from a choice of 15 different 70 minute sessions.

This event is free of charge."

50% discount on Trend Micro’s ScanMail™ Suite for Microsoft Exchange

"Now through December 31, 2004, qualified customers making the move from Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange Server 2003 can score a 50% discount on Trend Micro’s ScanMail™ Suite for Microsoft Exchange. "

Boswell Book Reviewed

Jase T.Wolfe has written a review of one of the best Exchange 2003 books that you can buy... William Boswell's Learning Exchange Server 2003 (technically reviewed by William & Neil!)

"If you are looking for a title to teach you to Exchange 2003 administration - pick this up." ... I couldn't agree more!

One in five Brits 'buy software from spam'

This is outrageous...

"More than one in five British consumers (22 per cent) has purchased software in response to spam email, a study by Forrester Research claims. The study - sponsored by the Business Software Alliance - found that a substantial minority of punters are quite happy to make junk mail purchases across a broad range of products.

Other popular junk mail purchases included clothes and jewellery (23 per cent), leisure and travel (20 per cent), finance (18 per cent), adult content (8 per cent), pharmaceuticals (8 per cent) and "business opportunities" (8 per cent)."... read more

Orange on their SPV C500 Smartphone

"Shaun Orpen, marketing director of Orange Business Solutions in the UK, told ComputerWire that, in his opinion, the company's latest SPV C500 handset, based on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphones, has moved the goalposts for corporate data mobility.

"Without this [the C500] there have been a number of barriers to business adopting smart phones. Security reasons, economic reasons, cultural reasons. These kinds of devices are in general still quite expensive. The C500 puts mobile data in the hands of the masses. In my mind there's no way you'll avoid using data on them."

The SPV C500 is now available to business users from Orange UK for about 100 pounds with contract, according to Orpen (it is available free to pay-monthly consumers). This means highly data capable devices are now viable alternatives both to conventional handsets and to data-centric machines such as RIM's BlackBerry devices, especially for those users that wish to read rather than respond to email.

"We've got rid of the pricing barrier, the battery life is good and it's a small size. Why wouldn't you have one," said Orpen. "That combination could tip a lot of companies over into mass data." The enablement of basic wireless email to Windows Smartphones out of the box in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 also looks set to be an important factor in growing take-up."... continued...

Messaging wars: Lotus, Microsoft move on

"Nearly a decade ago, email was the killer app and vendors IBM/Lotus and Microsoft were locked in a battle to prove which was best at delivering messaging to a corporate world hungry for online communication. The winner? Both. Each scored victories that have set them up today as the kingpins of computer-based communication and collaboration...."... read on.....

Outlook 2003 - Best of 2004

Outlook 2003 is PCWorld.com's best 'E-mail' of 2004.

"Some users might consider Outlook's cornucopia of features overkill, but this PIM's e-mail client is excellent, especially for the corporate set. Version 2003's spam filters kept out virtually all of our test junk mail. $85 "

Oscar Time?

It's time to empty those drawers, raid you company's stationery store, or pop down to your local Office World...  enclose a pen or some Post-it notes in your Christmas card to the Exchange team!...

Microsoft Gives NT Server 4, Exchange Server 5.5 Users a (Small) Reprieve

"While Microsoft continues to emphasize that it is not extending its basic support for NT Server 4.0 beyond December 31, it is continuing to give users who've held off from upgrading slight reprieves.

The latest, announced Friday, is one additional year of custom, paid support for NT 4.0 Server. The new deadline for the end of Microsoft-provided custom support is December 31, 2006.

Microsoft also is extending the custom-support period for Exchange Server 5.5. Microsoft officials said Friday that custom, paid support for 5.5 release of Microsoft's e-mail server will continue until December 31, 2007." ... read more

GFI releases corporate email archiving product for Exchange Server

"GFI today (Dec 1st) announced the release of GFI MailArchiver for Exchange, a new easy-to-use email archiving solution that enables organizations to archive all internal and external mail into a single SQL database. Now companies can easily fulfill regulatory requirements (such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act) while also providing users with easy, centralized access to past email via a web-based search interface. "

BlackBerry Announcements

"Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced that BlackBerry Enterprise Server™ v4.0 for Microsoft® Exchange and IBM Lotus® Domino™ is now available. BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.0 offers exceptional manageability, enhanced security and simplified application development.  End-users will also benefit from a range of enhancements that improve the overall wireless experience.*  Press Release.

"Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced the availability of the new Java™ Development Environment for BlackBerry v4.0.  The new release, which supports J2ME™ (Java™ 2 Platform, Micro Edition), provides developers with more flexibility and support when developing applications for BlackBerry® through an enhanced Application Programming Interface (API) set, documentation, code samples and applications, new Java Specification Request (JSR) implementations, an improved Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and a new BlackBerry handheld simulator with usability improvements.  The release of the new Java Development Environment for BlackBerry coincides with the availability of BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.0 announced today and marks another important step in RIM’s strategy of providing an open, secure, and global platform for push-based wireless connectivity. " Press Release.

"Motorola’s MOTOSYNC™ Provides Direct Wireless Mobile Connectivity to Industry-Leading Microsoft Exchange Server 2003"

"Today, Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), a global leader in wireless, broadband and automotive communications technologies, announced interoperability between Motorola’s MOTOSYNC™ technology-enabled mobile phones and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. The agreement with Microsoft to license the Exchange Server ActiveSync® protocol enables Motorola mobile phones to give enterprise customers direct seamless access to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003."... full press release...

Technet Chat Archives

I add those Microsoft Technet chats that I want to participate in to my Outlook calendar but inevitably when the time comes, I am too busy to attend. 

You probably already know, but in case you didn't, these Technet technical chats are archived for later reading.

For example, I just read through the November 10 chat on Fighting Spam in the Exchange 2003 Environment. While it is too late to ask questions, it remains a valuable resource.

William Lefkovics

Reader's Choice Awards

Earlier this month, the very informative msexchange.org site declared that GFI FaxMaker won their readers choice award.  This was the result of an informal poll on their site.  Given the relationship between msexchange.org and gfi.com, I question the value of such a poll (I only voted 4 times from different IP addresses and none of my coworkers could vote because we share the same external IP).  Would we have seen the same press release if the more versatile FaxCore won the survey?  (FaxCore barely beat out GFI FaxMaker in Network Computing's Fax Server product review)

The site msexchange.org is full of great content by credible contributors.  I just wish they wouldn't pretend to be something they aren't - independent.  They seem to me to be GFI's marketing department.  Am I wrong?

William Lefkovics

Quest Software: Free Exchange Reporting for MOM

In early 2005, Quest Software is to provide a free reporting Management Pack for MOM, based on its successful MessageStats technologies.  Read more here.

Neil Hobson

"IT Forum: Exchange users to get more tools "

"Microsoft Corp. will announce the release date of the next version of its Exchange Server in the first half of 2005, but until the upgrade arrives, users can expect more management tools for existing versions, a company executive said this week.

Due to the mission-critical nature of Exchange, Microsoft will continue to make large investments in providing tools for the current and previous versions, Exchange Server senior director Kim Akers said at the company's IT Forum in Copenhagen yesterday. "We want to give customers the capabilities they need now instead of just saying, 'It's coming in the future,' " she said. ....

....RedMonk LLC analyst James Governor believes that few Exchange users are currently worried about when the next version of Exchange will be released. "A lot of Exchange shops want to see more management tools, so the real story is not Exchange as much as it is MOM and other tools," he said.

More tools are in the pipeline, according to Akers, who said the company will let user demand for features dictate its plans. She noted that new Exchange tools usually come out about every six to nine months.

The latest tools, including the Best Practice Analyzer, will most likely be incorporated into the next version of Exchange when it is released, Akers said. Issues like mobility and compliance are coming up frequently in discussions with customers, Akers said, so users should expect the next version of Exchange to expand on these areas.

However, Microsoft is in no hurry to set down a specific road map for the product since the demands of messaging and collaboration are changing so rapidly, Akers said.

Another reason not to rush a new release is that some 40% of the company's installed base of users are still on Exchange 5.5, released in 1997, and many are in the process of upgrading to Exchange 2003, Akers said."

Full report

Bill Gates is world's most spammed man

"Internet junkies, take heart: Microsoft chairman Bill Gates receives four million e-mails daily, most of them spam, and is probably the most 'spammed' person in the world," reports AFP in Singapore.

"But unlike ordinary users, the software mogul has an entire department to filter unsolicited e-mails and only a few of them actually get through to his inbox, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said here Thursday."

Cloudmark's New Trade-Up Program

"Cloudmark(TM) Inc., the company that delivers the immune system for email, today announced an aggressive trade-up program that offers companies the opportunity to replace their existing anti-spam product free of charge. As a part of the program, Cloudmark will trade out a company's existing anti-spam solution and replace it with Cloudmark's superior email security solution and standard support for the duration of the subscription.(1) The offer starts immediately and is good through December 31, 2004. Both large enterprises and small and medium businesses are eligible for the trade-up program, replacing their existing solutions with Cloudmark Immunity(TM) and Cloudmark Exchange Edition(TM) respectively..." Press Release

msgoodies Blog

Here's a new blog for you to check out/subscribe to.... msgoodies...  "It centers mainly around Microsoft infrastructure related technologies like Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange and Windows as most of our time is spent working with large-scale enterprise customers or Hosted Exchange." ... good stuff Per and Dennis!

Miccrosoft IT Forum Day One

I’m over at the Microsoft IT Forum in Copenhagen again… it seems even busier than last year.

Today’s summary (including many non-Exchange bits that may still be of interest)…

Bill Gates made a number of announcements during his keynote this morning...

64-bit computing is coming next year. There will be no price premium to pay for 64-bit as a result of the efforts of Intel and AMD. The 64-bit version of Windows is in the latter testing stages.

Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 product and Virtual Server 2005 software are now available worldwide.

The public beta of the eagerly awaited SUS replacement, Windows Update Services (WUS) is available from today.

SMS 2003 has been a tremendous success, having been adopted by 16000 Enterprise customers, covering some 10 million devices.  Two SMS feature packs were announced,

Operating System Deployment Feature Pack
Adds support for SMS to create and deploy images of Windows operating systems

Device Management Feature Pack
Use this feature pack to enable SMS 2003 to manage devices running Windows CE 4.2 or Windows Mobile 2003 software for Pocket PC.

2005 is going to be an important year, with a number of new products/updates scheduled to be launched. 2006 is perhaps going to be even more important with Longhorn coming along.

A .NET based smartcard was launched in association with Axalto. Microsoft are to use then internally, with the same card providing both premises and IT access.

Microsoft’s relationship with Dell is growing ever stronger with a development agreement announced to streamline updates and patch management. Dell’s OpenManage is to be integrated into SMS to provide a unified hardware/software patch management solution.

System Center reporting was demonstrated… the demo highlighted that performance reports can be produced which can show the performance before and after configuration changes. This should of course reduce troubleshooting time. Capacity planning would also be assisted with this tool, with performance reports published alongside actual server configurations.

A capacity planning application named Indy was also demonstrated. Not only can this application suggest a graphical topology but it can also run simulations against it.

One of the questions for Bill at the end of the keynote was about kids and their interaction with computers. Rather amusingly, he mentioned that he is reducing the amount of PC time that his children are allowed, following a recent incident when he was woken by his over excited youngsters who were sure that they had won a lot of money…. On checking their PC it was in fact just a pop-up that had appeared on the screen!

And from the Exchange session attended today…

Kim Akers – Senior Director, Exchange Marketing

Empowering Customers in a Changing World

Apparently one third of messaging admins would rather get divorced than have e-mail go down!

80% of organisations believe that e-mail is more important than the phone.

Estimated 80% of an enterprise’s information sits on individual’s computers.

Even today, some 40% of Exchange seats are still on 5.5.

Microsoft deals with 9.5 million items of spam each day. They are only using IMF and Exchange’s other filtering capabilities i.e. no third party products are being used. IMF is saving them $300,000.

IMF performance/statistics can be reviewed via the performance monitor counters. An IMF update should be along in the next couple of months. IMF can’t be installed on a cluster (although it will work with mailboxes that are homed on a cluster), nor does it work with Exchange 2000. However, in both cases it is possible to implement an Exchange 2003 server on the gateway to run it the IMF.

The recent ActiveSync licensing deal with PalmOne is likely to be the first of many. There is a desire for ActiveSync to be adopted and used on both Microsoft powered Smartphones and also non-Microsoft powered devices. Look out RIM.

The Exchange Best Practices Analyser has been a great success with over 85000 downloads since September 21^st. Tremendous feedback has been received. The application checks 1200 settings against 800 rules.

Couldn’t talk about the specific roadmap for the future for Exchange. When asked about Yukon, the answer was that, when a new feature is required, they first see if it can be provided using the existing Jet database.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the Orange 3G Mobile Office card works quite handsomely here in Copenhagen and has enabled me to be connected in the hotel room (shame the three wireless networks nearby won't allow me to connect!).  Once a connection has been established (it seems to take an age for the card to discover the network) it works well, even if it is just GPRS speed. I’m sure I’ll probably receive a wallet emptying bill in a couple of weeks, oh, what the ‘eck!

New Blog / Exchange & WINS

Eileen Brown, who works as an IT Pro Evangelist for Microsoft UK has recently started a blog, and has already published a couple of Exchange related posts, one of which deals with Exchange's continued need for WINS... (there's a link to a very useful KB article on this subject that I hadn't seen before)

US E-mail Authentication Summit

The United Stated Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is hosting an "E-mail Authentication Summit" November 9-10 in Washington, DC, believing it "(the FTC) could play an active role in spurring the market’s development, testing, evaluation, and deployment of domain-level authentication systems."

Microsoft's SenderID is included in the agenda.

Proposals

Bounce Address Tag Validation (BATV):
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-levine-mass-batv-00.txt
DomainKeys:
http://antispam.yahoo.com/domainkeys
Identified Internet Mail (IIM):
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-fenton-identified-mail-01.txt
Sender ID:
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-marid-pra-00.txt
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-marid-core-03.txt
Client SMTP Validation (CSV):
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-marid-csv-intro-01.txt

William Lefkovics

Exchange Edge Services Delayed?

Exchange Edge Services is not a bad idea. While there are alternatives that currently provide excellent gateway functionality now, I am certain Microsoft will produce a quality product to compete in that market.

The talk of the lack of an "Exchange roadmap" and Edge Services being pushed beyond the 2005 timeframe does not mean much to me personally. I want E12 and Edge to be released when they are ready. I currently do not have to plan a corporate messaging software budget, though.

"We remain very committed to Edge Services," said Kim Akers, a senior director in Microsoft's Exchange Server group. But, she added, "it is premature to talk about timing."

Well, if it is premature to talk about timing, why does the Exchange Edge Services overview site say "Due to be released in 2005"?

Should it read "due to be released when it is good and ready"?

William Lefkovics

Messaging Hygeine at Microsoft

Ever wonder how Microsoft handles unwanted email? They have a "detailed discussion on how Microsoft IT manages the large quantities of unwanted e-mail (a.k.a. spam) and malware-infected messages in its inbound Internet e-mail traffic" available to download. They call it "messaging hygeine."

Some basic numbers from the document:

"These numbers are based on average daily volumes:

1.Connection filtering blocks approximately 25 percent of all incoming SMTP connections. These connections come from known spam sources listed in third-party, real-time block lists.

2.Sender and recipient filtering deletes 59 percent of the messages received after connection filtering.

3.Intelligent Message Filter deletes 38 percent of the messages remaining after sender and recipient filtering."

There is an accompanying powerpoint slide deck as well. It's good to see that Microsoft has at least the same spam issues as the rest of us.

William Lefkovics

Happy First Birthday to Exchange Server 2003

Exchange 2003 was released one year ago. It is by far the best Exchange ever.

"With Exchange Server 2003, IT professionals are experiencing impressive cost savings associated with ease of management, improved support for mobile users, better security, server consolidation and increased uptime in their organizations."

Exchange 2003 sales have exceeded Microsoft's expectations, which in turn benefits third party solution providers like Quest Software.

"We're seeing an enormous increase in our Exchange business. In fact, Exchange is the fastest-growing segment for Quest's Windows Management group this year," said Aggie Haslup, vice president of product management and marketing..."

William Lefkovics

Exchange Server 2003 Webcasts

Nino has blogged details of a forthcoming Exchange Server 2003 webcast week... it's the week commencing November 8th, and the schedule is here.

Windows Mobile Webcasts

November 15-18 is Windows Mobile Webcast Week... there's a number of Webcasts that should be of interest, including;

Best Practices of Windows Mobile/Exchange 2003—Level 300
Start Time: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 10:00 AM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Exchange 2003 Scalability for Mobile Messaging—Level 200
Start Time: Thursday, November 18, 2004 8:00 AM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Troubleshooting Windows Mobile and Exchange 2003—Level 200
Start Time: Thursday, November 18, 2004 10:00 AM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

.. and the week before...

New Mobility Features in Exchange Server 2003—Level 200
Start Time: Monday, November 08, 2004 8:00 AM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

iPAQ 6340 Available at Expansys

I've just received an e-mail from Expansys to let me know that they've finally got the iPAQ 6340 in stock!

SenderID Successfully Resubmitted to IETF

It was back in June when Microsoft submitted its SenderID framework specification to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Patent issues on the proposed standard caused the IETF working group to balk (It marinated in MARID). AOL then rejected the proposal in September. Open Source Groups, such as the Apache Software Foundation also could not work with patent monsters looking over their shoulders.

Well, any speculation of its demise was premature. Microsoft has reworked SenderID and have resubmitted the proposal to the IETF, which has granted it experimental status allowing industry to put it through its paces. Microsoft stepped back from its patent grip which in turn has brought SenderID renewed support from AOL. They also took steps to ensure backwards compatability with the thousands and thousands of domains that have deployed classic SPF. SenderID should be its own RFC draft in a few weeks, or at least by year's end.

SenderID is the convergence of Microsoft's Purported Responsible Address (PRA), also known as Caller ID, and Sender Policy Framework (SPF), developed by Meng Weng Wong of Pobox.com.

William Lefkovics

Addendum: June Interview with Meng Weng Wong, the lead developer of Sender Policy Framework (SPF)

"Messageware Enhances Security of Outlook Web Access Client of Microsoft Exchange Server"

"New at the Microsoft Exchange Connections Conference is the Messageware AttachView for Outlook Web Access security product. AttachView enables IT Managers to lock-down and control attachment and file access for employees that use Internet e-mail, Outlook Web Access (OWA). AttachView supports over 300 file formats including the most recent versions of Microsoft Office, Visio, AutoCad, Adobe PDF, and WinZip. AttachView makes it easy to be productive anywhere and securely access files everywhere. "The ability to view documents without the need for the original application is a highly requested feature of Outlook Web Access users." said Mark Rotman, President of Messageware Incorporated, "Providing this productivity advantage while eliminating the concern that sensitive company files and attachments are left behind after users log off, makes AttachView a key component for all Exchange infrastructures."

Full press release (PDF)

Exchange Numbers according to Radicati

The Microsoft Exchange Connections conference started yesterday in Orlando, FL. (On the Exchange Connections site, as of right now, it says "-1 days until Microsoft Exchange Connections. Register today!"). But according to this Computerworld article, the attendees are not likely to learn much about the future of Exchange Server.

That same article includes some numbers likely found in Radicati's research report called MS Exchange and Outlook, Market Analysis 2004-2008.

"At the end of 2003, there were 51.8 million Exchange 5.5 users, 40.8 million Exchange 2000 users and 1.4 million Exchange 2003 users, according to The Radicati Group. For the end of 2005 the forecast is for Exchange 2003 to hit 49.4 million users, Exchange 5.5 to be at 31.9 million and Exchange 2000 at 47.8 million, Takahashi said."

"(Microsoft) has had over 175,000 requests for evaluations of the product and more than 31,000 people have participated in Microsoft's Exchange Server 2003 classes."

William Lefkovics

Blackberry with Voice over WiFi

Those Research In Motion (RIM) guys have been busy. Next year we should see a Blackberry that does data and voice over WiFi. The Blackberry 7100t already looks like good competition for the Windows Smartphone.

Earlier this week they announced that the next version of Blackberry Enterprise Server will support WLANs and the newest Blackberry 7270 will handle voice and data over wireless.

This is not your father's Blackberry.

William Lefkovics

You Perform 1.1

You Software have released You Perform 1.1... "an upgrade to the collection of integrated value-add software tools that help Microsoft Outlook users cut through e-mail overload and make working with Microsoft Outlook better, faster and easier."

Efficiently Manage E-Mail Volume
• Eliminate Duplicates. You Perform scours your e-mail, contact and calendar folders and automatically gets rid of duplicate messages, contacts and events.
• Save Attachments. Save space in your inbox and never lose an attachment again. You Perform automatically removes attachments from your e-mail and saves them to the folders of your choice.
• Attachment Forget-Me-Not. Never forget to send an attachment again. You Perform automatically watches for keywords in your outgoing e-mail and reminds you when it looks like you’ve forgotten to attach a file.
• Reply To All Monitor. Never reply to all again — unless you want to. Stop Outlook from sending replies to the wrong people and from sending replies back to your own inbox.

Streamline Communication and Contact Management
• Schedule Recurring Email. Stop typing recurring e-mails. Now you can send them automatically. Schedule and send e-mails automatically with updated attachments to go out at intervals you define.
• Hide Fax Numbers. Stop weeding through fax numbers when you need e-mail addresses. You Perform keeps fax numbers from appearing when you’re composing messages.
• Auto CC/BCC. Automatically send a CC or BCC every time you e-mail. Keep managers, assistants, team members and customers in the loop. Easily create a record of important e-mails and documents.
• Quick Text Hotkeys. Assign your favorite subject lines, signatures, and phrases of any kind to hot keys, and then insert them with a single key, instead of typing them over and over again.
• Add Email Address. Instantly turn e-mail addresses into contacts. You Perform automatically scans your e-mail and adds addresses to your contact list so they’re there when you need them.
• Auto Print. Instantly print e-mails and/or attachments as soon as they hit your inbox.
• Print On Demand. Print e-mails and attachments with just one click.
• Insert Date & Time. Automatically time-stamp your e-mail with one click or a hotkey so your recipients know your replies are prompt, even when their e-mail servers aren’t.
• VCard Converter. No more one-at-a-time. Convert as many contacts as you like into vCard format with a single click.

Easy Remote Calendar Management
• Add Appointments by Email. Add new appointments to Outlook from your mobile phone, PDA or anywhere you have access to e-mail simply by sending a message “home” with any e-mail connection.
• Forward Reminders. Never miss an appointment again. You Perform e-mails reminders directly to you, wherever you are.

Ontrack PowerControls Version 3.0 Launched

"Ontrack Data Recovery(TM), the largest, most experienced and technologically advanced provider of data recovery products and services, today announced the availability of Ontrack(R) PowerControls(TM) 3.0 software, the newest version of its widely used mailbox recovery tool. This upgraded version helps Microsoft Exchange administrators save time and deliver better recovery performance with expanded email system support for IBM(R) Tivoli(R) users and new automation from the command line."

... press release

Good Technology Announcements

GoodLink Enhancements Broaden Device Choice, Deliver Wi-Fi and Performance Boost for Enterprise Users
Adds Support for Samsung and HP Pocket PCs, Outlook Management Features, and Increases Wireless Messaging Speed, Battery Life and Connectivity

GoodLink Enterprise Wireless Messaging Now Available Over Wi-Fi on the HP iPAQ h6315 Pocket PC from T-Mobile USA
Good Increases Wireless Messaging Data Speed and Flexibility for T-Mobile and HP Enterprise Customers

Good Brings GoodLink Wireless Messaging and Data Access to Samsung SPH-i700
Broadens Choice of Industry Standards-Based Messaging Systems for Enterprise Customers

"Nemx Offers Strongest Protection Against Exchange Server Attacks"

"Power Tools 5.0 first to provide increased IMF functionality, non-signature based virus detection, SURBL interfacing, and spoofed NDR detection for the Exchange environment" ... press release.

How to kill a BlackBerry

"Looks like there’s a flaw with BlackBerry devices that sync with Microsoft’s Exchange server using Blackberry Enterprise Server for Microsoft Exchange. Basically, if someone sends off a long meeting request with a bunch of text in the location field and sets the time to a date in the past, the BlackBerry will reboot (erasing all your stored messages). Stuff somebody’s inbox with enough of these messages and their CrackBerry will be unusable."

Google Desktop Available

Google have launched the beta version of their new Google Desktop search tool... it can search e-mails in Outlook and Outlook Express. Recently I've been using Copernic Desktop Search which can also search for e-mails and has been quite impressive, and somewhat useful.. it'll be interesting to see how the two offerings compare.

Microsoft October Security Bulletins - Exchange Included

This month's bulletin includes...

Vulnerability in SMTP Could Allow Remote Code Execution (885881).. and... Vulnerability in NNTP Could Allow Remote Code Execution (883935)... go patch...

Double-Take 4.4

NSI Improves Data Protection for Exchange with Expanded Double-Take Capabilities

Competition for Blackberry...

"JP Mobile Inc. and Sproqit Technologies Inc. are readying wireless e-mail access software meant to compete against Research In Motion Ltd.'s popular BlackBerry platform"

MessageStats 5.0

Quest Software has released MessageStats 5.0, the latest version of its Exchange analysis and reporting application. The MessageStats main page is here, whilst here's a link to the What's New PDF file.

palmOne Licenses Microsoft Exchange Server Synchronization Protocol for Integration with Treo Smartphones

"palmOne, Inc. (Nasdaq: PLMO) today announced that it has licensed Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Exchange Server ActiveSync(R) protocol to enable the delivery of secure, wireless and direct synchronization between Microsoft(R) Exchange Server 2003, part of Windows Server System, and future Treo(TM) smartphones. palmOne intends to use the technology to extend the company's device support for Microsoft Exchange Server by adding capability for wireless server-based synchronization."... press release

Exchange SDK September 2004 Update

The quarterly updates for the Exchange Server Software Development Kits for Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 were added to MSDN and the MSDN Downloads sections of Microsoft.com at the end of September.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Exchange Connections - October 24-27, 2004 - Orlando, Florida

Microsoft and Windows & .NET Magazine partner to produce the premiere Exchange event bringing IT professionals from around the world together again. Join your community as David Thompson reveals exciting advances impacting Microsoft Exchange, experience cutting edge sessions, take your skills to new levels, attend the new hands-on trouble shooting course, explore the expo hall, and network at awesome parties. If you use Microsoft Exchange this conference is a must to stay competitive

New E-Mail Archiving and Retrieval Solution

ZyLAB Introduces New E-Mail Archiving and Retrieval Solution... press release

Exchange 5.5 Upgrade Resources Page

Microsoft has released an Exchange 5.5 upgrade resources page which contains links to information you need to migrate from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003 - all in one handy place.

Blackberry with Bluetooth...

Engadget reports.. "...Research In Motion just rolled out the first BlackBerry with Bluetooth. So the good news is that you’ll be able to use the BlackBerry 7290 with a wireless Bluetooth headset.."

McBee Blog

Jim McBee's now blogging too :-) (how did I miss this one!?)

Jim's Web Log: Ramblings related mostly to Microsoft Exchange 2000 or 2003, bug notices, workarounds, tips, and stuff. Sometimes network, security, Active Directory, social commentary, politics, events, religion, or humor, but, well, mostly Exchange

(I've updated the Blogs list on the Links page with all of the new blogs that folks have set up recently)

Exchange & Outlook Administrator Monthly Pass

I've just discovered that you can now subscribe to Exchange & Outlook Administrator on a monthly basis, with their new Monthly Pass... cost - USD 14.95

BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.0 Release Candidate Now Available

"Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq:RIMM) (TSX:RIM) today announced that its BlackBerry Enterprise Server(TM) v4.0 Release Candidate is available. Existing BlackBerry customers with Microsoft(R) Exchange and IBM Lotus(R) Domino(TM) environments can sign up to preview the product by visiting www.blackberry.com/go/productpreview"

Panda Chooses Mailshell for Stopping Spam

"Anti-virus and security product maker Panda Software said Thursday that the company is dropping its own anti-spam technology to use an OEM anti-spam solution from Mailshell. The new anti-spam technology would be used in the full range of Panda's products, from enterprise security appliances to desktop consumer anti-virus products."

I Must Be Connected!

Do you suffer from obsessive connectivity disorder - OCD?

"Siemens to migrate 350,000 users onto Exchange 2003"

"Siemens has embarked on a massive plan to migrate 350,000 users in more than 100 diverse business units around the world from Microsoft Exchange Version 5.5 to Exchange 2003.

The migration, which is not due to be complete until late 2005, prompted the Munich-based company to turn to Quest Software for help.....

....As part of the migration, Siemens expects to save money by reducing the number of Exchange organisations and paring its existing 2,500 Exchange servers to about 700. "That's a big cost savings,"

Keiran McCorry's New Book Published

Just noticed that Kieran McCorry, HP Exchange expert, has a new book out... Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Deployment and Migration. It should be a very useful addition to your book collection. (Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk)... order placed!

New Blog

Exchange MVP, Ben Winzenz has started to blog too...

ExBPA Webcast - October 7

On Thursday, October 7, 8am Pacific (GMT-0800) Microsoft is hosting a webcast on their newly released reporting tool, the Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Analyzer.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool

Microsoft has released a new tool to "verify the overall health of your Exchange Server messaging environment." The Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool is an excellent summary report of your Exchange installation. Using several mechanisms, such as WMI, it collects data from Active Directory, Registries, and the IIS Metabase, among others. "In all, it gathers over 1200 settings and checks them against over 1000 rules."

There is a Command Line version, ExBPACmd.exe, installed with the application as well.

You can read more about its development and functionality at the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog.

William Lefkovics

EMC Express Solution for E-Mail

EMC Corporation, the world leader in information storage and management, today announced a simple yet powerful solution to help midsized IT organizations drive down the cost and increase the productivity of their Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail environments. The new EMC Express Solution for E-Mail is the first in a series of EMC Express Solutions, which include packaged hardware, software and services that leverage EMC's expertise in information lifecycle management (ILM) and target the business needs of small- to medium-sized companies.

Full Press Report

New KB Articles...

Couple of new Exchange KB articles that are worth noting...

The Message Tracking Center indicates that a message was delivered to an incorrect server in Exchange Server 2003

Outlook Mobile Access users cannot access their mailboxes on a heavily-loaded Exchange Server 2003 computer

New Exchange Sites

Couple of new Exchange related sites for you to bookmark/subscribe to...

Exchangemaster.net - Dejan Foro's website that is becoming a useful resource with articles, FAQs etc.

James Whelan is a Microsoft Rapid Response Engineer in the UK, and he's started to blog.

Microsoft Data Protection Server (DPS)

Microsoft introduces Data Protection Server at the Storage Decisions 2004 Conference in Chicago.

Version 1.0 will be in beta in early 2005. We'll have to wait for version 2.0 at least before Exchange Server becomes part of its repetoire. Future DPS versions should also support SQL and Sharepoint.

I wonder what versions of Exchange, SQL, and Sharepoint those will be.

William Lefkovics

Outlook 2003 Junk E-Mail Filter Update

Looks like Microsoft has released a new update to Outlook 2003's Junk E-Mail Filter which you can find here.

"This optional update provides the Junk E-mail Filter in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 with a more current definition of which e-mail messages should be considered junk e-mail. This update was released in September 2004."

New Exchange Newsgroup

A new Exchange newsgroup is now available: microsoft.public.exchange.tools

Sybari Updates E-mail Security Lineup

Sybari Software this week updated its product line for securing e-mail through anti-virus, anti-spam and content-filtering products.

New Hosted Exchange for £5.99 p.m.

Earlier this week, the European web hosting provider 1&1 launched a hosted Exchange product...

"Experience the benefits of seamless communication and collaboration with Microsoft Exchange. Use Outlook to send and receive e-mail from any Internet-connected computer.

Includes 1 Exchange account
500 MB e-mail storage space
Includes group functionality tools
Includes Outlook® 2003
Includes Outlook® Web Access
Includes mobile ActiveSync
Includes Virus Scanner
Catch-all e-mails, e-mail auto-responders"

... all of this can be had for £5.99 per month, which is considerably less than the fees charged by other UK hosted Exchange providers... especially with 500MB of storage included.

BlackBerry News

"Nokia said on Tuesday that it plans to enhance its Series 80 line so that the mobile devices come preloaded with BlackBerry software from Research In Motion."... full story

Meanwhile, Engadget have published a reader's review of the “Charm”, RIM’s codename for a new, more, mobile phone/cellphone-like BlackBerry that they are set to release later this year.

MIMEsweeper™ for Exchange Launched

Clearswift have today announced the release of MIMEsweeper™ for Exchange...

MIMEsweeper for Exchange allows organizations to protect against digital threats coming from internal email communication. These threats are the same as those faced on the SMTP gateway and can be propagated by employees sending round jokes, MP3 files or defamatory emails. In addition, they may - unwittingly or not - upload a virus onto the corporate system from a disk or their laptop. All these threats can be detected and stopped through the implementation of MIMEsweeper for Exchange.

More information, along with a free 30 day trial are available here.

July 2004 Exchange 2000 Post SP3 Rollup

The July 2004 Exchange 2000 Post SP3 rollup is now available. MSKB 870540 has supporting information. There is also further information over at the Exchange Team Blog.

Exchange 5.5 OWA Patch Released

As part of the monthly security patches for August, Microsoft Security Bulletin MS04-26 applies to a vulnerability in Exchange 5.5 Outlook Web Access that could "allow cross-site scripting and spoofing attacks."

This is actually an update to a patch released in October of last year, MS03-47 and holds a 'Moderate' severity rating.

The security section of Technet at Microsoft.com has a summary of the August security bulletins.

William Lefkovics

Microsoft Exchange Assistance Center Launched

There is an updated portal in TechNet on the Microsoft website called the Microsoft Exchange Server Assistance Center.

With a clean look, Exchange-specific RSS feeds, and random profiles of Exchange Server MVPs, it is surely a mandatory bookmark site for every Exchange administrator.

William Lefkovics

Siemens SK65 With Blackberry Email

"Siemens has unveiled a very interesting phone design, aimed at business users, but certainly appealing to the IM- and SMS-heavy set. The SK65's defining feature is a central swivel with reveals a QWERTY keyboard, made all the more appealing with the inclusion of Research in Motion's Blackberry push email, making the unit a potentially very effective corporate communication device (it even makes phone calls!)"

More at Gizmodo

Tablet Enhancements for Outlook 2.0 Beta Registration

Einstein Technologies has announced the availability for beta testing of Tablet Enhancements for Outlook 2.0 (The beta program is only for current customers of TEO 1.0).

"The next version of TEO which is nearing completion has many exciting new features, most notably, the ability to save your handwritten contacts, appointments, tasks, and journal entries in your own handwriting. While this alone is a significant improvement to the product, I've also added some new features such as those listed below.

- TEO now supports the Outlook Journal for free-form notes organized by date.
- The bulky toolbar has been converted into a menu.
- Very deep integration with Outlook. TEO will intercept Outlook's "New" button and anywhere else you would create a new item.
- Background handwriting recognition with visual cues when recognizer confidence is weak.
- Completely rewritten and designed for Tablet PC Edition 2005 ("Lonestar") which provides superior handwriting recognition.
- Major improvements to speed and resource utilization.
- Revamped user interface now looks and feels like Outlook and is XP theme-aware.
- The ability to toggle back and forth between standard Outlook UI and TEO.
- Unlimited "read-only" licenses to install on desktops so that Exchange users can view their handwriting on non-tablets.
- Your handwriting is saved in the Outlook database so it can be synchronized with Exchange with no manual steps.
- Zip code lookup usability has been improved.
- Integration with MapPoint 2004 allows you to retrieve, store, and annotate maps on contacts.
- And more..."

BlackBerry the big winner in PDA market growth

"Worldwide personal digital assistant (PDA) shipments totaled 2.75 million units in the second quarter of 2004, a 12 percent increase from the second quarter of 2003....RIM's share of the PDA OS market increased to 18.6 percent, up from 5.3 percent market share in the second quarter of 2003."

Guardian Online

SAGEM Launches Smartphone

"SAGEM, a major international player in the field of telecommunications, announced the launch of its first Smartphone, the myS-7 featuring Microsoft® Windows Mobile™ software for Smartphones, combining the high quality of SAGEM’s innovative handset technology with the power of Microsoft Corp.’s mobile software platform to allow customers to stay connected with contacts and information on the move."

Full report

BlackBerry Connect Solution to be Enabled in Motorola MPx and MPx220 Mobile Devices

"Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced plans to enable BlackBerry® connectivity on the Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT) MPx and MPx220 mobile devices. Through RIM's BlackBerry Connect™ licensing program, the Motorola MPx and MPx220 will be able to connect to BlackBerry services including BlackBerry Enterprise Server™ and BlackBerry Web Client™."

Press release

MIMEsweeper for Exchange 2000/2003 Beta

Clearswift are looking for participants for the beta release program of their new MIMEsweeper for Exchange, which works with Exchange 2000 and 2003.

MIMEsweeper for Exchange 2000/2003

"It is based on the latest MIMEsweeper engine technology providing all the functionality of MAILsweeper Business Suite II to MIMEsweeper for Exchange customers.
MIMEsweeper for Exchange will include the following new features:
1) Clearswift's Anti-spam filter and datafeed service
2) REMOTEmanager - web-based monitoring
3) Personal Message Manager - allows email recipients to delete/release quarantined messages by policy
4) Our new web-based Reports Centre
5) Single installer to include the above new features Original product features, such as the ability to specify address lists based on Exchange distribution lists and the use of an IIS interceptor rather than a separate receiver service, will also be included."

Visit the Clearswift site to apply to participate in this beta program (existing support customers only)

E-mail archiving on the rise

"E-mail archiving -- the interactive, long-term storage of e-mail with easy search and retrieval capabilities -- is now a priority for IT organizations that are pressured by internal compliance requirements and industry regulations..."

Connector for Exchange added to Red Hat Enterprise Linux

"Linux vendor Red Hat Inc. has included the open-source Connector for Exchange in its latest quarterly beta update of its Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system.

Deb Woods, vice president of product management for the Raleigh, N.C.-based company, said the beta version, released two days ago, now includes the Evolution Connector for Microsoft Exchange Server 2000/2003 open-source code from Novell Inc. and its Ximian division. The connector was formerly called Ximian Connector before Ximian was acquired by Novell."

Microsoft to Enforce Antispam Plan

"Microsoft will soon put some bite into its Sender ID antispam plans. The software giant will check e-mail messages sent to its Hotmail, MSN, and Microsoft.com mail accounts to see if they come from valid e-mail servers, as identified by the Sender ID...

The company is strongly urging e-mail providers and Internet service providers to publish, by mid-September, Sender Policy Framework records that identify their e-mail servers in the domain name system. Microsoft will begin matching the source of inbound e-mail to the Internet Protocol addresses of e-mail servers listed in that sending domain's SPF record by October 1.

Messages that fail the check will not be rejected but will be further scrutinized and filtered, says Craig Spiezle, director of Microsoft's Safety Technology and Strategy Group."

IDG News Service Report

Honeyball on IMF

In this month's PC Pro magazine, Jon Honeyball disusses the operation and merits of IMF...

"Does IMF work? Yes, and with a vengeance"

(article is on page 2 and free registration is required)

"Let Sybari take you out to Pro Player Stadium for the Migration Exchange"

An Exchange 2003 deployment/security seminar is being held next month by Sybari, HP and Microsoft at the Pro Player Stadium.

"Whether you are using Exchange server 5.5, 2000, or even another messaging and collaboration solution, this seminar is a must attend for you.
Together with Microsoft and HP, Sybari spearheads this seminar series to educate you on the value of migrating your current messaging infrastructure with solutions and partners you can trust. We are all falling prey to today’s hard hitting messaging predators, viruses, spam, and the new IM nuisance spim!

Deploying Microsoft Exchange server 2003 ensures you get the most of Exchange!
This new release delivers even greater reliability, scalability, and security components, which enable you to stay ahead of the intrusion game! With Exchange Server 2003 messaging in place you will realize immediate return on your investments by maximizing on productivity and lowering overall management costs. So optimize your networks today and find out how we can help you achieve a robust messaging and collaboration environment your users can depend on!

Need more reasons to attend; here are more reasons to deploy Exchange Server 2003 today.
Faster, easier migrations and deployment.
Immediate increase in user and IT staff productivity.
Increased server manageability, security, availability and reliability.
Anytime, anywhere access.

Microsoft Acquires Lookout

Lookout Software, who produce the personal search engine that can search all email directly within Outlook, have joined Microsoft.

Find out more here. Thanks to Exchange MVP Lee Benjamin for the information.

Microsoft Job Vacancy - Software Design Engineer - Exchange Edge Services Group

Lisa Martin, Technical Recruiter with Microsoft, is currently working hard on filling a vacancy that currently exists for a senior level talented engineer, and she's finding it difficult to locate the right person for the job. Is that perhaps you?!

Software Design Engineer - Exchange Edge Services Group (Redmond based)
Come join the Exchange team as we tackle the next wave of critical email challenges. Exchange is responsible for the personal productivity of 300 million people every day, the data integrity of over 10 billion messages flowing between over 1 million distributed servers every day, and $1 billion in revenue every year. In spite of this success we are faced with some challenges as a tidal wave of spam, virus, and other malicious content threatens to overwhelm email networks and the Internet. Companies are demanding increasing scrutiny of the information that flows in and out of their organizations. So are governments and regulatory agencies. And that’s where you come in! We're looking for an experienced software design engineer who can help us define and build "message hygiene" solutions for Exchange. That means blocking spam and viruses and applying content management policies. We need someone who has a proven track record in shipping quality software. Qualifications for this position include a minimum of 10 years of demonstrated work experience in software development, and a BS degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field. You will be responsible for contributing to the design of product features, architecture, ensuring quality and consistency of code, and working closely with your PM and QA counterparts. Excellent communication skills, strong problem solving skills, as well as the ability to work well with other teams, are required. Preference will be given to candidates with knowledge in a significant number of the following areas: SQL Server, NET Enterprise Servers, C#, security, performance, reliability and scalability.

If you or perhaps one of your colleagues are interested, get in touch with Lisa asap... lisamar@microsoft.com or Tel: (425) 703-7944

"Microsoft's Ballmer hits out at "cloned" open source"

"Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has criticised the lack of innovation in open source software and accused the community of merely trying to "clone" commercial software...... Outlining target areas for growth over the next 12 months, Ballmer said the installed Novell and IBM Lotus Notes bases are "ripe for picking".

"There are more customers I've met in the last six months interested in Notes to Exchange migration than in the last five years."

Exchange Troubleshooting Live Chat

Mark Fugatt and Scott Schnoll are hosting an MCP Mag live chat on Exchange Troubleshooting today... 4:00 PM (16:00 PST)

intraVnews 1.1 Beta 3

If, like me, you use intraVnews as your RSS reader to keep track of all your blog sites, you may want to know that intraVnews 1.1 Beta 3 is now available. More information can be found here.

ADModify.NET

Steve Bink has revealed that the new version of ADModify is nearly ready for release to the MS public FTP site. Steve has a link to where you can download it from his site. Nice one Steve.

Mobile News/Info...

GNEGG explains what actions were required to gain access to Exchange via IMAP using Sony Ericsson mobile devices.

There's an "*Unofficial* Windows Mobile 2003 upgrade for Motorola’s MPx200 Smartphone now available." (install it at your own risk!... If it works, let us know though)

and more Motorola phone gossip... (I can't wait for the MPx to come out!)

Webcasts in July

TechNet Webcast: Exchange 2003 Technical Overview - Level 200

Tuesday, July 13, 2004 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Description: This session will focus on some of the new features of Exchange 2003 including enhancements to management tools such as Mailbox Recovery Center, Error Reporting, Public Folders, and the Exchange System Manager. The presenter will also discuss client-side improvements, and not just the features in Outlook®, but also features such as Cache mode and mail retrieval over http! OWA and Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) have been improved and the presenter will also cover the new security features such as anti-spam and anti-virus features.

TechNet Webcast: Exchange 2003: Recovery and Preparedness Strategies - Level 200

Tuesday, July 20, 2004 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada)

Description: Server down. Now what? Join us for this important session on how to prepare and recover your Exchange 2003 server from server downtime. We will cover a broad array of disaster preparedness and response strategies for Exchange 2003 administration. The Microsoft® presenter will discuss and demonstrate best practices for backing up Exchange 2003 servers, prepare for and perform an alternate server recovery, and how to replace a damaged server. Additionally, the session will demonstrate new features of Exchange 2003, including the Mailbox Recovery Center and the Recovery Storage Group.

TechNet Support WebCast: Mixed-mode site consolidation in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1

Tuesday, July 20, 2004: 10:00 AM Pacific time (Greenwich mean time - 7 hours)

This Support WebCast session introduces the new mixed-mode cross-site move mailbox functionality that is introduced in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1). Site consolidation includes cross-site mailbox moves and some other cleanup steps. The session provides a walk-through of the process, and includes an introduction to the updated Exchange Deployment tools. The Support WebCast also reviews a number of caveats to know about after the moves are completed.

"When your Exchange server goes down"

Review of four Exchange high-availability products... "Fujitsu/Softek's Softek Replicator 2.1.2; LeftHand Networks' SAN/iQ Software, Remote IP Copy Software and NSM 200 SAN Module combination; NSI Software's Double-Take for Windows 4.3; and XOSoft's WANSync HA Exchange 3.5.2 Build 45."

Update for Windows Small Business Server 2003

An update has been released which fixes the OWA/OMA and store.exe memory alert issues that occur on SBS 2003 servers after Exchange 2003 SP1 is applied.

New Lookout Features

Marc Orchant reports that the excellent Outlook search tool Lookout has two new features...

"Index and search attachments: Lookout now lets you search on attachments to your e-mail messages. I get a lot of files attached to messages and can now find the attachment I’m seeking right inside Outlook.

Restrictions filters: Lookout now provides a means to define and save filters to narrow your search. For example, I use Newsgator to aggregate my RSS feeds into Outlook. Using the Newsgator Online Services (NGOS), I have a large number of keyword-related searches set up. I now have a restriction set up in Lookout to only search in folders containing “NGOS’ to narrow my search for a specific RSS post. This filter reduced the number of found items from 1,945 to 200 in a recent search - a great time savings."

What's Been Happening?...

Hey... June was a busy month for me... it's been 'all change.' I finished with my employer of almost five years at the start of the month, with closure of the company's Central IT department and redundancy for all us techies, following the completion of their major divestment. Just as I was then planning a holiday, I immediately fell into a short contract, leading the implementation of a small-ish AD/Exchange 2003 solution, migrating from NT/5.5, which has kept me very busy indeed. Given the very tight timescales that were involved here, the project went extremely well. Best of all, the company involved is very happy with their new system. Rolling out Outlook 2003 across the desktops, and implementing OWA and OMA, which they didn't previously have, has also meant that the end users are aware that the servers have been upgraded, and they're 'dead chuffed' with all the new functionality and accessibility too. Outlook Web Access has been the biggest 'win' I would say... oh, and so has the ability of the mail server to run for a full business day without the need for a daily reboot!

So, I should now have a bit more 'blogging time' again, as I prepare for a holiday to somewhere hotter and drier than the UK, following which it'll be time to get a real job again.... I might even have a go at blogging using my new toy, an HP TC1100 tablet, bought courtesy of the redundancy payment :-)

Join the European Exchange Users Group Forum initiative

Below is a copy of a message from Dejan Foro about the European Exchange Users Group Forum.

Join the European Exchange Users Group Forum initiative!

You already have an organized group of Exchange professionals in your country or you would like to set up one?

You would like get in touch with Exchange professional groups in other countries?

You would like to discuss about Exchange and related technologies, share your experience with other groups?

You have announcements, articles, links, photos, that you would like to share with the world?

Then join us at the European Exchange Users Group Forum here.

Regards,

Dejan Foro
MCP, MCP+I, MCSE NT40, MCSE+I, MCSE 2000, MCSE 2000:Messaging, MCT
Exchange Users Group Croatia (co-founder, since 2002)
Exchange Users Group Slovenia (member since 2000)

"Next Exchange might get "log shipping" support"

News from TechEd Europe... Steve Bink reports... "At a Exchange session the speaker revealed that the Exchange team is researching “log shipping” support for the next version of Exchange, just like SQL has log shipping."

Bill Gates Issues 'Progress Report' on Spam

"Preserving and Enhancing the Benefits of Email — A Progress Report"

Email Survey Published

The Register have published the results of their e-mail use survey... the findings fall under the following headings...

"Email is a business critical application
Microsoft Exchange dominates the corporate email landscape
Alternative access mechanisms are becoming more popular
Email traffic is wide and varied
Email systems are evolving to allow better remote access"

‘Managed REVIVE for Exchange’

"PSINet Europe has announced the launch of a dedicated data back-up solution specifically designed for UK users of Microsoft Exchange. The PSINet Managed REVIVE for Exchange service provides users with fully automated, off-site backup, complete online data history and the ability to recover individual mail messages, folders or mailboxes within minutes."

We're One Year Old Today!

Yes, quite incredibly, a whole year has passed since this blog went live. Happy birthday to us! The blog has really surpassed (blown away) all of the expectations that I had when I decided to set it up, and persuaded Neil and William to come on-board. I think it's become a really useful source of Exchange related information, I hope you agree too... and long may it continue :-)

US Government Agencies and Email Security

I would not normally be referencing USA Today for an Exchange weblog, but there is an article today regarding the challenges that various US government agencies face in regards to secure email communication.

The issues outlined in the article Feds face numerous encryption schemes for securing e-mail are not limited to government agencies. They parallel what enterprises are dealing with in regards to securing email communication while maintaining accessibility.

Exchange Server 2003 and Outlook 2003 are competitive in this arena and offer various options for securing email communication, including, but not limited to, the popular S/MIME. There is growth in the area of email security and added opportunity for architects and consultants who deploy messaging solutions.

"Officials are expected, however, to embrace secure e-mail solutions in greater numbers."

Paul Robichaux of the Alabama Robichauxs, updated his authoritative book on Exchange security called Secure Messaging with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, released earlier this year, which is an excellent addition to your knowledge library if this topic applies to you... and it probably does.

William Lefkovics

New Mailbox Added

On a personal note: 12 days ago we added a "new mailbox to our email server" at home.

Kieran Lefkovics was born on June 9, 2004.
A healthy, happy baby boy with convenient handling mass of about 3.2kg (7lbs). Whew.

He's already working on his weblog and who knows, he may be deploying Exchange Server 2024 (on Linux perhaps?) sometime down the road.

William Lefkovics

July WebCast - Exchange 2003 Mixed-mode Site Consolidation

For those who want to know more about the Exchange 2003 SP1 mixed-mode site consolidation tools, here's an important event for your diary.

TechNet Support WebCast: Mixed-mode site consolidation in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1

Tuesday, July 20, 2004: 10:00 AM Pacific time (Greenwich mean time - 7 hours)

This Support WebCast session introduces the new mixed-mode cross-site move mailbox functionality that is introduced in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1). Site consolidation includes cross-site mailbox moves and some other cleanup steps. The session provides a walk-through of the process, and includes an introduction to the updated Exchange Deployment tools. The Support WebCast also reviews a number of caveats to know about after the moves are completed.

This is a Level 200 session that will be presented by Evan Dodds.

NewsLook Goes Live

NewsLook, the newsgroup add-in for Outlook, has now gone live. The live version can be downloaded here.

New Blog

Michael B Smith has a new blog, which already has some useful/interesting Exchange posts :-)

Securing Exchange Server 2003 and Outlook Web Access Chapter Excerpt

There's a chapter excerpt from Henrik Walther's new book "Securing Exchange Server 2003 and Outlook Web Access" over at MSExchange.org

Exchange 2003 in Multi-Forest Environments Webcast Recording

The recording of the recent TechNet Webcast - Exchange 2003 in Multi-Forest Environments - is now available , if you missed it, thanks to Brian's nagging.

"Cold" Server Backup for Disaster Recovery--a Microsoft Software Assurance Benefit

"Effective June 1, 2004, customers with Software Assurance for Microsoft server software, as well as related Client Access Licenses (CALs), will be eligible for complimentary "cold backup" server licenses for the purpose of disaster recovery."

GFI MailEssentials 10 Beta

GFI MailEssentials 10 Beta introduces a number of improvements/new features, and is now available for download.

Policy Patrol Zip

"Red Earth Software on Thursday shipped email-management software for Microsoft Exchange Server and IBM Lotus Domino. Policy Patrol Zip provides automatic compression or decompression of attachments at the server level for outgoing and incoming email. The new product can also compress attachments sent only within a corporate network, and allows users to set a file size limit to decompression rules."

Why Aren't ISPs Blocking More Spam?

"With over half of all email arriving as spam, why aren't internet service providers doing more to block unwanted messages? Ken Young discovers that filtering is not as simple as it sounds..."

HP/Microsoft Announcements

Something I missed from last week's TechEd... "HP and Microsoft Corporation. expanded their long-standing relationship by announcing an agreement to market and produce a hardware security solution built on technology from the two companies. The HP ProLiant DL320 Firewall/VPN/Cache Server running Microsoft Internet Security & Acceleration Server (ISA) 2004 addresses network and perimeter security.

In addition, the companies announced the availability of the HP ProtectTools Suite for Microsoft software, which adds to the security functionality provided by standard Microsoft products -- such as Microsoft Exchange Server, Outlook® and Windows Mobile (TM)."... full PressPass

"Microsoft's Free IMF Solved My Spam Troubles"

David Coursey's been using IMF for a few days, and he's been impressed with it so far... "The best thing about Microsoft’s new Intelligent Message Filter add-on for Exchange Server isn’t that it’s free—it’s that it really works. Of course, having the ultimate “nice price” makes choosing IMF almost a no-brainer. I have been using IMF for several days—too early to really make a determination—but the early results have been excellent..."

Exchange 5.5 Support Not Extended

"Microsoft late Tuesday posted its updated list of product support deadlines in the wake of the announcement of a new 10-year product support lifecycle. The list confirms that Windows NT 4.0 and Exchange Server 5.5 aren't grandfathered into the new program."

UK Exchange Server Professionals Website

I know this has been posted to other blogs, but just in case you're in the UK and haven't seen it, here's a copy & paste from Adam:

The UK Exchange Server Professionals website is now up and running.

If you are interested in joining this group, we will be having a launch event (hopefully) at the beginning of July.

Please visit the website and submit your details and we'll keep you up to date with event and group info.

Exchange Server 2003 Disaster Recovery Operations Guide

Microsoft has released the Exchange Server 2003 Disaster Recovery Operations Guide.

Overview:
This guide explains how to back up and restore the critical data in your Exchange organization. It covers how to use the backup utility in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (Backup), how to back up Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, and how to restore Exchange Server 2003. This guide explains how to perform backup and restore procedures so that you can prepare for (back up) and recover from (restore) a failure that causes some or all of your data to become unavailable. This guide is intended for information technology (IT) professionals who perform backup and restore procedures or who write customized backup and restore procedures for their organization.

Exchange Server 2003 High Availability Guide

Microsoft has released the Exchange Server 2003 High Availability Guide.

Overview:
Messaging systems are mission-critical components for many companies. However, circumstances such as component failure, power outages, operator errors, and natural disasters can affect a messaging system's availability. To help prevent against such circumstances, it is crucial that companies plan and implement reliable strategies for maintaining high availability. As an added benefit, a highly available messaging system can save money by providing consistent messaging functionality to users.

Whether you are deploying a new Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 installation or upgrading from a previous version of Exchange Server, this guide will help you plan and deploy a highly available Exchange Server 2003 messaging system. Many of the high availability recommendations in this guide are related directly to the planning recommendations in Planning an Exchange Server 2003 Messaging System. Before using this guide to implement your high availability strategy, you should first read Planning an Exchange Server 2003 Messaging System

UK Exchange Server Professionals Group

Adam's been working hard on setting up the new UK Exchange Server Professionals Group. If you're interested in joining-in there's a survey that you can complete to provide thoughts on your preferences etc for the Group.

E2K3 MOM Management Pack Configuration Wizard

Yet another Exchange 2003 tool for you to download if you use MOM: the Exchange 2003 MOM Management Pack Configuration Wizard. Many thanks to James Edelen for reminding me, because although I'd seen it, I'd forgotten to blog it. Must have been the mass of releases from Microsoft yesterday!

This tool provides a graphical user interface to configure Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003 Management Pack, including test mailboxes, message tracking, and monitoring services.

More Tech-Ed

Gerod's posted some good coverage of a session that took place on Tuesday "Exchange Server Today and Tomorrow” which covered the top 9 Exchange FAQs... check it out.

Exchange 2003 MOM Management Pack Technical Guide

Here's something useful for those of you using MOM to monitor your Exchange 2003 environment. Microsoft has released a technical reference guide to the Exchange 2003 management pack. You can download it here.

This guide is intended to be a reference of the complete Event Rules, Alert Rules, and Performance Rules of the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Management Pack for MOM 2000 SP1. Because of the large amount of information, this guide has not been packaged as one document, but as seven individual document files that are logically split, based on the user interface in MOM 2000 SP1. There is also an introduction that lists the contents of each volume. Note that the Exchange Event Monitoring Rule Group, again because of the size, is Volume 1, but it comprises three parts.

Upcoming Exchange 2000/2003 FE/BE Paper

Using Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003 Front-End Servers

"Using Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003 Front-End Servers" is an upcoming revision to the "Using Microsoft Exchange 2000 Front-End Servers" online book. This version includes an overview of the back-end and front-end server topology, deployment processes, and configuration information."

"TechEd: Microsoft to kill 'Kodiak' code name"

"Microsoft will dump its "Kodiak" code-name that had been tagged to the next generation release of Exchange Server, instead shifting strategy to release individual improvements as they are ready, according to company executives here at TechEd 2004."

Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 24seven Published

Jim McBee's latest book 'Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 24seven' has just been published, and is available to buy from Amazon.com... it's another essential addition to your book collection! (via the POstmaster's Blog)

IMF MOM Management Pack

Those of you running MOM and wishing to start using the Intelligent Message Filter will no doubt want to download the IMF MOM management pack. Well, it's here.

More Reading?

Following on from Chris and William's posts, clearly you don't have enough reading to do as a result of the latest releases today. Well, as a top-up, it looks like Microsoft has updated the following documents as a result of the release of SP1. It's always nice to have the latest editions handy, so here you go:

Exchange Server 2003 Deployment Guide

What's New in Exchange Server 2003

Planning an Exchange Server 2003 Messaging System

Exchange Server 2003 Administration Guide

Exchange Server 2003 RPC over HTTP Deployment Scenarios

Lots of Goodies...

It's a big day for Exchange releases... not only has SP1 and the IMF been released, but there's also a number of other new or updated tools, utilities and downloads...

Exchange 2003: Badmail Deletion and Archiving
Automatic deletion or archiving of files in the badmail directory of SMTP virtual servers

Exchange 2003: Load Simulator 2003 (LoadSim)
Simulate the performance load of MAPI clients with this benchmarking tool, which allows you to test how a server running Exchange 2003 responds to e-mail loads.

Exchange 2003: Management Pack for Microsoft Operations Manager
Get specialized monitoring for Exchange 2003. This Management Pack includes a health check for a server running Exchange 2003 and raises an alert for states that require intervention.

Exchange 2003: Outlook Web Access Web Administration
Outlook Web Access web-based administration tool

Exchange 2003: Mailbox Merge Wizard (ExMerge)
Extract data from mailboxes on one server running Exchange and then merge that data into mailboxes on another server running Exchange with the help of this tool.

Exchange 2003: Email Journaling Advanced Configuration
Augments the current Exchange archiving features to capture recipients on expanded distribution lists, Bcc recipients, and other message details

Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Online Help
The online Help for Exchange Server 2003 has been updated for SP1. This update includes additional topics that were not included on the product CD

Preview: Configuring Offline Address Books
Working with the Exchange Server 2003 Store is an upcoming addition to the Exchange Server 2003 Technical Documentation Library. In the "Configuring Offline Address Books" chapter, you can learn how Exchange generates offline address books and how to configure servers to provide support for

Exchange 2003: LegacyDN Utility
The Legacydn.exe tool enables you to change Exchange 2000 and 2003 organization names, change Exchange 2000 and 2003 administrative group names, change legacyExchangeDN values on critical system objects, and view legacyExchangeDN values.

Exchange 2003: Exchange Server Stress and Performance 2003
Simulate large numbers of client sessions by concurrently accessing one or more protocol servers using this highly scalable tool, Exchange Server Stress and Performance 2003.

Exchange 2003: Importer for Lotus cc:Mail Archives
Import cc:Mail archive files to folders in an Exchange 2003 mailbox store or to one or more personal folder (.pst) files.

Most of these tools are in the All-In-One Tools Download package.

IMF and Deployment Guide Downloads

While patiently waiting for the Exchange Intelligent Message Filter to download, I found the Microsoft Exchange Intelligent Message Filter Deployment Guide
is now available.

William Lefkovics

Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1

Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1 is now available!

Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) offers new updates and improvements to Exchange Server 2003. Enhancements include new language support for Outlook Mobile Access and Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access spelling checkers, and out-of-office modification, a larger text entry field, search folder support, and improved menu navigation for the Outlook Mobile Access user interface.

Updated deployment tools are included with SP1 to help you with site consolidation. Site consolidation involves moving Exchange servers from remote sites into a larger central site and allowing users in remote offices to access their mailboxes and public folders over the network. Site consolidation provides the following benefits:

The Exchange topology is simplified.

You can administer Exchange centrally and reduce administrative costs.

You can make better use of hardware because there are fewer mailbox servers as well as fewer auxiliary servers. A centralized datacenter can also increase scalability and availability.

Consolidating sites can help your organization reach the goal of running Exchange in native mode by reducing the number of Exchange 5.5 servers in the organization.

With fewer mailbox servers, there are fewer targets for security issues.

Tech-Ed Bits...

Gerod's written about one of the new features that Exchange 2003 SP1 will offer... "the ability to consolidate sites even from 5.5 to Exchange 2003!"

Prerequisites:

The fix from KB article 836489 must be installed on 5.5 servers.
Target server must be Exchange 2003 SP1
All ADCs must be running Exchange 2003 SP1 code.
Must be 2-way CA to each site.

The releases of SP1, and of the IMF (the release of which is apparently not going doing too well with the competition and partner companies) are it seems, just around the corner - keep your eyes peeled on the Microsoft site.

ADFS – Active Directory Federation server will come out soon offering the ability to have a single login cross forests. (thanks Kevin)

Benjaminm's covered the main points of Steve Ballmer's keynote.

CA Management Bundle for Microsoft Exchange

"Computer Associates International, Inc. (NYSE: CA) today (23/5) announced the CA Management Bundle for Microsoft Exchange, an integrated management solution for ensuring the performance, security, data protection and reliability of email. It enables CIOs to lower the cost of daily operations and infrastructure, consolidate servers to improve reliability and operational efficiencies, and deliver global service level commitments.

CA's Management Bundle for Microsoft Exchange delivers:

Comprehensive monitoring of all Exchange infrastructure events

Enhanced problem identification and resolution tools that identify and resolve potential problems before they impact service levels

Intelligent traffic screening to safeguard against inappropriate email content and unauthorized distribution of confidential information

Single Instance Store technology to minimize media costs and backup windows

CA Management Bundle for Microsoft Exchange automatically discovers all of the Exchange servers on a network -- including those without management technology installed. Administrators can view the status of the entire Exchange environment from a business perspective to quickly determine the source of a problem.

The CA Management Bundle for Microsoft Exchange automatically performs media management, enabling backup to a wide variety of storage devices including disk, tape and WORM. Organizations can seamlessly back up and restore documents, folders and mailboxes across different versions of Exchange Server, including Exchange 5.5, Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003. During the restore process, built-in antivirus capabilities eliminate previously undetected viruses."

Mixed Bag Time...

It's my second last week at work... redundancy beckons at the end of next week on June 4th... I can't wait! Why? Well... I've had just about enough of breaking-up a 10,000 user 29 site Exchange Org. It's been an interesting experience, and quite challenging at times, especially making sure that various things can co-exist at various points in the de-coupling process, and also ensuring that the transitional service agreements that were put in place for the new owners of the various businesses were fulfilled. But no more! I want to build environments again...please! ... I would also like to have some decent 'geek-time' for myself :-) Oh, and another reason why I'm looking forward to the end, on June 5th I'm going to fly out somewhere for a 3 - 4 week break. The destination(s) still not been decided... any ideas on where to go?

There's been loads of interesting blog posts and articles published over the past few days, far too many to post here individually, so here they all are in one go...

KC's got a new job. Congratulations! :-)

David Sengupta's written a review of Paul Robichaux's Secure Messaging with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 book

If you are using the POP Connector in SBS 2003 - Get this patch

The real ROI of Exchange - ""The bottom line is, Exchange 2003 is a valuable upgrade but only you can decide if it's right for your organization"

"PalmSource (Nasdaq: PALM - news) and Research In Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM - news) (RIM) have made good on their December 2003 announcement of plans to make BlackBerry Connect available to Palm OS licensees. The companies showcased the result of the joint development effort at the Wireless Enterprise Symposium."

BlackBerry Gets Remote Control - "Stating that some 80 percent of business customers buy wireless devices in retail outlets, RIM Chairman and co-CEO Jim Balsillie said the new provisioning features in BES 4.0 let customers call their IT departments to get activated immediately from the store where they bought the service."

Managing Exchange Storage with the Windows Storage Server 2003 Feature Pack White Paper - "Microsoft® Windows® Storage Server 2003 offers a powerful combination of features, robustness, scalability, and ease of deployment; it has become increasingly common in small and medium businesses. With the release of the Windows Storage Server 2003 feature pack, Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 databases can now be safely consolidated to Windows Storage Server devices, making it possible to consolidate file/print and Exchange data onto well-managed, reliable servers that provide good performance and low operating cost. This paper describes scenarios in which the feature pack can effectively be deployed for small and medium business networks, as well as the technical considerations for such deployments.

Techniques for reducing spam with Outlook 2003 and Exchange 2003

Who’s Reading My Mail?

Just come across these online training sessions on Technet...
Exchange 2003 Technical Overview

Migrating from Windows NT Server 4.0 to Windows Server 2003

NT 4.0 and Windows 2003 Active Directory Interoperability

... and I found this site today... SpamHelp

Free HP Online Course... Building a Microsoft® Exchange Server (via Adam)

Tech-Ed US is underway... if you're not there, check out what the Tech-Ed bloggers are saying. We'll be bringing you any Exchange news too, via our man on the floor Kevin Miller.

"The Third Annual (MSD2D) People's Choice Awards recognizes the best products and companies in the Exchange industry"

EMC Launches NetWin 110

"EMC is diving deeper into the elusive, Windows-dominated small and midsize business depths with a lower-end alternative for its entry-level network-attached storage gateway NetWin family. The storage titan on Thursday unveiled the NetWin 110, which is scheduled to ship in early June for $6,100. The Microsoft Windows Storage Server-based NetWin 110 provides SMBs with a less-pricey option to EMC's NetWin 200, which costs $17,200. The new product offers support for Microsoft Exchange 2003 to provide branch office protection and simplified e-mail, print and file services management for customers looking to consolidate servers and add incremental storage in Microsoft Windows environments"

Sybari News...

At long last, Sybari are about to launch a new, fresh, website... you can preview it here (if you've fallen in love with the old site, it's still around)

Sybari have also recently funded a nine month study on European anti-spam legislation, which was carried out by the Institute for Information Law, and togther they have also conducted a Spam Survey with input from over 180 companies... the results for both have now been published.

Symantec Buying Brightmail

"Symantec is to buy email filter firm Brightmail for approx. $370m cash. It is to integrate Brightmail's anti-spam software into its own line of gateway appliances to create hybrid defences against junk mail and viruses."

XKey Soon to be Available in the UK

XKey, the USB pen-drive with built-in Exchange client, is to be available in the UK from next month, with prices in the region of £200 for a 256MB device, and £300 for a 512MB.

RIM Announces Overhauled Enterprise Server to be Launched Later This Year

"Research In Motion (RIM) today announced plans to introduce the next major release of its enterprise software later this year. BlackBerry Enterprise Server™ v4.0 will enhance the ease-of-use, security, manageability and extensibility features of BlackBerry®, providing increased mobility, productivity and return on investment. The announcement was made at RIM's Wireless Enterprise Symposium in Chicago where customers, carriers, developers and industry analysts gathered this week for an intensive educational and networking event.

"BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.0 continues to build on the solid foundation that has already made BlackBerry the leading wireless platform for the enterprise with over one million subscribers," said Mike Lazaridis, President and co-CEO at Research In Motion. "Security, reliability, manageability and scalability remained high priorities for this new release along with many new functional enhancements including wireless PIM synchronization, improved attachment viewing and enriched browsing."

Key features of BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.0 will include: simplified deployment, enhanced handheld asset control, additional wireless security capabilities, enhanced wireless experience and simplified application development."

Review from the Trenches

MCP Magazine has a report called Exchange Server 2003: Review from the Trenches. Compiled by Reviews Editor Doug Barney, and sponsored by NetIQ, this report takes input from 13 Exchange professionals and reviews the functions, cost and viability of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.

The 24 page PDF (881kb) requires registration to download, but contains some good quality information, especially if you are considering Exchange 2003 for your customers or enterprise.

"Don't read the kudos on Microsoft's Web site and assume migration will be a cakewalk." - Patrick Elgoff, page 11.

William Lefkovics

IMF to be Made Available to All with Exchange 2003

At today's Webcast: Fighting spam using Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, mentioned here earlier, Mohammad Nadeem announced that the IMF would be made available to all Exchange 2003 installations.

This is great news. There was no link available to download the IMF and I'm sure we'll hear more about it at TechEd.

William Lefkovics

"Novell Announces Evolution 2.0 and Release of Connector for Microsoft Exchange Server Under Open Source License"

"Novell today announced its Connector for Microsoft* Exchange Server will be integrated into EvolutionTM 2.0 and made available as open source, beginning today with the current Connector 1.4. Evolution is Novell's award-winning e-mail and workgroup client for Linux* systems and is the most widely used collaboration suite on Linux. Evolution Connector allows Microsoft Exchange Server 2000/2003 users to easily manage their e-mail, calendars, group schedules, address books, public folders and tasks from Linux desktops." ... full press release

Exchange 2003 SP1 and IMF to be Released at TechEd

According to this TechTarget.com article, quoting Edward Wu, Exchange PM, Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1 and the Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) will be released at TechEd 2004 in San Diego, CA during the week of May 23-28, 2004.

And there is hope that the IMF will not have a limited release, by being made available only to customers who have joined the Software Assurance programme, based on this quote:

Wu said Microsoft is still reviewing whether IMF will be offered only to customers with Software Assurance, as it was originally intended, or whether it will be made available to all customers. A decision is expected at TechEd, he said.

William Lefkovics

Aelita Recovery Manager for Exchange Version 2.0

"Quest Software, Inc... today announced the release of Aelita Recovery Manager(TM) for Exchange version 2.0, which adds support for an extensive list of backup software vendors, as well as enhanced search and restore options. Recovery Manager for Exchange offers IT administrators the ability to quickly locate and recover message-level items from existing bulk backups." ... full press release

Microsoft Unveils Live Communications Server 2005

Microsoft today announced their plans for Live Communications Server 2005. This is also a call for beta participants to help test LCS2005, which is "scheduled for release in the fourth quarter of 2004."

The current version, Live Communications Server 2003, evolved from the Exchange 2000 Instant Messaging Server component of Exchange 2000.

William Lefkovics

New O'Reilly Book.. Windows Server Hacks

Here's another book to add to your O'Reilly bookcase... Windows Server Hacks 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools

Exchange Version Support Lifecycles

This is not new, but I made a separate table for just the Exchange Server versions.

Exchange Version	General Availability Date	Mainstream Support Retired	Extended Support Retired
Exchange 5.0 Standard	May 23, 1997	December 31, 2003	December 31, 2005
Exchange 5.0 Enterprise	May 23, 1997	December 31, 2003	December 31, 2005
Exchange 5.5 Standard	February 3, 1998	December 31, 2004	December 31, 2005
Exchange 5.5 Enterprise	February 3, 1998	December 31, 2004	December 31, 2005
Exchange 2000 Standard	November 29, 2000	December 31, 2005	December 31, 2007
Exchange 2000 Enterprise	November 29, 2000	December 31, 2005	December 31, 2007
Exchange 2000 Conferencing	November 29, 2000	December 31, 2005	December 31, 2007
Exchange 2003 Standard	September 28, 2003	September 30, 2008	September 30, 2010
Exchange 2003 Enterprise	September 28, 2003	September 30, 2008	September 30, 2010

You can look up the support schedule for Microsoft's product line on their product lifecycle site.

William Lefkovics

UK Exchange User Group

I know that Adam has already mentioned this on his blog, and it has also appeared on the Exchange team blog, but just in case I'm mopping up any people who don't read those two blogs.... (surely not?!)

Adam Field is looking to set up a UK Exchange User Group, so contact him if you are interested (or leave a comment here on this blog and I'll pass it along). I'll be getting involved in this for sure.

Symantec AV Best for Exchange?

Readers of MSExchange.org voted Symantec the best antivirus solution for Exchange, grabbing 30% of the 3,300 votes. Read who the other 9 were in the top 10 here.

New X1 and NewsGator Partnership

" X1 Technologies, Inc., and NewsGator Technologies today announced a partnership to provide customers with instant access to aggregated RSS (Really Simple Syndication) news and information. The fast-as-you-can-type search capabilities of X1 Search, which lets users find the content of email, files, attachments, and contacts, has been coupled with NewsGator's ability to deliver news and information directly into Microsoft Outlook to give customers a simple, integrated solution for obtaining and finding information. X1 Search and NewsGator customers no longer have to sort through old, unrelated posts and messages in their quest for a particular article or piece of information.

NewsGator retrieves news from news sites, weblogs, and other information sources that support the RSS syndication format and automatically integrates the news items into Outlook folders. In addition to RSS feeds, NewsGator lets customers subscribe to NNTP (Usenet) newsgroups. Once the information is downloaded into Outlook, X1, through its patent-pending Invisible Index technology, lets a user sort through the aggregated messages and find the content they want, narrowing and displaying results as they type the search terms. Results are displayed in the X1 preview pane for a quick read or, with a double-click, can be opened in Outlook."

Microsoft Security Bulletin RSS Feed

Here's a new RSS feed for you... it's for Microsoft's Security Bulletins (via Bink)

New Exchange Blog

Exchange MVP, Mark Arnold has a new blog... "Microsoft Exchange Assistance and General Ramblings"

INBOX - The Email Event

"INBOX debuts on June 2-4 in San Jose, California with the most comprehensive, in-depth conference and show floor ever focused on email."

Cloudmark Announces Release of Cloudmark Exchange Edition

"Cloudmark Exchange Edition (CEE) is a server-side Anti-Spam solution developed specifically for small and medium business (SMB). CEE integrates with Microsoft Exchange Server™, allows easy installation and administration and does not require client-side software.

Cloudmark Exchange Edition leverages the Cloudmark SpamNet service to block over 97% of Spam automatically without losing business emails. By tapping into the most accurate desktop product, CEE customers get the same great performance as SpamNet, but keep it off the desktop for IT control and increased productivity."

RIM Signs Deal With Motorola

"Research In Motion today announced that it signed an agreement with Motorola, Inc. to license RIM's technology under RIM's BlackBerry Connect(TM) licensing program. Through this deal, Motorola will have the option to enable specific mobile phones to connect to BlackBerry(R) services including support for both BlackBerry Enterprise Server(TM) and BlackBerry Web Client(TM). "

Great View...

I'm still busy studying in an effort to get my CV up-to-date. I had the pleasure of sitting one of the Microsoft exams at Parity's training centre in High Holborn, London earlier this week. It was a pleasure, because they've recently moved their testing room, and now instead of sitting in a goldfish bowl next to a busy corridor, it's in a nice quiet room, which also offers some pretty good views of the West End, Centrepoint (designed by Richard Seifert, with whom I had many very pleasant dealings in the past, when working for a previous employer), the BT Tower and so on. What a distraction! The room is on the fifth floor, and each of the desks is against the window and looking out. So, whenever a difficult question came along, it was time for a gaze :-) I'm just glad that my recently acquired vertigo didn't kick-in! Two more exams to go...

While we're on the subject of CVs and studying, a number of colleagues are being made redundant at the end of this month, following the near completion of the divestment process that has been taking place over the past 13 months. Many of them seem to be sorting themselves out with new employment without too much difficulty, there are a few folks though who could perhaps do with some help. So, if your company is in the London/Essex/Cardiff/Peterborough area and is looking to recruit any Helpdesk, Desktop Support, Server Support, Mainframe, Unix, AS/400, Networks, Project/Client Management, staff in the near future please get in touch! There's some great people here with loads of experience, and lots to offer. Oh, and I should probably include Messaging staff in the list too (me!), although I've got a bit more time to go.

Exchange Webcasts in May

There's eight of them no less :-) ...

Exchange Server 2003 Overview - Level 300
Date: Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Time: 8:00 AM-9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Description: Learn what is new in Exchange Server 2003 including Service Pack 1 enhancements. See highlights such as improved Exchange 5.5 migration tools, integrated mobile access enabling a variety of scenarios, security updates, and better backup and restore components. Learn how Domain rename is supported in Exchange 2003 with Active Directory 2003. See Information Worker and IT Pro benefits through improved client access, integrated monitoring capabilities, and enhanced clustering support.

Exchange 2003 in Multi-Forest Environments - Level 200
Date: Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Time: 11:00AM-12:30PM Pacific

Description: With the many mergers and acquisitions in today’s business world, many IT departments are faced with the challenge of maintaining multiple Exchange organizations. This webcast will describe the four basic requirements for maintaining a seamless multi-forest environment: connectivity, directory synchronization, calendar/Free-busy, and one-off migration considerations.

Migrating Lotus Notes Applications to VS.NET, SQL Server, Exchange 2003, and SharePoint - Level 300
Date: Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Time: 8:00 AM-9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Description: Learn the factors involved when extending and/or migrating Lotus Notes applications to the Microsoft platform to consolidate messaging and collaboration infrastructures. We'll show you how you can use the newly updated Microsoft/CASAHL Lotus Notes Application Analyzer and CASAHL ecKnowledge 8.1 to analyze, extend and migrate Lotus Notes and Domino data and applications to Microsoft SharePoint, InfoPath, SQL Server, VS.NET, and Active Directory. Join us as we explore ecKnowledge features that smooth the integration and migration process, and identify an intermediate period of coexistence between Notes applications and the new Microsoft .NET applications generated by ecKnowledge.

Exchange Server 2003 Mobile Services - Level 300
Date: Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Time: 8:00 AM-9:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Description: Exchange Server 2003 has the connections: a wide range of mobile, stationary, and compact devices use the new features of Outlook 2003, Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access, and Exchange Active Sync to allow access to Exchange Server wherever you are! This presentation includes an overview of wireless technologies that enable mobile desktop and small device access. From there we will discuss and demonstrate how to use the new features of these communication tools and provide recommendations about the best uses for each.

Reducing Spam with Exchange Server 2003 and Outlook 2003 - Level 300
Date: Thursday, May 20, 2004
Time: 10:00 AM-11:30 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Description: Spam is no longer just a nuisance. The rising tide of unsolicited commercial email upsets the time and budget plans for many organizations. It slows down networks and computers, clogs mail server space, and distracts workers. Join this webcast to see how you can use the anti-spam features of Exchange Server 2003 -- augmented with the Intelligent Message Filter -- to reduce the amount of spam entering your organization's mail and calendaring infrastructure.

Exchange Server 2003: Better Exchange Remote Access! - Level 200
Date: Thursday, May 27, 2004
Time: 12:30 PM-2:00 PM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Description: Exchange Server 2003 offers more than an overhauled Outlook Web Access, it offers RPC over HTTP, an optimum Exchange remote access. This webcast shows--without the use of a complicated VPN--how to use the complete feature set of Outlook 2003 as a native Exchange client. WIth this implementation nothing more complex than HTTPS needs to pass through your corporate firewall without POP3 or IMAP compromises. Learn exactly how RPC over HTTP works, how to set it up, and how easy Exchange remote access can really be. Topics in this Webcast are drawn from Don Jones' book, Microsoft Excahnage Server 2003 Delta Guide, Sams Publishing.

Exchange Server 2003: Technical Overview - Level 200
Date: Friday, May 28, 2004
Time: 9:30 AM-11:00 AM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Description: Join this webcast for an up-close look at the new features of Exchange 2003. Become familiar with administration improvements to the Mailbox Recovery Center, Error Reporting, Public Folder management and the Exchange System Manager; Outlook Client side improvements and new features such as Cache mode and mail retrieval over http; improvements to Outlook Web Access (OWA) and to Outlook Mobile Access (OMA); and new security enhancements in Exchange, which include better anti-spam and anti-virus features

Exchange Server 2003 Disaster Recovery - Level 200
Date: Friday, May 28, 2004
Time: 12:15 PM-1:00 PM Pacific Time (GMT-8, US & Canada)

Description: Join us for this special shortened 45-minute TechNet webcast -- broadcast live from TechEd -- and see how to recover from email disasters using new capabilities in Exchange Server 2003. We discuss some best practices for backing up your Exchange server, and also demonstrate disaster recovery using the Mailbox Recovery Center and the Recovery Storage Group.

(don't forget too that there are three webcasts taking place between now and the end of April)

New MS Exchange Blog URLs

Some of you may or may not have known that this blog can be reached via the URL http://www.msexchange.co.uk, which just forwards to the Typepad address... well... you will perhaps also be pleased to know that the blog can now be reached by using any one of the following URLs too..

http://www.msexchangeblog.com
http://www.msexchangeblog.net
http://www.msexchangeblog.co.uk

So, take your pick... any one of them should be easier to use and to remember than the full, unfriendly http://hellomate.typepad.com/exchange address :-)

Archiving News

"Connected Corp. has unveiled the first product from its acquisition of Archive-it, an email archiving firm.

Connected ArchiveStore/EM 3.0 is a "new and substantially enhanced release" based on Archive-it's MailStore 2.1, according to the storage software provider. The new offering combines data reduction technology, encryption, audit trails, and policy-based management for "secure, searchable, and scalable" archiving of email messages for Microsoft Exchange environments. Future releases will support other email servers. At $25 per seat for 1,000 users, ArchiveStore is "very competitively priced," says company PR manager Wayne St. Amand."

Meanwhile...

"ZANTAZ, Inc., the leader in e communications management solutions for compliance, electronic discovery and storage management, today announced the release of Exchange Archive Solution (EAS) version 3.2. This latest release significantly improves indexing performance, search capabilities and access to archived email for remote users."

HP StorageWorks Fast Recovery Solution for Windows 2003

It looks like HP have released FRS (Fast Recovery Solution), which is their VSS solution for Exchange 2003...

Overview
HP StorageWorks Fast Recovery Solution for Windows 2003 (FRS 2003) enables the fast recovery of Microsoft Exchange and SQL databases. Perfect for environments that require the highest level of availability, FRS 2003 is designed to allow application administrators to utilize the automated disaster recovery technologies built into HP StorageWorks Disk Arrays, without extensive storage training. FRS 2003 keeps businesses up and running by recovering corrupt databases in minutes, rather than the hours typically required for a conventional restore from tape.

FRS 2003 utilizes the Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) and Virtual Disk Service (VDS) in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise and Data Center Editions to create shadow copies of production Exchange and SQL databases. FRS 2003 manages these shadow copies for recovery purposes in the event of database corruption. FRS 2003 is an automated, zero downtime solution that provides the highest level of database protection and recovery, coupled with unparalleled ease of use. FRS 2003 puts businesses in control of their application storage environment, gaining efficiency, confidence, and business agility.
(via Todd)

The Fight Between 'Good and Evil'

"Danny O'Brien mingles among the arch-spammers and explains the new ways to track down serial offenders..."

There's an interesting statistic in this report... "29% of Americans have reduced their use of mail because of spam, a Pew research project recently revealed."

IBM Set to Lose Market Share

"The Radicati Group Inc. on Thursday issued a report indicating that IBM's e-mail product strategy—with its converging Notes/Domino and Workplace roadmaps—will lead to the company losing share in the corporate e-mail market over the next four years."

MAPILab NNTP v0.9 alpha for Outlook

"MAPILab NNTP for Outlook is the first NNTP transport provider for Microsoft Outlook 2000, 2002/XP and 2003. It allows you to read the messages from newsgroups and post the messages to newsgroups from Microsoft Outlook"

Sorry...

Apologies for the lack of updates recently, and also for the problems that folks have been experiencing with the downloads on the Blog. Unfortunately I was ill for about a week, and then before I was fully fighting fit again, I jetted off for five days in Prague (which was great!). The downloads are temporarily unavailable due to ISP/domain issues/incompetences... they should be available again in a day or two, just as soon as I've modified all of the links!

"WINSless by the next version of Exchange"

Imagine not needing WINS for Exchange Server.

While not a promise, it is a goal, so says longtime VP Windows Server Systems, now VP Exchange Server, Dave Thompson.

William Lefkovics

ActiveSync Webcast Today

There's a Technet Webcast later today which should be of interest...

"Troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 ActiveSync issues
10:00 AM Pacific time (Greenwich mean time - 8 hours)

This Support WebCast session provides an architecture and functional review of the ActiveSync components and how they communicate with Active Directory and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. The session will review stand-alone, front-end, and back-end deployments. It will also talk about IIS configurations, error tracings, device issues, and component-level communication. It will have a heavy focus on tracing and error interpretation."

Secure Messaging With Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 - Available Now!

Paul Robichaux's latest book, Secure Messaging With Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 is now available to buy over at Amazon.com... go on, be the first to buy a copy!

Which is Best? Exchange v Domino...

"Exchange is the leader, and rightly so" versus "Domino is no one-trick pony"

New Newsgroups

In case you hadn't seen, two new useful newsgroups were created last week:

microsoft.public.exchange.mobility
microsoft.public.outlook.bcm

Another New Exchange Blog

Just added Gerod Serafin's new(ish) Exchange blog to the Links page. Gerod's got off to a great start with some useful Exchange info and FAQs.

"Microsoft--the host with the most?"

Interesting article on the rise and and anticipated continued popularity of hosted Exchange solutions. Exchange 2003 lends itself really well to being served-up by a hosted provider, and small businesses are apparently finding it very attractive to be able to use a full-blown messaging service, without the support burden and hardware costs.

Microsoft Downloads

There are a few new/updated Microsoft downloads today...

Messaging Operations at Microsoft
"Discussion on the best practices in Exchange Server 2003 daily operations based on experiences of an early adopter—Microsoft's IT organization. This paper highlights new interdependencies with Windows Server 2003 and the Office 2003 System. Microsoft IT's early adopter experiences that can help customers plan their upgrade from Exchange 2000 to Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 are detailed."

Messaging Backup and Restore at Microsoft
"Overview of Microsoft IT's two-stage backup and restore solution. Through a combination of Exchange Server 2003, the Windows Server System, third-party SAN technology, and faster hardware, Microsoft IT created a clustered design with two-stage backups that enabled a greater level of flexibility to back up and restore data when needed, but which had minimal impact on users. This solution enabled server consolidation by hosting many more mailboxes per server—from 1,500 to 2,700 for the regional design, and from 3,000 to 4,000 for the headquarters design. These benefits, in turn, enabled the consolidation of many smaller regional mailbox servers by more than 75 percent, which reduced operational costs."

Exchange Support Tool: ExchDump
"ExchDump is a command line utility that gathers Exchange configuration information from various sources used in troubleshooting support issues. The utility DOES NOT make any registry changes or modifications to the operating system. The configuration information is written to one of two different output files."

Exchange Server 2003 Site Consolidation: Preliminary Results
"Description of how Microsoft is consolidating its Exchange Server 2003 infrastructure from seventy-two to six geographic sites. By deploying highly available clustered servers in regional data centers, Microsoft has simplified its messaging infrastructure and advanced its strategy to consolidate IT infrastructure."

Ken Young on the Rise of Blackberry

Ken Young, over at Guardian Online reports on the success and future of Blackberry

"Research In Motion's (RIM) BlackBerry device is becoming the handheld of choice for professionals on the move. Its unique selling point is its ability to automatically update users with new email and diary changes by using always-on high-speed GPRS (general packet radio service) wireless networks - but other devices will also offer BlackBerry facilities."

Upcoming Exchange Webcasts

Here's a couple of dates for your diary:

TechNet Support WebCast: Troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 ActiveSync issues

Thursday, March 25, 2004: 10:00 A.M. Pacific time (Greenwich mean time- 8 hours). Reviews ActiveSync components and their communication with Active Directory and Exchange Server 2003. Discusses deployment types, IIS configurations, error tracings, device issues, component-level communication, tracing, and error interpretation.

TechNet Support WebCast: Mixed-mode site consolidation in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 1

Wednesday, June 16, 2004: 10:00 A.M. Pacific time (Greenwich mean time- 8 hours). Introduces mixed-mode cross-site move mailbox functionality in Exchange Server 2003 SP1. Includes cross-site mailbox moves and cleanup steps. Reviews the process and talks about the deployment tools. Discusses things to know after moves are completed.

Exchange Supports Broader Range of Storage Solutions

Responding to customer feedback, Microsoft announces Exchange 2003 Support For iSCSI and NAS storage solutions. Read the press release here.

Live Communications Server 2003 Update: Exchange Migration Scripting Files

"This download provides new versions of four scripting files that were included with Live Communications Server 2003. You should download and use these updated scripting files if you plan to migrate from Microsoft Exchange 2000 Instant Messaging to Live Communications Server 2003."

The Expert's Guide for Exchange 2003 - Chapter Two: Preparing Your Domain Services

Chapter two of Steve Bryant's 'Experts Guide for Exchange 2003' eBook that he's writing for Aelita/Windows & .NET Magazine is now available. (free registration required)

Vulnerability in Outlook 2002 SP2

"A security vulnerability exists within Outlook 2002 that could allow Internet Explorer to execute script code in the Local Machine zone on an affected system. The parsing of specially crafted mailto URLs by Outlook 2002 causes this vulnerability. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would have to host a malicious Web site that contained a Web page designed to exploit the vulnerability and then persuade a user to view the Web page.

The attacker could also create an HTML e-mail message designed to exploit the vulnerability and persuade the user to view the HTML e-mail message. After the user has visited the malicious Web site or viewed the malicious HTML e-mail message an attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could access files on a user's system or run arbitrary code on a user's system. This code would run in the security context of the currently logged-on user. Outlook 2002 is available as a separate product and is also included as part of Office XP. "

This only affects Microsoft Outlook 2002 Service Pack 2. Outlook 2000/2003 are not affected.

Exchange & Blogging

Should there be blogging support in the next release of Exchange?... Brandon Wirtz thinks so.

Gartner slams Microsoft spam plans

"Analyst Gartner has criticised Microsoft's grand plan to tackle spam, warning that its proposed scheme could take years to come to fruition and even then be largely ineffective. The organisation predicts that less than 25 per cent of enterprises will have introduced any email authentication standards by 2005. "

New Microsoft UK Upgrade Centre

Adam has highlighted that Microsoft UK have launched a new Upgrade Centre that can be used to obtain case studies, white papers, deployment kits and so on, to help with the upgrading and deployment process.

"Do you need an up-to-date IT infrastructure that meets the challenges of today and tomorrow? Do you want to upgrade your servers and desktops to get more from your IT investment and increase security? If so, the Upgrade Search Tool can provide you with all information you need - white papers, case studies and more."

Microsoft's Coordinated Spam Reduction Initiative

Microsoft has relased a document on its long-range, industry-focused framework for dramatically reducing spam which you can download here.

Overview:
At its core, the Coordinated Spam Reduction Initiative (CSRI) focuses on three key areas: establishing verifiable identity in e-mail through Caller-ID; and setting reasonable behavior policies for high volume e-mail senders; and creating viable alternatives for smaller organizations to distinguish themselves from spammers. Microsoft believes that delivering solutions in these three areas would improve the effectiveness of spam filters, as well as significantly help address the problem of spam.

ORF Enterprise Edition 1.5 Beta R2

Vamsoft has released Open Relay Filter (ORF) Enterprise Edition 1.5 Beta R2.

Exchange Facts & Figures

The Radicati Group, a US technology market research firm, have published a new report which contains some interesting Exchange stats... including...

"Microsoft Exchange commands an impressive 31% share of the corporate messaging software market. By year-end 2004, the corporate MS Exchange installed base will total 114.2 million mailboxes.

MS Exchange 5.5 currently accounts for 40% of the corporate MS Exchange installed base

This year, the corporate installed base of MS Exchange 5.5 was surpassed by the MS Exchange 2000/2003 for the first time. MS Exchange 2000 accounts for approximately 43% of the worldwide corporate MS Exchange installed base.

The MS Outlook accounts for 74% of the worldwide corporate e-mail client installed base. The greatly improved Outlook Web Access (OWA) client is gaining popularity, expected to be used by approximately 36% of Exchange users by year-end 2004."

This, and other reports can be bought here

P900 with Blackberry

Sony Ericsson P900 to be available 'Blackberry-enabled' later this year.

'Smile Please'

Ever wondered what Microsoft's Campus (and Robert Scoble) looked like? Dylan Greene's taken some photos.

"Microsoft Will Extend E-Mail Protection With Exchange Edge Services"

Microsoft have today released details of a new Exchange product 'Exchange Edge Services' that is to be released sometime next year...

"Today in his keynote address at the RSA Conference 2004, Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates announced that the company will deliver Microsoft® Exchange Edge Services, an enhancement to the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) relay implementation in Exchange Server, part of the Windows Server System (TM) . With Exchange Edge Services, Microsoft will provide a new set of capabilities aimed at enabling customers to better protect their e-mail system from junk e-mail and viruses as well as improve the efficiency of handling and routing Internet e-mail traffic.
...

Exchange Edge Services will perform three major functions critical to overall e-mail protection, security and hygiene. As an SMTP relay, it will serve as an e-mail gatekeeper, for enhanced security and reliability when relaying e-mail to and from the Internet. It also will provide a variety of methods, built on the foundation already laid in Exchange Server 2003, to help block junk e-mail, and an extensibility infrastructure that industry partners can use to build and run anti-spam and anti-virus solutions. In addition, it will apply basic routing server rules, from relaying and address rewriting to format conversion, and provide the basic engine to allow an administrator to build custom rules."

More information

New Motorola Smartphones

Motorola have released details of two new smartphones which will run Windows Mobile 2003, and are to be available by the end of the year... they are the MPx100 which "Motorola will be pitching as a mobile email reader," and the MPx which is a smaller clamshell styled device. Both phones have similar feature sets, which include tri-band GSM/GPRS, infra-red, Bluetooth, 1.3 megapixel camera, SD memory expansion, and in the case of the MPx, integrated 802.11b wi-fi... nice.

SurfControl Launches E-mail Filtering Solution for Exchange 2003

"SurfControl today announced the launch of SurfControl E-mail Filter for Exchange 2003, the only complete e-mail filtering solution on the market that can be easily integrated with Microsoft's Exchange 2003 mail server platform.

SurfControl E-mail Filter for Exchange 2003 provides a simple plug-in installation and allows enterprises to quickly deploy a powerful e-mail content management tool to control e-mail risks such as confidential information leaks, blended threat attacks, spam and overburdened network resources. SurfControl is the first company in the secure content management market to introduce an e-mail filtering product for Exchange 2003." ... full press release...

New Exchange Blogs

There are two more new Exchange blogs, from Microsoft PSS employees, for you to add to your RSS newsreader or IE favourites...

Michael Palermiti II is a Technical Lead Engineer in PSS on the Enterprise Messaging Support team.

Evan Dodds has been with Microsoft PSS on the Exchange Server support team for about 4 years and is currently "dedicated to the Exchange 2003 SP1 release, supporting problem investigation and escalations for our Technology Adoption Program customers as they validate the product."

Infosecurity Europe 2004

Date for your diaries - Infosecurity Europe 2004 takes place at the Olympia - London, between April 27th to 29th.

It looks like being a good one, and will include...

"The DTI's Information Security Breaches Survey 2004 will be launched at the show. What you need to know to make your business more efficient and secure

Over 65 keynotes and seminar presentations including senior level speakers from;
Bank Of England, BT, Scottish Power, Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, BBC, Skybox Security, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Trend Micro

Over 185 exhibitors have already booked so far!

Microsoft will be holding a 3-day Security Workshop series in addition to the main seminar programme"

Save £20 by registering today

Go Siegfried...

Siegfried Weber - Exchange MVP and developer - has a new blog, created rather sweetly using Sharepoint. There's an RSS feed too...

"I have to go talk to the guys in black robes running the Exchange server"

Interesting article from Doc Searls over at Linux Journal...

"With very few exceptions, IT folks have been telling me lately that Linux continues to make enormous advances inside their organizations, in nearly every area except the one where Microsoft maintains the same degree of persistence we witness with Squaw Peak. That one exception is Microsoft Exchange. "We can easily see our way to replacing Microsoft Office and even Microsoft Windows", one executive told me. "But we can't get along without Exchange. If you're looking for Microsoft's real lock-in with enterprise customers, Exchange is it."

GoodLink Coming to the UK

"Good Technology, the leader in industry standards-based wireless messaging and corporate data access, today announced that GoodLink will be available in the United Kingdom.

Good Technology will provide its latest release, GoodLink 3.0, on the palmOne Treo 600 and PocketPC smartphones, providing European customers with an enterprise-class wireless system based on industry standards." - read the full press release.

New Virus Alert!

Sophos warns of Netsky-B worm spreading widely

Add MCSE: Messaging to your CV

MCSE: Messaging (2000 / 2003) is number seven in CertCities 10 Hottest Certifications for 2004

"The exams involved in this cert have always existed, but it's a good track. With the popularity of Exchange as a messaging system, it's valuable for IT pros to be able to define themselves as a messaging specialist."

Thanks HP!

I was fortunate enough to attend the HP Exchange 2003 Academy in London last week… it was a great course, both appropriately technical and rewardingly enjoyable.

The course was a mix of technical presentations carried out by four HP gurus, Keiran McCorry, Pierre Bijaoui, Donald Livengood and Kevin Laas…. (and there was a keynote by Tony Redmond too)… and hands-on labs.

The presentations covered during the week included; administration, multi-forest deployments, systems architecture, deployment scenarios, mobility, collaboration, clients and troubleshooting. It was all ‘real world’ juicy and useful technical information.

Unlike most other courses that I have attended, there were no time pressures in which to complete the labs. In most cases they worked well, and while long (setting up RPC/HTTPS and OWA with and without ISA isn’t exactly a two minute job is it?) they were somewhat engaging and unquestionably useful.They were all scheduled for the afternoon, and you just finished when you finished… no pressure. Microsoft’s Virtual Server, which was used to provide the virtual machine test servers worked well, although I have to say that I really really missed the tabbed view of VMware that I’m currently using myself… I suppose that’s the price that you pay for using IE to display the VMs as Microsoft’s offering does…. just what have they got against tabs!!

The US Academy takes place next month in Florida, and if you haven’t already registered, and want to further your Exchange 2003 knowledge (and 2000 – there was a one day workshop for Exchange 2000 on the Sunday), I would urge you to knock on your boss’s door on Monday morning and plead with him/her to let you go… or alternatively, now’s the time to break the piggy bank open (as I did). These HP folks really do know their stuff, as you will no doubt already know from having read their books. I don’t think there’s any other publicly available Exchange training out there that’s better than this, if there is I haven’t experienced it. Roll on HP’s Kodiak Academy.

Intelligent Message Filter Pricing Announced

Despite pleas by many for it to be provided for 'free,' and perhaps even to be included in Exchange 2003 SP1, the "Intelligent Message Filter, scheduled for release in the first half of 2004, will be available exclusively to customers enrolled in Software Assurance. For each Exchange license that you have enrolled in Software Assurance (SA) at the time that Intelligent Message Filter is released, you will be eligible to receive a complimentary copy of the Intelligent Messaging Filter software."

Patched Yet?

While this isn't a security blog, last week's ASN.1 vulnerability (MS04-007) requires your attention.

Without panic, all Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 systems need this patch. Because of the nature of the vulnerability, systems that accept authenticated connections are especially susceptible. This includes your Exchange Server.

As quoted in this ZDNet article, "TruSecure said business should give highest priority for patching to domain controllers, Exchange servers, Internet Information Servers (IIS) which use certificates and VPN and firewall appliances that accept authenticated connections."

If you haven't patched already, then why not?

William Lefkovics

Article: Security With Exchange 2003

Markus Klein has written a new article titled Implementing Email Security with Exchange Server 2003.

Summary: Has anyone ever considered Email Security (S/MIME) within their Exchange Server 2003 network environment? As complex as it was to configure with earlier versions of Exchange Server, now it’s equally easy to implement with Exchange Server 2003. The only requirement is a Windows Server 2003 certificate authority with configured automatic certificate enrollment.

Exchange 2003 Troubleshooting Chat

Exchange MVP Mark Fugatt is hosting an Exchange 2003 Troubleshooting Chat today at 4pm PST (GMT-8). According to Mark, it should last about 1 hour.

New RPC/HTTP Article

A few days ago, Tom Shinder published a new article over at MSExchange.org. Check it out if you haven't already.

Title: Joining the Branch Office to the Main Office with ISA 2000 Firewalls: Connecting to the Main Office Exchange Server from the Branch Office using RPC over HTTP

Summary: The new Outlook and Exchange 2003 RPC over HTTP feature is great for users stuck behind restrictive firewalls. But what if you want to put the RPC over HTTP proxy server on the ISA firewall machine itself? No problem! Check out this article for all the step by step procedures.

TechNet WebCast Reminder

Just a quick reminder of an upcoming TechNet WebCast on an interesting subject : Using Information Rights Management with Microsoft Office Outlook 2003.

Thursday, February 12, 2004: 10:00 AM Pacific time (Greenwich mean time - 8 hours)

This Support WebCast session discusses how you can use the new Information Rights Management feature in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 to control the distribution and usage of e-mail both inside and outside your organization.

This is a Level 200 session that will be presented by Joe Turick.

New Links Page

Just in case you haven't already noticed, I've added a new Links page to the blog (thanks to Colleen). The previous sidebar links list was a bit messy and not particularly helpful (well I didn't think so)... so the links to other useful Exchange sites, blogs and also to the most important/useful Microsoft Exchange 5.5, 2000 and 2003 pages now have their own page. It's not entirely complete, so I will be adding more links over the next few days... if you can think of any more that should be included, please let me know.

Have Fun With Exchange 2003

Adam Field has been busy at work creating another Exchange 2003 hands-on lab that you can try out for free, if you're in the UK...

"Microsoft UK have a new series of 100% subsidised hands-on labs for MS Partners.

Solution Hands-on Labs are one-day solution-orientated training events, introducing the key goals, technologies, and concepts around a specified solution. They include extended exercise and lab sessions, and investigate the Microsoft technologies appropriate to the implementation and design of specific solutions.

The one on Messaging and Collaboration, which covers RPC/HTTP, OWA, OMA, Shared workspace attachments and Instant Messaging can be found here"

The Future of E-mail - Partnership With RSS?

Brian Livingston has written about The Future of E-mail over at eWeek...

"Eventually, a large percentage of the one-to-many communications within an enterprise could be handled using RSS instead of blasting group e-mail to everyone. E-mail in-boxes would be reserved for urgent, one-to-one messages that require a quick response. As spam filters improve, your in-box might even once again become a quiet place that you look forward to visiting."

"Scribble, Send by E-Mail"

"HP Labs India may have invented a solution for millions of people across the globe who, because their languages are not based on the Roman script, have as a result been denied the benefits of e-mail. Researchers at the labs’ site in the south Indian city of Bangalore have developed the prototype of a low-cost, language-independent device called Script Mail, which allows people to send handwritten e-mail."

"Will 2004 bring an attack of the BlackBerry clones?"

""This year is the year you'll start to see more third-party RIM-enabled devices... The BlackBerry technology is going to proliferate well beyond the RIM devices."

New Exchange Cookbook Blog

Here's another new Exchange blog to add to your list/subsciptions... it's the Exchange Cookbook blog, which Paul Robichaux, Devin Ganger and Missy Koslosky have created as a companion to the book that they're currently writing, to be called of course, the Exchange Cookbook, and is to be published by O'Reilly. Paul is hoping to get permission from O'Reilly to post draft chapters and scripts on the site as they're going along.

Money Still to Be Made in AntiSpam

Spam will never really go away. You're probably going to get spam from known sources even after SMTP gets fixed and open relays are no more. Call it SCE (Solicited Commercial Email).

But until then, there is money to be made laundering, sorting, screening and filtering email. Just ask Nick Bolton of Firetrust. Nick put together Mailwasher a few years ago and is still going strong.

Sometime in February, a Microsoft Exchange version of Mailwasher Pro is expected to be released.

William Lefkovics

'The clueless users who refuse to upgrade'

Timothy Mullen, SecurityFocus columnist, expresses his opinion on upgrades, Novarg and attachment opening over at The Register...

"Microsoft can end the scourge of e-mail viruses by ending its support for old software, and the clueless users who refuse to upgrade"

The highlight of his thoughts...

"I would like to think that in this day and age people would know better than to open executables in an e-mail. I'd also like to be able to flap my arms and fly to the moon. Opening attachments in e-mail is one par with group needle-sharing after having unprotected sex in a Third World orgy. Yet, with an estimated 30 per cent [peak] of world-wide e-mail traffic being Novarg, it is clear that millions are willing to blindly point-and-click their way into infection while a tempest of white noise rages in the part of their brain where conscious thought should be."

Good Technology Announcements

Good Technology made a number of announcements yesterday…

"Good Technology Extends Lead In Wireless Enterprise Messaging With GoodLink 3.0"
GoodLink 3.0 enables IT staff to manage even larger deployments with advanced fleet management capabilities including role-based administration, enterprise-class security, and, soon, over-the-air provisioning and upgrading.

GoodLink 3.0 delivers laptop power to smartphones by supporting true multi-tasking and the ability to wirelessly view and edit rich attachments Ð all within a familiar laptop like visual interface.

"Good Technology Announces GoodLink for the Microsoft Windows Mobile Platform"
Good demonstrated GoodLink for Microsoft's Pocket PC Phone Edition, featuring the fully synchronized capabilities of Outlook on a variety of Pocket PC devices.

"Good Technology Announces Good Alliance Partner Program"
Good announced a partner program which provides a new web resource where users can go to find applications that will help them obtain the most complete laptop-like experience on their Good-enabled smartphones.

IE Phishing Vulnerability Patched

"Microsoft on Monday released the much-anticipated fix for a flaw that is already being exploited in Internet Explorer that allowed the widespread "phishing" attacks through e-mail. In phishing, an attacker sends an e-mail that looks as if it came from a reputable organization, such as a bank or Internet payment processing company. However, a vulnerability in IE allowed those users to provide a link and send users to one site while displaying a spoofed address. So the URL appears to be a legitimate institution, but the actual page content is being served up by another, nefarious site."

MSA Enterprise Messaging Solution Accelerator

Microsoft has released a Solution Accelerator for MSA Enterprise Messaging.

The Solution Accelerator for Microsoft Systems Architecture (MSA) Enterprise Messaging provides referential and implementation guidance to enable a customer or solution provider to adequately plan, build, deploy and operate a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 enterprise messaging system that is secure, available, reliable, manageable, and cost-effective.

Quest Software Acquires Aelita

Quest Software announced their acquisition of competitor Aelita today in a press release.

Both have quality Active Directory and Exchange 200x migration and management tools for the enterprise as part of their library of software solutions. No doubt they will take the best aspects of each and improve their entire suite.

Thank you to David Sengupta of Quest.

William Lefkovics

More MyDoom/Novarg News/Info…

“Bounty on creators of e-mail worm - Experts said it was designed to cripple software firm SCO's website, by flooding it with data on 1 February. SCO said it was offering a $250,000 reward to find who was responsible. The US company has been involved in a legal row with the open-source community, after claiming versions of the Linux operating system used code it said it owned. “

Symantec have produced a removal tool to clean infections.

Panda Software are reporting that a new variant Mydoom.B.worm has been found and is currently being analysed.

(update: "The W32/MyDoom-B worm operates in a similar way to its predecessor, travelling via email attachments and the KaZaA file-sharing network. Unlike its predecessor, the worm attempts to stop infected computers from browsing anti-virus websites".... It does this by creating a hosts file which prevents visits to Microsoft, Symantec, Sophos, McAfee, Kaspersky and so on... info from Sophos - news and full analysis

ISA Server 2004 Beta is Publicly Available

ISA Server 2004 Beta (2) is now available for download. Tom Shinder's also written an article to help you "Get Up and Running."

Exchange 2003 Migration WebCast

Quest are holding a webcast this Thursday called Simplify Your Exchange Migration Planning.

January 29, 2004
9:00 am-10:00 am PST

Presented by: Dave Champine - Group Product Manager, Exchange Solutions and David Sengupta - Product Manager, Exchange Solutions

Effective and comprehensive planning is paramount to any successful migration. With the recent release of Microsoft Exchange 2003, many companies are thinking about or planning a migration to Exchange 2003. Learn how to simplify your exchange migration with helpful tips and tricks from our in-house exchange experts, Dave Champine and David Sengupta. They will provide an overview of the productivity gains, reduced risks and reduced costs you can achieve by using Quest Software’s Exchange Analysis and Reporting tool - MessageStats 4.3 - to perform Environmental Assessments of Microsoft Exchange environments.

Newsgator in Outlook 12?

Chris Kunicki has some thoughts on Newsgator's future... "Attention All Microsoft Employees: Foolproof Strategy for Instant Career Advancement"

New Virus Alert - W32/Mydoom@MM

It seems that there is a new mass-mailer worm 'kicking off' at the moment... information is limited on the various anti-virus companies' websites... McAfee seem to have the best write-up just now...

"This is a mass-mailing worm that arrives in an email message as follows:

From: (spoofed)
Subject: (Random)
Body: (Varies, such as)

The message cannot be represented in 7-bit ASCII encoding and has been sent as a binary attachment.
The message contains Unicode characters and has been sent as a binary attachment.
Mail transaction failed. Partial message is available.
Attachment: (varies [.exe, .pif, .cmd, .scr] - often arrives in a ZIP archive) (22,528 bytes)

The icon used by the file tries to make it appear as if the attachment is a text file"
(update - Trend have some more info)

Gates Plans to End Spam by 2006

A spam-free world by 2006? That's what Microsoft chairman Bill Gates is promising.

Legislation helps, but the technology does not make it easy to identify all the sources. And though the US leads the world in spammers, I think the technology, such as the deficiencies of SMTP, and not just legislation, needs to be addressed.

William Lefkovics

Universal Mail Drive Outlook add-in

"Universal Mail Drive is a Microsoft Outlook® add-in. It makes your mail account act like a hard drive and empowers you to access your vital documents anywhere, anytime.

‘Save In’ Functionality. The File Menu in your Microsoft Office Suite will have a NEW choice, “Save In Mail Drive.” Saving documents to your Universal Mail Drive is effortless.

Seamless Integration with Microsoft Outlook®. The Universal Mail Drive creates an easy to use folder that acts like a hard drive that you can access from anywhere.

Seamless Integration with (OWA) Outlook Web Access. The Universal Mail Drive works ideally with OWA, allowing you to download files via Internet Explorer."

New WinZip E-Mail Attachment Add-On for Outlook Beta

"The WinZip E-Mail Attachment Add-On for Outlook makes it easy for you to zip (compress) the files that you attach to Microsoft Outlook e-mail messages. Zipping attachments saves transmission time and disk storage for both the sender and receiver of the e-mail. The add-on can be used in two ways:

In automatic mode, you simply attach files normally and the add-on compresses them automatically into one attached Zip file when you click Send.

In manual mode, you use the "Insert File (Zipped)" dialog to select files, which are then compressed into a Zip file and attached to the message."

(via Marc :-) ..)

Have you done an Exchange 2003 Implementation or Migration?

Adam (Technologist for Content Master) is "working on a consultants guide to Exchange Server consolidation/migration/upgrade and would be interested to hear about any 'in the field' experience."

ReMail: A Reinvented Email Prototype

IBM are reinventing email with ReMail (via cookiecrook)

Smartphone Talk...

I ordered a Motorola MPx200 yesterday... Was it a wise choice?.. Well, we'll have to wait and see... I don't have too much patience for many of the 'smart/PDA' phones that have come out in recent months.. they just don't 'cut the mustard'... I have yet to find one that has become a true and essential companion. Sure, the P800 that I used for six months or so was good, but just not good enough, there were too many quirks and inadequate or missing features. Perhaps I should be trying out the new P900.. perhaps...it's still a bit expensive right now though.

Anyway, how did I justify this purchase to 'the other half'... erm, well... she doesn't know about it yet... (oops!)... I haven't taken too much of a gamble though, as the phone is almost being given away in the UK (with a pay monthly contract) Having been impressed with OMA, I now really want to have a play with a Microsoft powered phone, and most especially with ActiveSync. Unfortunately the MPx200 runs Windows Mobile/Smartphone 2002 and not 2003, as will be installed on the MPx220 (due sometime in the spring) and this will mean that the up-to-date notification feature which, together with over-the-air synchronisation means that Exchange ActiveSync–enabled devices can be automatically kept up-to-date, will not work, although it's possible to get around this by automatically running ActiveSync several times each hour.

I'll let you know what I think of the phone in due course...

Here's some Smartphone websites that I've just 'dug-up' via Google... if you know of any others, please let me know.

Smartphone.net
Microsoft Smartphone Home
Smartphone Thoughts
Smartphone Developer Network

Are you having problems setting up ActiveSync in your test lab?... I've just come across this (potentially useful) article...

Exchange 2003: Disable Certificate Verification - Disable the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate check that is performed on a server running Exchange ActiveSync®.
"Use the Disable Certification Verification tool to allow users with Windows Mobile devices to connect to Exchange servers without verifying the root certificate authority against the certificate trust list on the device. The device still uses SSL to connect to Exchange, but the Exchange Certificate check allows certificates from un-trusted certificate authorities to be used without generating errors."

Free Microsoft UK Migration Master Classes

Adam has posted details of free Microsoft Migration Master Classes, to be presented by Quest Software, that are taking place in the UK in March...

Thames Valley Park, READING - 2nd March 2004
Leeds - 4th March 2004
Glasgow - 11th March 2004

Quest Software, the world leader in software solutions for migration, deployment and management of Microsoft Windows 2000/3 and Microsoft Exchange 2000/3 would like to invite you to attend one of it's most popular workshops.

The Master Class, run by Quest's professional instructors, is an intensive one-day training session, which delivers detailed explanations and guidance through the Migration minefield! We will help you understand and manage the challenges you will face at each phase of your migration.

Agenda

Assess AD readiness - what is the state of the existing network &/or Exchange environment?
Planning considerations for migration from directory service - e.g. NT 4.0/ NDS/ Exchange 5.5 to Active Directory
Object Migrations · Maintaining Co-existence
Exchange Object Migrations

There's full registration details in Adam's post

"MS Exchange integration and replacement in Linux"

Martin Brown, answers the question... "How can I integrate or replace my current Microsoft Exchange setup when adding Linux to my network?"

Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer v1.2 Released

MBSA V1.2 has been released... included in its new feature-set are;

"added security update checks for the following products...

*Exchange Server 2003*
Microsoft Office (local scans only)
Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, and 2.8
Microsoft Virtual Machine
MSXML 2.5, 2.6, 3.0, and 4.0
BizTalk Server 2000, 2002, and 2004
Commerce Server 2000 and 2002
Content Management Server (CMS) 2001 and 2002
SNA Server 4.0, Host Integration Server (HIS) 2000 and 2004"

Newsgator 2.0 and Online Services Launched

Newsgator 2.0 and NewsGator Online Services have both been launched today. There's a free upgrade to 2.0 for existing users.

(Update - Marc's been trying them out... "The new version downloaded and installed without incident over my existing NewsGator 1.X and, while there are new menu options and preferences for the online services options, the interface remains mostly the same (which is to say very transparent and well integrated into Outlook 2003).

I signed up for a free trial of the online services and will post separately on my impressions of how it all works. I will say that the account setup was pretty straightforward and, as soon as I entered my ID and password into NewsGator in Outlook, all of my subscriptions were instantly available on the web. Nice.")

BT Messaging Web Seminar - The Email Challenge

"Twice as many emails by 2006 - how far will your IT budget stretch?" will discuss how to successfully address the email challenges facing business today, whilst controlling associated costs. It's on 10th February 2004, 11am to 12pm(GMT)... register here.

Exchange 2000 and 2003 - All Technical Articles and Books / Updated

Microsoft have updated the Exchange 2000/2003 technical articles & books 'bundle.'

The Problem With E-Mail Quotas

I was reading an article by Michael Osterman about e-mail quota problems.

According to Michael, the typical e-mail user will bump into their mailbox quota about 17 or 18 times annually, spending 4+ hours each year clearing their mailbox. Michael says this is otherwise productive time that is not spent performing primary tasks.

That makes it sound awful. I work a 40 hour week (officially) for 48 weeks of the year, assuming the standard 4 weeks holiday. So out of 1,920 hours in a year I'll spend 4 of them cleaning my inbox. That's 0.208% of my time, isn't it? Doesn't seem too bad based on the productivity I'll gain when I can find things in my mailbox first time, because I've pruned it out.

Still, he's got a point. Multiplied by 1000 users, 4000 hours a year adds up...

You can read the full article here.

Exchange Beta Exam Participants Required!

If any of you are interested in taking the Exchange 2003 Design beta exam, here is an invite (posted with the permission of Microsoft). Make sure you use the code so the exam will be free.

You are invited to Exam 70-285: Designing a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Organization in its beta version, available January 16-22, 2004. As a benefit to you for demonstrating your expertise by passing specific Microsoft certification exams or by other means, this beta exam is offered to you free. This beta exam will not be offered to the general public. A passing score on this beta exam counts as a core credit toward the MCSE: Messaging on Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and the MCSE: Messaging on Microsoft Windows Server 2000 certifications.

Note: This beta exam is expected to take four hours to complete. Please plan accordingly.

For information about this certification, please see the Microsoft Training and Certification Web site:

MCSE: Messaging on Microsoft Windows Server 2003

or

MCSE: Messaging on Microsoft Windows Server 2000

By participating in beta exams, you have the opportunity to provide the MCP program with feedback about exam content, which is integral to development of exams in their released version. We depend on the contributions of experienced IT professionals and developers as we continually improve exam content and maintain the value of Microsoft certifications.

Registration Information

This beta exam is offered January 16-22, 2004. (Beta period is subject to change; please check the exam's preparation guide for the most up-to-date information.)

Note: Registration is based on a first come first serve basis and the number of registrations is limited.

Registration begins December 23, 2003. Register at least 24 hours prior to taking the exam. Testing is held at Prometric and VUE testing centers worldwide.

To take this exam free, please provide the following promotional code when you register:

Promotional code: DEMEX3

(Offering beta exams only to qualified candidates will help the MCP program team ensure that the final versions of the released exams precisely and accurately measure the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the corresponding certification. Please do not share this promotional code with other candidates.)

To register for this exam or for information about testing centers in your area, call:

a.. Prometric: (800) 755-EXAM (800-755-3926)
b.. VUE: 800 TEST REGistration (800-837-8734)

Outside the U.S./Canada, please visit the following Web sites for registration information:

a.. Prometric
b.. VUE

Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) Information on the Internet

For more information, visit the MCP Web site , write to MCPHelp@microsoft.com or call 800-636-7544.

Specific pages that answer some frequently asked questions are listed below.

What is a beta exam?

Where can I learn more about the registration process?

How do I prepare for this exam?

When will my beta exam results be available?

Where can I learn more about the beta exam invitation process?

If you have further questions regarding this exam or the MCP program, send e-mail to MCPHelp@microsoft.com or call 800-636-7544.

Sunbelt Software Releases Major Upgrade To iHateSpam Server Edition

"Sunbelt Software, a leading provider of Windows system administration and anti-spam solutions, (have) announced the release of a major upgrade to its award-winning iHateSpam Server Edition. The new version 1.5 delivers key functionality enhancements to the existing version, including an upgraded spam detection engine, enhanced user controls for whitelists and blacklists, and the ability to filter distribution lists and public folders for spam content. "

Security Update for Exchange 2003

Microsoft has released a security patch for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.

A vulnerability in Exchange Server 2003 could lead to privilege escalation.

The full description will be (or is) available here.

Happy Patch Day.

William Lefkovics

Change at the Top

Microsoft Exchange Gets New Boss as part of their Business Server reorganization. "The Exchange e-mail group is getting a new top dog with the departure of Mohsen Al-Ghosein as vice president of Exchange Server. Dave Thompson will step into that role."

Not to be outdone, Larry Ellison stepped down from the chairman post at Oracle, retaining CEO duties.

Don't forget to email Dave Thompson to welcome him to his new position and to remind him what the pricing structure should be for the Exchange Internet Message Filter.

William Lefkovics

Sunbelt Software Announce Release of iHateSpam Version 4.0

"Sunbelt Software (have) announced a major upgrade of its best-selling anti-spam software, iHateSpam. The new version 4.0 adds significant enhancements to the product's spam-blocking technology and extends spam detection integration to Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express, MSN Hotmail, Eudora and IncrediMail users."

This new release promises "Dramatically Enhanced Spam Detection" and includes "anti-spam protection for Hotmail users " via integration with IE6, with protection provided automatically when a user logs into Hotmail.

KC on Exchange and Outlook Summary

I've held back from linking to KC's many fine posts recently as I'm sure that you're all either regular visitors to her site by now, or you've subscribed to her feed... am I right?... I do hope so... If however, you don't know what I'm talking about, then you need to visit here to find out about...

What determines whether or not you get the Open/Save dialog when opening an attachment?
Count the number of items in your entire mailbox
HTML email: friend or foe?
How to avoid accidentally sending a message before you're ready
Tech Quotes

Microsoft UK Technet Evening

On January 20th, Microsoft UK are running a TechNet Evening on Troubleshooting Microsoft Exchange 2000

It will cover the following..

Configuring Exchange for Recovery
Troubleshooting inbound Internet E-mail
Troubleshooting outbound Internet E-mail
Recovering Messages
Recovering Mailboxes
Database Troubleshooting and Recovery

Demonstrations in this Session
Configuring Exchange 2000 Server for Recovery
Troubleshooting Internet Mail
Recovering Messages and Mailboxes
Database Recovery

You can sign-up for it here... (via Adam!)

Planning an Exchange 2003 Messaging System - Updated

Microsoft's Planning an Exchange 2003 Messaging System book has been updated.

Implementing Exchange 2003?...MCPmag Want to Hear From You

If you have either completed a migration to Exchange 2003, or are in the middle of performing one, MCPmag would like to hear from you...

"Have you already implemented Exchange Server 2003 with some success? Or, are you in the midst of a migration that is/isn't going well? We want to hear your stories. MCP Magazine is compiling a major report on Exchange Server 2003 and would like to interview IT pros who have deployed the software in a production environment."

Bill Gates' CES Keynote Address

"the big highlight is an Outlook-based Hotmail account that not only provides the benefits of Outlook's orginizational tools but can also be set up to sync with your work's Exchange server."

Exchange Server Stops Linux Adoption

"Newham Borough Council has shelved its Linux desktop trials and will remain with Microsoft, citing the cost of upgrading its Microsoft Exchange Server software as a primary cause."

E-mail - Bad For Your Health...

"The health effects of "threatening" e-mails sent by bosses to their workers has been revealed by researchers. Experts from Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College attached blood pressure monitors to volunteers before they opened their inboxes. They found that blood pressure shot up if emails were from their superiors - or written in an aggressive tone. ...."

Exchange Server 2003 Exam in Beta

Exchange Server 2003 exams are being added to eventually replace the 70-224 and 70-225 exams for Exchange 2000 Server.

70-285 Designing a Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Organization is being beta tested from January 16-22 for invited testers. This exam compliments 70-284 Implementing and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 (See the 70-284 Preparation Guide).

The 70-285 Preparation Guide details what is mentioned in this MCPMAG article.

The learning never ends in this business.

Happy New Year.

William Lefkovics

Small Business Server 2003 CAL Bonus...

"Microsoft has discovered an issue that affects installations and upgrades of Windows Small Business Server 2003 performed after November 24, 2003. This issue is specific to Windows SharePoint™ Services which is included in Windows Small Business Server 2003. In response to this issue, all Windows Small Business Server 2003 (standard and premium edition) customers are eligible to order five free Client Access Licenses (CALs)." (via Microsoft Monitor)

"Security Predictions for 2004"

Peter Gregory has written an interesting article detailing his security predictions for 2004...

"Spam operators are getting more creative in their efforts to get around spam filters. R.a..n,d,o.,m p,u,,n,c.t,,u_a.t.1..0.n makes it nearly impossible to block spam messages by filtering keywords. Operators are changing to graphics interchange format images with no searchable text. Some spammers send in encoded formats, like Base64, to circumvent keyword filters altogether, and relay through IP addresses that have no Domain Name System domains associated with them. These recent developments are challenging spam-filter vendors and frustrating users.

More organizations will quantify the productivity losses and processing costs incurred by spam. Increasingly, IT security departments will be saddled with solving the problem, since it's a content management issue.

Consumer and office-worker definitions of spam will shift, thanks to the capabilities found on desktop spam-control products. Spam, once the domain of unsolicited junk e-mail, will become plain unwanted e-mail. Mail I requested last week is spam this week. A worker who subscribes to a mailing list in January will no longer want it in April. It will be easier to mark the message as spam than it will be to unsubscribe to the list. The messages will keep on flowing -- at the user's request -- but will be blocked before the user sees it."

Read the full article on the Computerworld site... and there's some discussion too over at Slashdot

Office 2003 Service Pack Due in May

"Microsoft is putting pedal to the metal to get Service Pack 1 for Office 2003 out by May, sources said. The current schedule is to prep a release candidate by April and final, or "Release To Web," code by late May.

This release is critical because many corporate accounts hold off on upgrading to new software versions until the first service pack is available" (read the full CRN report here)

Exchange 2003 Webcast

There's an Exchange 2003 Webcast coming up later this week... Exchange 2003 Technical Overview - Level 200 is taking place on Friday, 9th Jan...

"Description: In this session we will look at some of the new features of Exchange 2003. We will see some of the enhancements that have been made to the management, including the improvements to the Mailbox Recovery Centre, Error reporting, better Public Folder management and the improvements to the Exchange System Manager. We will also at the client side improvements and not just the features in the Outlook client, but features such as Cache mode and mail retrieval over http. We will also look at the improvements to OWA and to Outlook Mobile Access (OMA). Finally we will cover the new security features in Exchange, including better anti-spam and anti-virus featues."

Microsoft Releases 5.5 CDO Patch

Microsoft has released Exchange 5.5 CDO Patch 2657.55.

This patch resolves problems that were found in the Exchange Server 5.5 CDO since SP4 was released.

(Update - This patch includes the fix for KB 818709, Outlook Web Access Stops Responding When You Try to Access a Mailbox on an Exchange 5.5 Computer... CM)

InBoxer Spam Filter

InBoxer is another relatively new Outlook spam filter which has been receiving some very positive reviews this month, and could be worth checking out.

Holiday Reading...

I hope you’ve had, or are still enjoying, a jolly nice Christmas holiday. I managed to go a full three days without touching a keyboard, which was a bit of a record!

There have been quite a few Exchange articles and news stories published over the past week or so, which you may, or may not have already seen… Here’s what I’ve been catching up with today…

ServerWatch have come up with an interesting list of what they “believe will be the 10 underlying trends for the server hardware landscape in 2004” There’s a worrying (but not unexpected) quote in there from Chris Belthoff, senior analyst at Sophos, who predicts that..

"The convergence of spam and viruses will likely continue in 2004, with more and more attempts to use viruses to set up networks of machines capable of sending out the spammers' messages."

RIM, the company behind the Blackberry wireless devices has been doing rather well... their revenues for the past twelve months were up by an impressive 107% which resulted in an handsome 50% increase in the share price just before Christmas. (another missed opportunity!) The future's looking pretty good too (expect perhaps for an injunction which could apparently “prevent it from selling its Blackberry handheld”) with recent announcements having been made that a Palm-based BlackBerry solution is on the cards, and also that a licensing agreement has been reached with Sony Ericsson which should result in Blackberry functionality being integrated into their handsets.... exciting stuff...

Markus Klein has written a new article about “Implementing Outlook Web Access with Exchange Server 2003”

Usability developer Dylan Greene thought it was great when Office crashed on him recently…"Office 2003 crashed and it was cool!"

“Normally it's not cool when Office crashes, but this time was different. When the "Do you want to send to Microsoft what happened so we can make our products better?" dialog came up, I clicked Yes. And then magic happened.
A new IE window opened...
"Hmm..." I thought, "That's never happened before."
And then I saw this:
"This is why you had the problem..." "...There is now a fix for it..." "...Click here to install the fix..."
This is near-nirvana for a usability freak like me. “

There some new reading material over at Exchange & Outlook…
Scripting Exchange
OWA Attachment Security
Using Rules to Handle Spam
Not Ready for an Antispam Solution?

Here's an interesting looking application... it's an Outlook Help Desk program Outlook Help Desk 3.0..."End Help Desk Chaos with the power of Outlook, Exchange and the Web!"

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I’ve been trying to find a hosted Exchange 2003 service provider for a small 5 user company… during my search I came across this pretty comprehensive list, and then stumbled upon Hosted Services who are UK based (as is the potential customer – this is better for tech support, billing etc), and common with other ASPs they provide a ‘try before you buy’ which I’m now making use of. So far, my trial has been going well, with their offering proving to be responsive and reliable. I did have a minor issue getting it up and running (I had to allocate licenses to the users which I had created in their admin GUI, which for whatever reason wasn’t detailed in the otherwise excellent initial instructions) but a quick call to Tech Support put that right. There are no pricing details on the company’s site, so I don’t know how their costs compare with the probably cheaper US service providers. I’ve also been waiting for ‘Sales’ to call since before Christmas, I guess they’re all on leave! Do any of you use similar hosted solutions?…What has your experience been like? Would you recommend them?

There’s some more hosted Exchange information over on the Boston Pocket PC site.

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From the forums…There is often a need to be able to use multiple SMTP addresses on a single mailbox, which can of course be easily implemented with secondary addresses for receiving mail, but it’s not so easy when it comes to sending mail from the additional addresses however. ChooseFrom for Exchange 2000/2003 is an application for Exchange 2000, 2003 and 5.5 running on Windows 2000, which allows a user to send a message with any sender address (From: field) , including his/her additional SMTP addresses. This event sink removes “the need to create an additional "fake" mailbox or contact specifically for storing an additional From address.”

Here’s a useful bit of shareware, Attachment Options is a COM add-in for Outlook 2000 SP3 or higher, Outlook 2002, and Outlook 2003 that provides a user interface for changing which file types are restricted as Level 1 attachments.

Have you wondered why, when you first use OWA 2000 and 2003, and click the New Message icon to create a new message, the Office Installer is fired-up and you’re prompted for the Office CD? Technet articles 257886 and 298110 explain that “If you install the multimedia extensions for OWA, and you did not install HTML Source Edit as an option when you installed Office 2000, the first time you use OWA, the Office 2000 installer program starts and asks you to insert the Office 2000 CD-ROM.”… The problem also occurs because Office 2000 creates a registry entry when it is installed on Windows 2000, which points to the Office Installer… this string value can be changed to resolve the problem.

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… and a couple of amusing sidelines…

Job Hunting…

A colleague left a job advert on my desk yesterday… apparently it was in one of the broadsheets, most probably The Sunday Times (the other adverts on the same page are for big bucks jobs)… I don’t have a scanner handy, so here’s what the advert said…

“World’s Best Programmer Location – Superyacht
Salary – outrageous

If you have a first class honours degree in Mathematics or Electronic Engineering and are considered by your peers to be the ‘Mutt’s Nuts’ when it comes to ‘C’ programming and pc based hardware, then this could be just the opportunity you should avoid.

You’ll work directly for an eccentric tax exile that made his money in telecommunications and will be responsible for his latest and very exciting new project in which you will also have share options. You will live on a Superyacht in the Mediterranean in summer and in the Caribbean in winter.

The hours are very reasonable at 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You also get free membership of a dating agency which you will need because your partner will leave you! Smokers are welcome and will be introduced to the ancient art of keel-hauling.

Another perk is that you will be working for an inconsiderate, insensitive, demanding, swine that expects everything to be done yesterday and is intolerant of feeble excuses like ‘it’s impossible.’

Send your CV to xxx with the key words ‘Lost Soul’ in the subject line.”

If anyone would like the e-mail address to which their CV should be sent, please get in touch and I’ll let you have it!

Need some fun?…

In case you’re still off work, and are fed-up with the Xbox or watching TV… I find that half an hour playing this excellent snowball-fight game that I came across a couple of years back, does the trick!

Microsoft To Make Spammers Pay?

Interesting article here on the BBC website on the Penny Black project, a project that is developing the idea that senders of spam should "pay" for it, rather than those at the receiving end.

(update - The Guardian's Jack Schofield has picked up on this story too, and has some thoughts about it over on the Onlineblog - CM)

Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all... I hope that Father Christmas has brought you the hardware/software/books/client access licenses that you have wanted, and that you're having a great day!

Fighting Spam in '04

"Exchange Server anti-virus and secure content management product provider Nemx Software, have published a list of top spam trends and technologies for 2004"

Are you an Office Zealot?

I've just come across this rather nice Microsoft Office site Officezealot.com (via Scoble). It’s run by two Office enthusiasts Charles Maxson and Chris Kunicki. You’ll find loads of news about all of the applications in the Office suite on the site, and there’s also an invitation to share your Office knowledge by becoming a contributor.

Windows 2000 Server Retirement Schedule Announced

"From April 1, 2006, the products will no longer be available. But, the software will start disappearing from some sales channels as early as next April..." ... the full story is at Microsoft Monitor

They "took a big gulp and decided to go with it"

Interesting article which details the experiences of a US media company in upgrading to Windows Server 2003… and Exchange Server 2003…

“a critical application drove the decision to roll out the new OS: Exchange Server 2003. For the company's 30 broadcast television stations across the U.S., with 2,000-plus employees, Exchange is the mission-critical application. Compelling new features in Exchange 2003 cemented the decision to move from Exchange 5.5"

New Spam eBook

Daniel Chenault has written a new eBook...it's all about "Content Security in the Enterprise—Spam and Beyond." Chapter one is available to read now. (free registration required)

OK/Cancel

I have just been doing a bit of random blog surfing, to unwind, as you do. and stumbled across this excellent wee cartoon that I think you should check out... it's Apple v Microsoft v Lotus Notes... great stuff :-)

Sunday Reading...

Here's a bit of a 'mixed bag' for you...

The first Microsoft Security Newsletter is now available - it contains a whole wealth of security related information, including details about Microsoft's future security strategy, the security features of XP SP2, Exchange 2003 security enhancements... and a whole lot more besides...

Deane Barker meanwhile has written-up details on how it's possible to use Exchange 2000 as an enterprise-wide blogging platform, which is pretty interesting and worth looking into (thanks Deane!)

There's a new article over at Outlook Exchange in which Henrik Walther details the steps that are needed to peform an in-place upgrade from Exchange 2000 to 2003.

The Register has reported that "three workers at Hewlett Packard’s plant in Renfrewshire, Scotland, who were fired after sending or receiving e-mails of a sexual nature, have won a claim of unfair dismissal...The tribunal found that HP had not been consistent in its response to abuse of the company's email system"

Did you know that Microsoft run an internet based Outlook free/busy service? "How does it work? Once users join the service, they have a shared location on the Internet for publishing their free and busy times. Outlook then works with the service to display the times in an Outlook meeting request"

and finally..."Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) Exam Demos.. Hot area, active screen, drag and drop, build list and reorder, create a tree, testlet exam format, and simulation question types"

WiFi BlackBerry Likely to be Launched Next Year

Research in Motion have confirmed that they are working on a BlackBerry that can roam between WiFi and cellular networks.

GFI MailSecurity Price Reductions

"GFI has decided to drastically reduce pricing for GFI MailSecurity and GFI DownloadSecurity. Pricing has been reduced by over 75% and this now allows any company to deploy GFI MailSecurity and GFI DownloadSecurity at the gateway. Even if a company already has an existing competitive mail server level anti-virus engine, this new pricing model should make it easier to add additional protection at the gateway. These pricing changes have taken effect as from 1 December 2003"

Veritas Release Storage Foundation 4.0 with VSS Support

"VERITAS Software Corporation (Nasdaq: VRTS), the leading storage software provider, today announced the availability of VERITAS Storage FoundationTM 4.0 for Windows, storage management and virtualization software that integrates with Microsoft platforms to flexibly manage storage in Windows environments.... An option to VERITAS Storage Foundation for Windows, VERITAS FlashSnapTM is a software-based snapshot solution that leverages Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), a Windows Server 2003-based technology that enables Microsoft-supported snapshots of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 and Microsoft SQL Server 2000 for quick-recovery and high-performance backups and restores." Read the full press release.

iHateSpam News & Top Exchange Tips

Just in case you don't subscribe to w2knews, this week's edition contains quite a lot of Exchange related news and links, including details of the soon to be released v1.5 of iHateSpam Server Edition (there's an invitation to beta test it too)... there's also the 2003 Hall of Fame Exchange Tips, and finally The 10 Most Read Technical Tips of 2003 which contains an Exchange related one "Here's help with PST files." Check it all out here.

Exchange Server Jobs!

Looking for a new job?...Fancy working for Microsoft? KC Lemson has linked to the Microsoft Careers site where there is currently a whopping 41 Exchange vacanices across a number of different roles and US locations. Given that it's pretty much 99.999% certain that I'm going to be made redundant next March/April, perhaps I should 'chance my arm' and submit my resume... could be a a bit of a commute from London though I guess... oh, and I think those green cards are pretty hard to get hold of too.

More SMTP AUTH Troubles

Jon Honeyball has written about an SMTP AUTH attack that he recently had to deal with, in this month's PC Pro... The same article then goes on to talk about security, with David Moss explaining the Microsoft acronym STRIDES, which stands for Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information disclosure, Denial-of- Service, Elevation of privilege, and Social engineering... (free registration may be required to read the article... it's worth it!)

Sophos Need Beta Testers

"Sophos invites users of Exchange 2000/2003 or companies who use Windows 2000/2003 with IIS (Internet Information Services) as their SMTP server to join the beta program to test the anti-virus capability of PureMessage for SMTP/Exchange 1.0. To be considered for the PureMessage for SMTP/Exchange beta program, please register by 5 December."

Tony Redmond Q&A

Tony Redmond, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer for Hewlett-Packard Co.'s services unit talks to searchWin2000.com about Exchange 2003, security and more...

OWA 2003 Security Issue Updated

Microsoft has added to their initial response to the special instance where OWA on Exchange 2003 may expose random mailboxes to other authenticated individuals.

It includes some questions and answers and how to tell if your server meets the points required to expose your users to this serious issue.

Find the page here.

William Lefkovics

"Outlook May Report Email Accounts As "Locked" When Pocket PC Is Docked"

Are you using Pocket PC 2002/2003 and Outlook 2002/2003? If so, there’s an issue which “if you have an email account set up on your Pocket PC in Pocket Inbox and have the same email account set up in Outlook or another email application on your desktop, docking your Pocket PC can temporarily prevent your desktop client from retrieving emails.”

There’s a couple of simple workarounds for this situation which are explained in this new Knowledge Base article, which you’ll probably notice has in fact been written by an MVP! Congratulations Ed Hansberry!

Exchange Backup & Recovery Still Convoluted

Exchange is not really an overly complicated product, but when deployed in a large Enterprise, it can be cause for complicated administration and maintenance decisions. Backup and recovery together are one of the greatest challenges for an Exchange Administrator.

Stephen Swoyer offers this article on the subject quoting quite a few familiar names.

William Lefkovics

Another Reason to Upgrade?

So if Microsoft can get the EIMF (Exchange Intelligent Messaging Filter) or Smartscreen functionality right... ie friendly pricing, high capture rate, and perhaps most importantly, a low to nil false positive rate, then perhaps it'll become a deciding/strong influencing factor for many companies in upgrading to Exchange 2003...

"Steve Canter, CIO of Berlin Packaging, a $200 million-a-year company that uses Exchange 2000, "If it (EIMF) proves to be an effective tool, it could certainly be a factor causing us to upgrade [to Exchange 2003] sooner."

Pirillo Drops Outlook 2003

So it seems that after almost two months of use, Chris Pirillo has followed up his initial *whinge* about Outlook 2003 and decided that he can't live with it anymore. He's keeping the other Office 2003 apps, but uninstalling Outlook.

Interestingly, a number of people (18 so far) have left comments on Chris's blog about his decision, and the vast majority have expressed positive thoughts about the latest version of Outlook... the comments include...

"I love Outlook 2003. It works great at work with an exchange server. Cached Exchange is a wonderful new feature. I use it at home with my ISP's POP email and my Hotmail account, and it works great with both of them."

"!I just started using Outlook 2003 at work this past week and I really like it."

"Outlook 2003 is working very well for me"

"I'm totally in love with the new UI and search folders"

"search folders? They are freaking awesome"

There is a negative comment by a chap who thinks that "Exchange is the devil" ... you gotta laugh... :-)

Perhaps Chris just needs to get his credit card out and go the whole hog...

Exchange 2003 Webcast

There's an Exchange 2003 webcast next week.... Securing Your Exchange 2003 Environment... add 12/3/2003 8:00 AM Pacific Time (GMT -08:00) to your calendar!

"Evergreen Assurance: BlackBerry Addicts Should Never Be Without E-Mail"

"Evergreen Assurance today announced the industry's first continuous availability solution designed specifically for RIM's BlackBerry wireless service. Evergreen for BlackBerry Enterprise Server(TM) is a new service that provides recovery for all types of BlackBerry outages via Evergreen Assurance's automated "one-click" failover system"... press release.

"Microsoft investigates possible Exchange 2003 flaw"

"Microsoft is investigating a potential security issue with Exchange Server 2003, which would be the first since the e-mail server was launched last month. The potential flaw lies in the Outlook Web Access (OWA) component of Exchange Server 2003."... read the full InfoWorld article here and the NTBugtraq submission's here.

Microsoft IT Forum 2004

The dates for next year's Microsoft IT Forum have been announced... put the 16th to 19th of November 2004 in your diaries... the event is to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark again :-)

Sybari Announces Launch of A/V Product for LCS

"Sybari Software launched the first utility this week for Microsoft's instant messaging and presence platform, Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003. Sybari, which specializes in messaging security, is providing virus scanning, document filtering and message content scanning for Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2003."... read the full news article here and the Sybari press release here.

Sybari recently carried out an IM survey... the results of the "What are your primary security concerns regarding Instant Messaging use within your organization?" question with 313 out of 400 respondents choosing viruses as being the main concern, shows that there will likely be a strong demand for their new offering. (thanks to James Clifford at Sybari for the survey information!)

"Can MS Take Over The Anti-Spam Market?"

"I predict that the Exchange Intelligent Message Filter won't be a big deal in the market, and there will be lots of room for growth left for everyone. Unless the unthinkable happens and we actually solve the spam problem"... Larry Seltzer looks at IMF and its potential impact.

New Exchange Online Book

"Deploying Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Clusters" will help you to understand how Exchange 2000 uses Windows Clustering.

Windows Mobile Support Website

Microsoft has launched its Windows Mobile Support website. It offers help for Pocket PC and Pocket PC Phone Edition, Smartphone and also developer support.

This is a really useful site for those of you who need help in subjects such as configuring your Smartphone for synchronisation with Exchange. You just enter your location, your device details, your operating system version and away you go!

New Trend Products Announced

"Trend Micro, Inc today announced the introduction of new products designed to address the needs of small and medium customers who desire comprehensive, easy-to-deploy, and low cost virus and spam protection that is simple to maintain.

Through the introduction of its new Client/Server Suite for SMB, Client/Server/ Messaging Suite for SMB, and InterScan VirusWall for SMB, Trend Micro addresses the specific needs of SMB customers, for simplified management of desktop, server, gateway and Microsoft™ Exchange™ mail security."

Read the full press release here.

More Exchange 2003 Anti-spam News

"As part of a comprehensive effort to enhance e-mail protection, security, hygiene and productivity, Microsoft will soon offer new server-side anti-spam functionality powered by SmartScreen Technology to Exchange Server 2003 customers. The Exchange Intelligent Message Filter performs heuristics-based analysis of e-mail to determine whether any message is junk e-mail. The filter is intelligent and adapts over time, making it possible to constantly improve its ability to catch unwanted messages and prevent false positives. Having the Intelligent Message Filter deployed on the server can help prevent much unwanted e-mail from ever getting to a user's inbox. Because the Intelligent Message Filter requires Exchange 2003, it provides a common Exchange administrative experience using Exchange Server Management tools. The Exchange Intelligent Message Filter will be available in the first half of 2004 to Microsoft customers that have licensed Exchange 2003 with Software Assurance."

Read the full press release here… and the Microsoft product page here. There's also some more info over at The Register

Update - David Lemson, Exchange Product Manager at Microsoft has been testing an early pre-release version of the Intelligent Message Filter on his own server and has been achieving some impressive results, with a mere "0.9% of spam getting through the filter." David has also highlighted some important IMF features... "it works either together with Outlook 2003 or just alone on the server"... "it also works together with third party antispam solutions that you might put on the Exchange server"... and... "it works for OWA users as well"... read his full post

Bill Gates Keynote and Exchange

As previously posted by Chris here, in his keynote speech at Comdex in Las Vegas, Bill Gates confirmed that the same heuristic antispam technology developed by Microsoft Research that we find in Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 will be extended to the next "release" for Exchange Server 2003, which I assume to be Service Pack 1.

It was really a standard keynote with no great revelations. And for those lucky enought to have missed it, I have two words for you: The Matrix.

William Lefkovics

ArmorPost Supports Exchange

"ArmorPost, a leading provider of identity-based Anti-Spam and Encrypted Email systems, today announced the expansion of its ArmorPost Private Email Service to a broader range of users. Enterprise users with Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Exchange Server can now send and receive encrypted email to anyone in the world with unprecedented ease of use, and without prearranging secure keys."

More info at the ArmorPost site

Exchange 2003 to Catch More Spam

"Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates will use his keynote address on Sunday at the annual Comdex 2003 trade show in Las Vegas to announce plans to make the company's Exchange e-mail server better at stopping unsolicited commercial ("spam") e-mail... Among other things, Gates will announce that Microsoft is adding heuristics-based anti-spam capabilities to future releases of Exchange Server 2003."

Read the full news article here

RSS in your Inbox

There's a new application that'll provide RSS feeds to Outlook... it's called intraVnews, and unlike the wonderful Newsgator, it's free for personal use. Another free alternative product that may be of interest is PopHeadlines, which pulls in the RSS feeds and then delivers them to the mail client of your choice.

Day Three...

I’ve had a tremendous third day at the IT Forum, the highlights of which have been… (with notes that I jotted down during the sessions)...

Steve Conn, Exchange Server Product Manager at Microsoft talking about ‘Enabling the Mobile Worker with Exchange 2003. This was a great session, with Steve (the supremely ‘slick’ presenter) explaining the many new mobile features that we know have been incorporated into Exchange 2003, with demonstrations (which worked!) of OWA, OMA, and ActiveSync… basically the ‘works,’ using a variety of different mobile devices including an XDA running Pocket PC and a Motorola flip-phone running Windows Mobile 2003.

and…

Exchange 2003 has ‘mobility out of the box.’ The aim with Exchange 2003 was for the end-user to be able to have a good experience when connecting to his/her mailbox irrespective of the device, client and bandwidth being used.

If upgrading from Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2003, the POP3 and IMAP4 services will remain enabled, if they were previously active.

With Cached Exchange Mode, everything synchronises by default, you don’t select the folders that you want to sync.

Checkpointing has been implemented with the synchronization process. This means that if the synchronization is interrupted, it won’t have to start from the beginning again at the next attempt.

Synchronisation continues even if a bad item is found.

When using Exchange and Outlook 2003 the server and client communicate with each other and perform ‘link speed detection.’

128Kb is the tested/recommended threshold with the High and Low bandwidth modes. The change between modes happens automatically or can be selected manually.

Steve referred to RPC over HTTP as RPC over HTTPS (it’s in his slide too!)

Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1 will include more languages for the OWA spell checker, including Norwegian.

The traffic between OWA and the FE server has been reduced with 50% fewer ‘downtrips.’

GZIP compression is very effective with up to 30 to 40% compression occurring. It only supports IE 6 though.

The Exchange Admin pack for MOM is free… it wasn’t free for Exchange 2000.

LAN traffic reduced with Cached Exchange Mode.

The Messaging Team from Marks & Spencer - M&S - (major UK retailer) presented a session about their experiences with upgrading from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003. This was a wonderfully honest and useful session.

Nine months ago M&S decided to start a project to upgrade their ageing Exchange 5.5 infrastructure (30 5.5 servers with 12,000 mailboxes) as their servers were old and under-resourced, disk space was short, and the 5.5 end support date had been announced. The plan initially was to move upwards to Exchange 2000, as that release had been out for some time, and was pretty much a mature product, however Microsoft came on-board and M&S subsequently joined the Microsoft Joint Development Program (JDP). The benefits/risks of migrating to Exchange 2003 were fully thought out, and the decision to upgrade to Exchange 2003 was taken. The main justifications for going with 2003 at such an early stage in its life were; the much improved clustering support, new mobility features, the ability to ‘future proof’ the environment and not having to migrate for a second time from 2000 to 2003, and finally, access to the Microsoft Support team (in Seattle) via their participation in the JDP. Their migration journey has not been any easy one for a number of reasons however, many of which can be attributed to them using 2003 at such any early stage in its life, in a complex SAN/clustered environment (which was new to them) and with poor third party support for drivers etc, as they were using pre-RTM releases.

The need for full and thorough testing was strongly emphasised. The team experienced a couple of ‘gotchas,’ and had they not tested the migration process a number of times, they would quite probably have come unstuck and got themselves into serious problems with their production environment.

Other ‘snippetts’…

They used PFMIGRATE to migrate the public folders onto a dedicated PF server.

8,000 mailboxes have been migrated onto the new platform so far

There is still a lot a work to be done, not least to work out how they are going to deal with migrating the ‘resource/role-based mailboxes’ of which they have a significant number.

The scope of the project has been widened and they plan to implement MOM.

The Exchange 2003 clusters have been ‘incredibly stable.’

They have had great experiences with the new mailbox migration tool and all of its new features.

The user perception of the migration has been 'by and large transparent.' The clients have still to be upgraded however, both OS and Outlook.

They are using an EMC Symmetrix storage solution.

It has been worth upgrading… they are now ‘ahead of the game’.. ‘it would have been wrong to have gone to Exchange 2000’… and ‘yes’ they would do it again.

And finally… the quote of the day today came from Pierre Bijaoui during his ‘Monitoring & Analysing System Performance for Exchange' session, who said that adding more than 4GB of RAM to an Exchange Server was like ‘putting a bandage on a wooden leg.’

Oh… and there was also an audience member in one of the sessions who fell asleep, and whose snores could be heard throughout the session room!

What Features Would You Like to See Fixed or Included?

Em Pea's, latest article for MCP Mag details half a dozen issues that should be either fixed with Exchange Server 2003, or 'tweaks' that should be included with 'Exchange Server 2005.' The six items are all pretty minor, in fact, 'knit-picking' springs to mind, perhaps with the exception of the shutdown delay which occurs when Exchange 2003 is installed on a DC, but hey there's an explanation for that behaviour, and no doubt a KB article is well on its way to being published. So, let's see if we can make a better list... what would you like to see fixed or improved?...

Tony Redmond's New Exchange 2003 Book is Out

Tony Redmond's new Exchange Server 2003 book is on the shelves for you to buy now... Oh, and I've just realised why I could find it at Amazon.com, but not over at Amazon.co.uk... someone's messed up at the UK site and entered it into the system as 'Microsoft Exchange Server 2002,' and as a result, if you run a search of 'Exchange Server 2003,' Tony's new book doesn't appear! I think I'd better let them know.

Microsoft Outlook 2003 Spam Filter: Under the hood

MAPILab has several Outlook and Exchange utilities available for sale. They have produced a document breaking down the Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Junk email filter.

"MAPILab Ltd. pleased to announce the article “Microsoft Outlook 2003 Spam Filter: Under the hood”. This article describes in details how the built-in Microsoft Outlook 2003 junk mail filter based on “state-of-the-art technology developed by Microsoft Research” works."

While the article is illuminating, it does not follow through with scientific process in testing, deciding instead to default to a few assumptions. For example, most businesses with weekday operations experience a significantly higher spam to valid email ratio on a Saturday than a Wednesday. But, they seem to have exposed the process and are fairly thorough and they do make me question what the fuss was about.

But, you judge the article for yourselves.

William Lefkovics

Thank you to Sue Mosher.

Day Two at the Microsoft IT Forum

So, day two of the MSFT IT Forum here in Copenhagen is almost at an end. I’ve had a very enjoyable and intuitive day today, the highlights of which were an excellent (and very popular) “Guerilla Security: Securing Exchange 2000 and 2003 Infrastructures” session, superbly presented by Fred Baumhardt and Rab Thynne (Micrsoft UK Consultants) which I attended this afternoon, and the 3 hour(!) upgrade from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003 lab that I completed during the morning. It went really well for such a long lab, and was well worth the time.

Points of note from the Guerilla Security session…

There were a few comparisons made between IT security, DMZs and so on, and real-life threats and situations…. The DMZ or ‘no mans land’ between North and South Korea, and what would happen to folks who happened to find themselves in that specific area should the two countries come to blows being one example! I think we understood!

The first fifteen minutes or so were spent ripping RPC apart…. Swiss cheese, and more Swiss cheese was the message, which I don’t need to tell you of course, is due to the number of ports that need to be opened to allow RPC comms to work. This then led on to the different options that are available when it comes to implementing a Front End (FE) Back End (BE) solution, and more especially where the FE server is located. Don’t just put the FE server in a DMZ and ‘write it off’ i.e. expect it to be compromised at some point in its life, there are other alternatives. There is no perfect or preferred solution however, as each comes with a potential trade-off. The use of an application firewall such as ISA was recommended (doesn’t just have to be ISA though) using which can then enable the FE server to be placed on the internal network, with the ISA performing the authentication and proxying. (there's some more info about this, in this ppt) The use of VLANS for the BE, GC etc was also pushed.

The number of VPNs being implemented by companies who have adopted Windows and Exchange 2003 and are using RPC over HTTP has reduced by ‘90%’

Segmenting the FE and BE servers in different OUs is recommended.

With Exchange 2003 on a FE server it is straightforward to disable the Information Store service, even when running an anti-virus application, as the dependency which exists with VSAPI v2 has been removed with VSAPI v2.5.

Version 1.2 of the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyser scans both Windows and Exchange.

The need to disable unnecessary services and protocols was also made very clear. Of course Windows 2003 comes with over 20 of the potentially not required services turned-off ‘out of the box.’

Clients must be properly maintained and protected. There is a serious virus threat with clients connecting via VPN or RPC publishing… their anti-virus IDEs should be fully updated, and OSes patched.

Active Directory and group policies should be used to assist with the hardening of your servers

Make sure that the domain controllers are hardened too… Exchange will not be happy if the DCs aren't around!

(right I need to sit down… I’ve been standing here for an hour… whinge… I guess I should have brought the laptop, or ordered the tablet, as chairs have been provided for those folks in the wireless work areas!)

Don't Forget the Attachment!

Here's an interesting (and potentially essential) Outlook plug-in that I've found out about today... it's called Attachment Reminder. Once it's installed it will ensure that if you've made a reference to an attachment or file in the body of a message (you can customise the keywords/phrases that it'll keep an eye out for) you will be prompted to add it to the message... excellent!

I'm at the MSFT IT Forum!

Hey.. I’m at the Microsoft IT Forum in Copenhagen, Denmark… it’s been very enjoyable thus far… two immediate thoughts spring to mind… a) it’s chilly here in Copenhagen (why didn't I bring my woolly hat!?) (update... I've got one in my free Forum backpack!.. :-)...)and b) this is one ‘slick’ event! I’ve never been to a Microsoft event before, and would say that it’s impressively run, and full of enthusiastic geeks, so I’m in good company! My only *gripe* thus far, is that you have to stand while using their public terminal PCs!

I attended the keynote presentation this morning, which was a well put together marketing session (which also included the worldwide launch of SMS2003) during which there was much talk about ‘integrated innovation,’ security (a major MSFT focus at the moment) and also an Exchange Server 2003 slot, details of which were presented and pushed heavily by Kevin McCuistion, Director of Exchange Server marketing, He explained the many benefits that Exchange 2003 can provide, and stressed the need to move forward if 5.5 is still being used. There was even a ‘raise your hands if you’re still using 5.5’ *shaming*…

Some other snippets of information from the keynote… they’re not all about Exchange, but still worth sharing…

SMS and MOM are being merged with the release of Systems Center which is due for release next year

MSFT are spending 6.8 billion dollars on R&D this year.

MSFT have a significant presence in Denmark.. there’s a large R&D campus with around 500 developers around 25kms from Copenhagen.

SMS2003 has some really nice new features… it really does look like a great new product…I think they’ve learnt from, and built upon their experiences with the earlier releases… if you are serious about patch management, and also want to rollout apps to large numbers of desktops quickly, cheaply and painlessly then you’ll want to check it out. I’ve already mentioned ‘integration’ and SMS2003 plays its part here too…. It will not only integrate with SUS 2.0 which is due next year, but also ties into Dell’s patch management infrastructure to enable the rollout of patches for Dell Poweredge servers, including BIOS and firmware updates.

MSFT are well aware of the issue and hassles of the patching process and are aiming to improve the patching experience by ‘reducing complexity, reducing risk, reducing the size of the patches, and reducing downtime and the need to reboot.’

Kevin McCuistion confirmed that there are currently 121 million Exchange users. Exchange 2003 has got off to a great start with around 360,000 seats having been deployed with 200+ customers.

Consolidation is a major selling point with Exchange 2003… it is hoped that site/server consolidation will be possible in a number of cases, and MSFT are leading by example by relocating all of the Exchange servers at their European sites to their Dublin data centre.

Cheesiest statement so far... Kirill Tatarinov, corporate vice president of the Enterprise Management Division on Office System 2003 and Exchange Server 2003…”I’ve been using them for eight months now, and I can feel my productivity increase every day”

There were a number of demonstrations during the keynote, and the two highlights were undoubtedly, the integration with BizTalk and MOM, which highlighted the ability to combine ‘business problems’ and ‘IT problems,’ and secondly the presentation from a chap called Steve… I didn’t catch his surname… who should be signed up by Hollywood… there were definite similarities to Jim Carey there… by jolly, he was one ‘slick’ presenter.

Ok… I’m off for my afternoon labs… Configuring Exchange Server 2003 Anti-Spam Features and SMTP Security and Remote/Mobile Exchange via Outlook 2003 and Outlook Web Access.

Exchange 2003 Exam Launch

The new Exchange 2003 exam '70-284 - Implementing and Managing Exchange Server 2003' is due to go live on Monday, 10th November. This exam is an elective for the MCSA and MCSE on Windows 2000/2003, and a required exam for the MCSA and MCSE Messaging specialisations. (source MCPmag.com)

Aelita Outlook 2003 Update Utility

"Aelita provide a utility to make the transition to Outlook 2003 easier. Aelita Update Utility for Outlook 2003 will help you prepare your Exchange servers and make your Outlook migration free of any nasty incidents like a heap corruption. " (thanks Adam!)

PerfectDisk supports 2003

PerfectDisk Version 6.0 for Exchange Now Supports Microsoft Exchange 2003

Badmail talk

There's some Badmail talk over in Bill Boswell's MCPmag Q&A... don't forget too that Neil wrote a post about this subject a few months ago, with links to a couple of scripts to help with the management of this message area.

Microsoft Sets Mobility Goal

OK, so this isn't strictly Exchange material, but it's relevant considering the new mobility features in Exchange 2003. Microsoft has set a target to sell 100 million PDAs and Smartphones running Windows by 2007.

Read the entire article here.

Future Good for Exchange 2003

Results of a survey of IT Managers have been published at Exchange Connections today...

"Survey respondents expressed concern about the cost of migration and its impact on IT staff. But with the debut of Exchange Server 2003, the majority plan to implement a newer version of Exchange within the next year."

By the way... if any of you have been lucky enough to be attending Exchange Connections this week, please let us know what it's been like.

Sybari and Spam

Sybari are to use Mail-Filters' Technology in Sybari Spam Manager 2.0

"Cracks Appear In Microsoft Kodiak 'Store Story' "

"This week Microsoft executives opened the door to a possible shift in that strategy at least with respect to Kodiak, the next-generation Exchange Server. While the plan remains to put Kodiak on the WinFS relational store, business pressures could abrogate that decision, the executives conceded."

Read the full article from CRN here

Anti-spam Products Reviewed

PC Magazine has reviewed anti-spam sulutions from six different vendors... Postini Perimeter Manager came out on top.

New Exchange 2003 Articles

Markus Klein runs through the steps required to migrate from Exchange 5.5 to 2003.

Paul Robichaux meanwhile talks about the new Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) and Exchange Server ActiveSync components in Exchange Server 2003.

Windows & .NET Magazine Web Seminars

Windows & .NET Magazine are holding a series of Web seminars in November. For a full list click here.

Here's quick links to seminars that may be of interest to those of a messaging disposition.

Assess IM Risks on Your Network - Wednesday, November 12, 2003

The Secret Costs of Spam … What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You - Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Never Ending Spam: How to Pick the Right Solution - Tuesday, November 11, 2003

Registration for these is free.

New Version of PowerControls Released

Version 2.0 of Ontrack’s excellent PowerControls tool has been released. The latest edition of this great (but not cheap) tool which can work wonders with, and extract data from, unmounted .edb database files, and allows you to pull out data down to individual message/attachment/contact/calendar item level, contains a number of improvements, including a new advanced search facility (the search options in v1.1 were fairly basic), and also the ability to be able to restore an online backup including those from major backup applications such as Backup Exec and Arcserve to “any alternate location (e.g., machine, volume, folder), thereby eliminating the need to restore an online backup to a duplicate Exchange Server.” ...Sounds great!

Outlook 2003 Review

PC Pro have reviewed Outlook 2003... "Yet on the whole, there's little reason not to upgrade to Outlook 2003"... They gave it an excellent 5 stars out of 6.

Outlook 2003 Search Folder Demo

Learn how to create a search folder in Outlook 2003 with this short and slick demo.

Free Exchange 2003 Guide

ENTmag.com and MCP Magazine have teamed up to create a free Exchange Server 2003 Resource Guide.

Top 10 Tasks for New Exchange Administrators

KC Lemson (Program Manager in the Exchange server team at Microsoft) has written a useful list of the top ten tasks for Exchange admins, and it’s now available on the Microsoft site.

MOM Management Pack for Live Communications Server

OK, I know this isn't strictly Exchange-related, but I thought it worthy of mention in case any of you are planning on using LCS as your Instant Messaging replacement.

You might like to know that Microsoft has released a MOM Management Pack for LCS.

MOM Management Pack for Microsoft Office Live Communications Server (LCS) 2003 Standard Edition

The LCS management pack monitors the health of home servers of LCS 2003, and alerts IT administrators upon critical health conditions indicating degraded performance.

The Management Pack monitors and provides alerts for
• Automatic notification of events indicating service outages
• Performance degradation
• Health monitoring
• Centralized management

Blackberry to support Exchange 2003

"Research In Motion today announced support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 on the BlackBerry wireless platform"... it's not available now however... support for Exchange 2003 is due to be available next month with BlackBerry Enterprise Server v.3.6 Service Pack 2.

Dell and Exchange 2003

Dell to ship Exchange 2003...

"Dell has again outpaced industry growth for Microsoft Exchange deployments, as more and more customers select Dell PowerEdge servers for their mission-critical computing requirements... The company announced today its intentions to extend this popularity among IT buyers by shipping Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 across its entire line of PowerEdge servers"

No brains required to upgrade from Exchange 5!!

This article almost made me choke on my lunchtime sandwich... "Analysts have said that Exchange 5 is beginning to show its age and that upgrading to Exchange Server 2003 is a "no-brainer." ... how amusing!

Exchange 2003 Officially Launched

Seven years after Exchange 4.0, the successor to Microsoft Mail was released, Exchange 2003 has been officially launched today. This latest release comes with a number of new features and benefits which include; increased productivity for end-users and administrators, better deployment, migration and co-existence tools, anti-spam and enhanced security features and it should all result in a lower TCO. There are more than enough reasons to upgrade, not least if you're still using 5.5!

Exchange 2003 does look like getting off to a great start "330,000 user seats have (already) been deployed, and more than 200 customers in the early adopter programs," and the number of CALs which have risen from 34 million in 1999 to more than 100 million in 2002, should no doubt continue this impressive growth .

There have been a number of favourable reviews of 2003, the most notable of which was probably PC Pro's Jon Honyeball who gave it five stars out of six, and said recently...

"(E2K3 is)... a robust and mature full-strength messaging and collaboration engine receives a host of useful updates and additional capabilities, particularly for mobile users. The best email, diary, contacts and related information engine on the planet."

If you have yet to experience Exchange 2003 and don't have access to it via your license agreement, why not try before you buy with Microsoft's 120 day trial?

Go and get it!

Legato & Exchange 2003

LEGATO Announces Support for Exchange Server 2003

"“LEGATO’s information management solutions further enhance the value that Microsoft Exchange 2003 delivers. LEGATO offers customers backup and recovery, high availability, archiving, records management and compliance functionality,” said Chris Baker, group product manager for Exchange at Microsoft Corp. “LEGATO solutions further increase our mutual customers’ ability to manage their IT infrastructures by delivering service level management, increased trust, ROI, and lower TCO.”

Exchange launch events, iHateSpam, and more...

A few things to mention today…

Exchange 2003 Launch Events
It’s the worldwide launch of Exchange 2003 (and Office 2003) tomorrow in New York. If you’re unable to go along, assuming you’re in the US, there may be a launch event sometime in the next couple of weeks, in a city near you, and it’s not too late to register.

iHateSpam Gateway Edition
The latest w2knews contains an explanation of the differences between the popular, award winning, iHateSpam Server Edition and the recently released iHateSpam Gateway Edition. Put simply(?!), the Server Edition only works with Exchange 2000 and 2003 and must be installed on the Exchange server. The Gateway Edition meanwhile enables the filtering to be moved from Exchange and onto a dedicated server. In addition, the Gateway version also has support for Exchange 5.5, for which you have the option of either running it on a 5.5 machine, or with a 5.5 machine, with the filtering being carried out on the Gateway. So, for 5.5, if you don’t have a Gateway, the install allows you to run everything on the 5.5 server. Please let us know if you’re testing this new product and what you think of it.

Essential Reading
...and just in case you missed these recent articles and blog posts…

Thomas Shinder explains all there is to know about SMTP relays and why you should use one, in part one of his new three part series on this subject

Paul Robichaux writes about “SMTP AUTH Attacks” which spammers are now carrying out with increasing regularity. Paul explains what they are, and what you can do to prevent them. There's some more info too in the Readers Respond.

David Lemson has published a great post on his blog which explains why Exchange, up until now with the release of Exchange 2003, hasn’t been able to work like Sendmail and to reject invalid recipients during the SMTP protocol. He goes on to explain in detail how to configure the recipient lookup feature in Exchange 2003 which, once implemented, results in a "550 5.5.1 User unknown" being given during the SMTP session, instead of the message for the unknown recipient being accepted by Exchange and NDR'd after the directory lookup has been performed. You won't find a knowledge base article on this just now, although it is being arranged, so David's post is an essential read. He is open to questions on Exchange 2003 too... so now's your chance...
(update... ok... *blush*... Neil wrote about recipient filtering on this very blog back on Sept 12th... I must start reading his posts!)

New Whitepapers on ActiveAnswers

Two new Exchange related whitepapers have been released from ActiveAnswers.

Optimizing Full-Text Indexing for Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2003

Summary from ActiveAnswers:
Full-Text Indexing (FTI) is a beneficial new feature of Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 and 2003, but without proper configuration and tuning the deployment risks may outweigh the benefits. FTI is a very resource-intensive function, affecting both disk and processor resources. In addition to the settings per Server and per Store that assist in the configuration and tuning, you can set the specific file locations to higher performance disk arrays.

This paper details the ideal placement of files for optimum performance, and design trade-offs, such as limitations on the number of disks available. To further control resource utilization and FTI impact, consider using the HP ProLiant Essentials Workload Management Pack (WMP) for Microsoft Windows 2000 or Microsoft Windows 2003 WSRM

Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 and 2003 Backup and Restore using HP Technology

Summary from ActiveAnswers:
This paper provides a comprehensive overview of business continuity and disaster recovery planning for Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 and Exchange Server 2003 environments. It provides planning information and best practices for preventing disastrous consequences, and reducing recovery outages. The focus of this paper is on Microsoft Exchange Server database backup and restore testing performed using HP Technology. A comparison of media and transport rates is given in order to optimize recovery rates. Improvements in Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 that affect disaster recovery planning are also highlighted.

First, general disaster recovery planning concepts are discussed, then the backup strategy: planning process is detailed. This paper covers some backup technologies and then details backup and recovery procedures for Exchange Server. Finally, methods for reducing backup and recovery window are discussed.

Security Updates Published

A couple of security updates have been published by Microsoft for Exchange 5.5 and 2000 servers...

"A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to run programs on a computer running Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server" and "Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5."

"A security issue has been identified that could allow an attacker to run programs and access data on a computer running Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Outlook Web Access."

(Update.. there's more information about these security patches in the MS Security Bulletins MS03-047 and MS03-046. Microsoft have also revamped the security bulletin release process and now intend to release security bulletins on the second calendar Tuesday of every month.

More Outlook 2003 news...

More positive comments...Robert Scoble (Microsoft Technical Evangelist) thinks that "it has greatly improved," and Frank Bajak, AP Technology Editor thinks that "the Veg-O-Matic of e-mail processors" has "just gotten much better"

Meanwhile, Wired have a piece on Outlook's new security features... "Microsoft Toughens Up Outlook"

Microsoft Exchange Community Site Update

Microsoft has made many improvements on the Exchange section of their website over the last year or so. The addition of the Technical Library... more effectively maintaining whitepaper reference on previous versions... and now an overhaul of the communities pages...

"Check It Out!" - Brandon Hoff

"Server-Side Antivirus Protection"

Chapter 3 of Paul Robichaux's (and Jim McBee's) free eBook "The Administrator Shortcut Guide to Email Protection" has been published by Sybari.

Communite supports Exchange 2003

Interactive Intelligence's 'Communite' unified communications software now supports Exchange Server 2003.

Pirillo and Outlook 2003...

I usually enjoy reading what Chris Pirillo (technology author, TV presenter and founder of Lockergnome) has to say, and most of the time respect his thoughts and opinions, however he's got it wrong 'big time' with Outlook 2003, about which he has just written a short piece on his blog.

I won't quote his outspoken comments here, but instead will say that I wholeheartedly agree with ZDNet who think that Outlook 2003 is the "best version of Outlook yet" and the NY Times (simple, free registration required) who think that Outlook's "extreme makeover" is "worth every penny and more"

I personally love Outlook 2003... it has some great new features, has a lovely look and feel, and I would spend some of my hard earned cash on it... it really is that good! After using it, you just won't want to go back to 2000...roll on October 21st!

I wonder when Chris' Outlook 2003 tips and tricks pdf is coming out?

InfoWorld review Exchange 2003

"Exchange Server 2003 can be a simple upgrade with management benefits, but pitfalls await the unwary"

Sybari gets serious with spam...

"Sybari and Commtouch sign alliance to deliver new comprehensive, robust, scalable solution for eliminating spam from the enterprise"

The two companies have joined forces to "deliver Sybari Advanced Spam Defense (ASD), a stand-alone, server based, and real-time spam detection service and solution for the enterprise running on Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SMTP Servers. The Sybari ASD offers enterprise customers all-inclusive spam detection via two pioneering technologies, the Sybari ASD Spam Detection Service Center and the stand-alone Sybari ASD Enterprise Gateway Module, both of which are Powered by Commtouch."

There's an impressive sounding feature set...

· Over 95% detection rates with minimal false positives. · Language and format independent detection.
· Central management capabilities.
· Minimal IT maintenance and overhead combined with a fully customizable e-mail application.
· Ability to set spam filtering rules to groups.
· Integration of spam filtering with corporate Directory.
· Ability to set flexible spam filtering rules for the individual user.
· End users can review their own quarantined data, as well as modify their own anti-spam rules.

(source sybari.com)

SimpleSync and Exchange 2003

SimpleSync, the LDAP synchronisation tool that can perform a number of different AD and Exchange synchronisation functions, now supports Exchange 2003, with version 3.4.3

New Hosted Exchange 2003 Product Launched

Are you currently considering a managed Exchange 2003 solution? If so, Webcentral ("Australia's largest web hosting company and a market leader in the provision of business internet services including messaging") last week launched what is probably the first hosted Exchange 2003 product to be made available.

Roy Adams, one of the design architects at Webcentral advised...

"Managed Exchange is being offered globally as a product to businesses of all sizes. It is a fully managed Exchange 2003 Solution with access via OWA / OMA / ActiveSync / POP3 / IMAP4 / MAPI / RPCoverHTTP etc and has been successfully tested with quite a number of Smart Phone and XDA devices."

Further information and a demo can be found here

SBS 2003 to be launched next week

Microsoft's new Small Business Server 2003, which includes Exchange Server 2003 is going to be commercially available in just five days time. Details of pricing can be found here. If you're a small business and are considering purchasing this package, be sure to check out the special bundled offers that Dell, HP and others are going to be making available, as you'll likely be able to get a great deal.

"Microsoft patches Exchange glitch"

CNET are reporting that Microsoft released a patch yesterday to fix performance problems that can occur when using the beta version of Outlook 2003 with Exchange 5.5. There's no KB article yet though.

Update 4/10 - The Technet article has been published - the cause of the problem...

"Using the Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 client to modify rules or to import rules into a mailbox that is located on a Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 computer can result in a server-side rule with a malformed property. The execution of rules in this condition may cause the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service to unexpectedly stop responding."

Due to the problem only occurring when a complicated rule is involved David Lemson, manager in the Microsoft Exchange product group, thinks it should be a rare one.

Exchange 2003 Licensing

With Exchange 2003, Microsoft have introduced a new 'user CAL'... this week's Slipstick newsletter explains all.

GFI and Quest Freebies...

A couple of companies, GFI and Quest Software, have today introduced freeware versions of their products.

Quest Software, makers of the Spotlight on Exchange diagnostic tool have released a freeware version of it. Disappointingly, but of course, unsurprisingly, the vast majority of the full commercial version features are disabled in this free edition. If you're interested in deploying this application, you would probably be better off testing an evaluation version of the full release. This freeware release should of course give you a feel for the product however.

GFI meanwhile have launched a freeware version of FAXmaker for Exchange which enables users to send and receive SMS/text messages from Microsoft Outlook. This is a trial version, however the SMS gateway remains active for two users after the trial has expired, by means of a free SMS serial key which GFI will provide.

KVS and Exchange 2003

KVS, makers of the Enterprise Vault for Exchange message archiving solution are to release v4.1 later this year, which will be fully compatible with Exchange 2003

iHateSpam Gateway Edition Launched

Sunbelt Software have today announced the launch of iHateSpam Gateway Edition...

"The new iHateSpam Gateway Edition broadens the company's existing product line to include effective spam detection for enterprises using Exchange 5.5, 2000 and 2003 in a gateway environment. The gateway edition delivers virtually all of the functionality of iHateSpam Server Edition, recent winner of the Windows and .Net Magazine Reader's Choice award for Best New Product (Rookie of the Year) and Best Antispam Tool.

"By extending iHateSpam's proven spam filtering capabilities to all Exchange platforms running in gateway environments, more enterprises can harness the power of our corporate-wide spam detection," said Alex Eckelberry, president of Sunbelt Software."
(source: Yahoo.com)

(update: apparently iHateSpam GE isn't quite ready, and hasn't been launched as claimed in this Press Release... it shouldn't be too far off though)

Hosting with Exchange 2003 Article

A new article, Shared Hosting with Exchange 2003 (Part 1), is up over at www.msexchange.org.

Summary: Active Directory and Exchange allows you to provide services to more than one company without the need to build a separate domain / forest for each hosted company. The following article describes a simple shared hosting scenario where multiple sister companies are shared using the same Active Directory domain and can interoperate with each other.

NetIQ supports Exchange 2003

NetIQ rolls out Exchange 2003 support for its Exchange management products.

Secure Remote Access for Outlook Article

Thomas Shinder has recently published the following article over at www.msexchange.org:

Providing Secure Remote Access for the Full Outlook MAPI Client using the Exchange RPC Filter

Summary: You can allow remote Outlook 2000/2002/2003 clients to connect to your Exchange Server and take advantage of the full functionality provided by the Outlook MAPI client. Unlike Outlook Web Access, full Outlook MAPI client functionality allows remote users to take advantage of the entire set of mail and groupware features provided by Exchange Server. But you must do this securely. Check out this article to find out how.

Bargain?...

Earlier this week, Dell announced that they would be selling a server with Microsoft´s Small Business Server 2003 (which includes Exchange) pre-installed for around $1000. Sounds like a bit of a bargain.

(update - don't get too excited about this, unless you want a Celeron powered, single 40GB IDE HDD server that is... although this of course would be perfectly acceptable for a small office (5 users), or for testing)

Updated Storage Calculator for Exchange 2000

HP has a newer version of its HP ProLiant Storage Planning Calculator for Exchange 2000 available within Active Answers.

The newly-released version 2.3 of the Exchange 2000 Storage Planning Calculator addresses one of the most critical areas of Exchange 2000 server sizing: I/O and storage capacity planning for the storage subsystem. This tool is designed to provide guidelines for spindle and cabinet planning for Exchange 2000 deployments, and includes new information on the Smart Array 6xx and 64xx series controllers.

And there's more....

Whilst we're on the subject of Exchange-related web seminars and the like, a recent post of mine concerned Aelita Software and a free whitepaper on message-level recovery.

Anyway, Aelita Software are now offering a web seminar on: How to Simplify Message-level Exchange Recovery. This will take place on October 9th.

Free Web Seminars

Windows and .NET Magazine Network are offering free web seminars during October, two of which are applicable to Exchange. Click the titles to go direct to the sites.

Email Abuse: What Are the Legal Risks and How Do You Prevent Them?
Tuesday, October 7, 2003

Are You Ready for Exchange 2003?
Wednesday, October 8, 2003

Outlook 2003 Add-in: Personal Folders Backup

Microsoft now has a utility to backup your personal folders. Ya, ya, I know... PST=BAD.
Well, only as a primary email storage when you have an Exchange server. Otherwise, I use them very often.

Some of us either archive to a .pst or have users in our enterprise that use .psts because they access Exchange through POP3 or IMAP4 with Outlook.

Microsoft has added a utility to allow a user to backup their .pst (Personal Folders) file called PFBackup

PFBackup works on Outlook 2000, 2002, and 2003.

To be fair, there are other products that provide .pst backup, such as Genie and Mobiliti.

William Lefkovics

Seaside Software's XKey

I've just seen another plug for this product, so I thought it worthy of a mention here.

Xkey securely stores all of your Exchange data and the application logic to execute it - on a key that fits in the palm of your hand. With Xkey you can load your Exchange data on any USB-equipped PC and run online/offline it through a simple web browser - instantly, without any new server or client software installation or configuration!

* Plug your Exchange mailbox into any USB-compatible PC or thin-client
* Plug 'n work-no software or configuration required
* Grab 'n go-leaves no trace on host PC
* Strong encryption protects unauthorized access in case of loss

Check out XKey here.

New Mailsweeper Blog...

For those of you who use Clearswift´s Mailsweeper for SMTP e-mail scanning application, I´ve set up a new blog for it, which you can visit here.

'Electronic Superhero'

Today's discovery... the eMailman...it looks like a useful site, which contains a considerable number of links to all manner of different e-mail resources, Exchange included.

ScanMail 6.2 Available

In case you didn't already know, ScanMail for Exchange v6.2 is now available. This version supports Exchange 2003. A link to the UK download site is here.

Updated Badmail Article

In my article on Dealing With BadMail, I offered a script to inform you of the size of the BadMail folder. Several people have asked for a script that automatically purges the BadMail folder and although I was going to modify my script (honest!), Jon Pervan has provided a script for just this purpose.

So now you've got a choice of two scripts for dealing with the BadMail folder. I've updated the article accordingly, so check it out.

Whitepaper on Message-Level Recovery

Aelita Software are offering a free whitepaper on best practices for message-level recovery. Get yours here.

Temporarily Increase the Exchange 2000 16-Gigabyte Database Size Limit

Some of us are only too familiar with the outdated, but still imposed 16GB information store limitation in Exchange standard versions. Though email has evolved over time, Microsoft still imposes this same limitation on their standard versions in Exchange 2000 Server and Exchange Server 2003.

Exchange 2000 introduced a method to increase the 16GB limit by 1GB to allow for recovery from hitting this ceiling.

How to Temporarily Increase the Exchange 2000 16-Gigabyte Database Size Limit

Requires Service Pack 3 for Exchange 2000 and the following registry entry:

Click Start, click Run, and then type regedit.exe. Locate the following key in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\\Private- On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then type the following in the Value name box: Temporary DB Size Limit Extension Select REG_DWORD for the data type, and then click OK. Enter a value of 1, and then click OK. Quit Registry Editor.

No more spam?...

Another new feature of Exchange 2003, is the support for Realtime Blackhole Lists (RBLs). Markus Klein has written an article explaining how to configure blacklist support in Exchange 2003.

A word of caution however, If you aren't using RBLs at the moment, you need to think very carefully about whether it is a good idea to use such a method to filter spam. In theory an RBL could be a help, and play a part in your multi-layered spam filtering approach, however they have proven to be inaccurate, troublesome, and responsible for the blocking of legitimate messages. The recent problems with Osirusoft should be a reminder of what can happen when things go wrong.

While we're on the subject of spam, there's a great review of 16 anti-spam products here... Postini came out on top.

Outlook 2003 Problem

There's an interesting issue with Outlook 2003... if you have it running for some time, don't minimise the program window, and your PC has a large amount of RAM, it can apparently eat up loads of that memory, and also stop responding.

September 2003 Webcasts

Here's a rundown of links to the forthcoming webcasts this September - all focussing on Exchange, of course.

Best practices at Planning your Migration to Exchange 2003 - Level 200

Migrating from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003: Scenarios & Solutions - Level 300

Hardening Client-side Messaging in an Exchange Server 2003 Environment – Level 300

Promodag Reports v6

Promodag Reports v6 hasn't long been out, and if you use, or are thinking of using this product, be sure to check out this new version.

This version has many new and improved features, such as:

* New and improved reports. There are now more than 100 ready to use reports.

* Interface improvements.

* Import process improvements.

For a quick link to all the new features, click here.

iHateSpam Wins Awards...

iHateSpam Server Edition Honored With Two Reader's Choice Awards in Windows & .NET Magazine

ISA Server and RPC over HTTP

Configuring ISA Server 2000 to Support Outlook 2003 RPC over HTTP by Tom Shinder. I'm going to have some spare time in a couple of weeks, and I'm really looking forward to finally getting round to going through some of Tom's excellent articles.

Rolling out Outlook 2003?

If you're planing to rollout Outlook 2003 (perhaps sooner than expected) you'll find lots of information about deploying, upgrading to, and maintaining this fantastic new mail client here. There are also some goodies for your toolkit.

Office 2003 Made Available Early - For Some

"The software giant said Office 2003 and Microsoft OneNote applications would be released Monday, to those signed up for its Enterprise Agreement and Software Assurance licensing plans. The company will also allow subscribers to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) to download the software."

News.com: Microsoft to open Office doors early

ZDNet: Microsoft to open Office doors early

One for your pocket?

The Exchange Server 2003 Administrator's Pocket Consultant is now finally available at Amazon.com

Exchange 2003 Administration Guide

Ok, so perhaps you don't need to buy an Exchange 2003 book right now. William told you yesterday about the updated Deployment Guide that's available here, and once you've digested that, there's also the 487 page Administration Guide for your reading pleasure.

The book "shows you how to configure and manage Exchange Server 2003 organizations and servers. It also explains how to set up and use recipient policies, messaging, client access, mailbox and public folder stores, and Exchange clusters. It includes detailed appendixes on Exchange tools, services, store management, folder replication, and full-text indexing."

New Exchange Exam Being Tested

Microsoft yesterday "began beta tests of its new Exchange exam, 70-284, Implementing and and Managing Exchange Server 2003"

Those were the days...

How about a bit of nostalgia?... If you're fed up reading reviews of Exchange 2003, and let's face it, how many times do you want to read about just how good it is, can you remember what the hacks were saying about Exchange 5.0 when it was released six years ago? Oh, and if you've still to migrate to 5.5, there's some useful stuff on Microsoft's site from '97 :-)

New Microsoft Office Site Launched

Microsoft's new Office Online site has been launched today. There's loads of information about all of the products that form the Office Suite, including the soon to be released Office 2003... Outlook 2003 is included of course...

Another Exchange 2003 Review

... and now it's Network World's turn to review the Exchange/Outlook 2003 package.

Exchange 2003 Book Available!

Very few books have been published for Exchange 2003 so far... in fact Microsoft's E2K3 Technical Documentation Library and Support Centre are undoubtedly your best resources just now. However, if you can't wait for the many books that are due to hit the shelves over the coming months, I've just noticed that there is one available at Amazon.co.uk, the Microsoft Press Exchange Server 2003 Administrators Pocket Consultant. It's on their site for £14.69, and delivery in four days... time to reach for the plastic? :-)

Interestingly, the Amazon.com site says that this book hasn't been published yet (according to Microsoft Press it was released on August 27th) however Barnes & Noble have got it in stock, and will despatch it in 2-3 days. I'll let you know when I receive mine.

Exchange 2003 Tools

The Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Tools and Updates page has been updated... there are some essential additions to your toolbox available for download.

New Blackberry Fix Released

Security Holes Patched in BlackBerry Enterprise Server

PC Pro Review Exchange 2003

Jon Honeyball has reviewed Exchange 2003 in this month's PC Pro magazine. You can read his review here. Thankfully he liked it, and gave it five stars out of 6!

His verdict...

"(E2K3 is)... a robust and mature full-strength messaging and collaboration engine receives a host of useful updates and additional capabilities, particularly for mobile users. The best email, diary, contacts and related information engine on the planet.

He also offers his migration recommendation...

"I'd do the migration straight to WS2K3/ES2K3, with the clear intention of running it until its primary support runs out in five years. Looked at in that way, replacing the servers, OS and ES with new products today is a good investment for the next five years. As a product, it's a mature, stable and highly effective platform"

Questions, questions, questions...

Do you have some questions about Outlook or Exchange 2003 that you would like answers to? If so, on September 16th you can chat for an hour with the Outlook MVPs, and then on the 29th, you can throw your E2K3 questions at Microsoft's Exchange experts.

"company inboxes are continually under threat"

From this week's Guardian Online...

"How can you best protect company email? A three-layer approach will keep you most secure, though it will be the most expensive solution, too."

Hot news: New MCSE/MCSA - Messaging

"Microsoft this morning announced new specialist titles, MCSA: Messaging and MCSE: Messaging." (from mcpmag.com)

New Office 2003 Licensing Policy

If you're considering upgrading to Outlook or Office 2003 when it comes out next month, there have been some changes to the licensing policy which you should know about... Sue Mosher explains all here. (and remember - your Exchange 2003 CALs will allow you to use Outlook 2003, so separate licenses doesn't need to be purchased)

From NT/5.5 to 2000 or 2003?

Are you planning to upgrade from NT4/5.5 to Windows and Exchange 2000, or are you perhaps considering jumping all the way to 2003? Exchange 2003 offers many new benefits and features over Exchange 2000, as this Microsoft chart shows, however there may be a few more things to consider before you decide whether to become an early adopter or not.

It is worth remembering that Micrsoft have developed a number of new migration tools which should ease the move to 2003.

As Edward Wu, Exchange Product Manager on the Exchange Server Team recently mentioned ...

"in Exchange 2003, we've delivered new prescriptive guidance, setup wizards, and verification tools. The Windows and Exchange product teams worked together to develop these new tools to ensure the upgrade and migration to Windows 2003 Active Directory and Exchange 2003 is less disruptive to the existing messaging infrastructure and to give IT administrators confidence and peace of mind. A lot of you have asked us whether Exchange 5.5 and 2000 can coexist with Exchange 2003 during the migration process. Rest assured that Microsoft has thought through all these scenarios and provides new tools and wizards to guide you through the process. Exchange 5.5 customers can migrate directly to Exchange 2003, and customers in the middle of their Exchange 5.5 to 2000 migrations have the option of including Exchange 2003 in their topologies. For customers operating Exchange 2000, a simple in-place upgrade to Exchange 2003 is available."

So, bear this information in mind when you and your employer are assessing your upgrade otions, and deciding which migration path to go for.

While we're on the subject of migrating from NT, Microsoft UK are running a free one day seminar on this subject at the Reading campus on September 11th.

Join the party...

If you're in the US, you can join in with the launch of Exchange 2003 at one of the many free events that Microsoft are holding next month... register here

2000 or 2003?

Choose the Best OS for Exchange 2003... Q and A from .NET magazine.

More RPC over HTTP info...

Paul Robichaux has written a piece on the exciting new Outlook/Exchange 2003 feature that we mentioned a few days ago 'RPC over HTTP,' for Exchangeadmin.com.

".....Another solution, of course, is to use RPC-over-HTTP to connect your Outlook 2003 clients to your Exchange 2003 server. This approach gives your clients full MAPI functionality without requiring them to use a VPN (thus improving client performance and network usage) and without requiring you to put RPC traffic directly on the Internet--advantages even when the client is behind a firewall. The best part is that Outlook supports automatic transition between plain RPC and RPC-over-HTTP. Laptop users can launch Outlook at work, pick up email, take the laptop home, plug it in, and get new email without tweaking any settings."

Something tells me, your users are going to love this new functionality...

Exchange 2000 Rollup Patch

Another Exchange 2000 Post-Service Pack 3 Rollup Patch has been released... it "resolves problems that were found in Exchange 2000 since SP3 was released."

Microsoft's new IM Server

"Microsoft Readies Messaging Server - Development ends on Office Live Communications Server, shipping in weeks." (PCWorld.com)

With instant messaging functionality not having been included within Exchange 2003 as it was with Exchange 2000, the Live Communications Server 2003 is Microsoft's new instant messaging server offering.

Exchange 5.5 Support Extended

From ENT News...

"Microsoft on Monday formally extended a major deadline for Exchange 5.5 Server support, removing what had been seen as a subtle threat to get users to upgrade more quickly to Exchange Server 2003.

Mainstream support for Exchange 5.5 Server had been scheduled to expire on Dec. 31, 2003. At that point, users would have had to pay for a contract to get Exchange 5.5 support until the extended support program runs out at the end of 2005. Now, Microsoft will offer the first year of extended support, through Dec. 31, 2004, for free."

I don't really think that Microsoft had any choice but to back down on this one, given the number of companies who are still running 5.5 and haven't yet moved forward to Active Directory and Exchange 2000/2003.

SMTP Virtual Server Learning...

The're's a new tutorial over at MSExchange.org that's definitely worth a read "SMTP Virtual Server Uncovered".... The article provides "some insight into better SMTP queue management to improve your ability to cope when your queues get swamped with spam and virus outbreaks."

...and while we're on the subject of queues, there's an updated Technet article on this very subject, covering both E2K and also the enhanced queue functionality in E2K3

Friday fun...

Bit of humour for the end of the week...

"A colleague of mine recently sent an accidentally blank email to all our southern California attorneys....The responses, of course, rolled immediately in"

Webcast reminder...

As Neil advised back on August 12th, there are two Exchange 2000 troubleshooting webcasts about to be broadcast, the first of which is scheduled for today... check it out...

Get Newsgator today!

If you've taken to letting news and website content be delivered to you via RSS, and you use Outlook as your mail client, then you need to check out the latest release of Newsgator.

"NewsGator is a "news aggregator" that runs in Microsoft Outlook. It allows you to subscribe to various syndicated news feeds (such as weblogs, news sites, etc.) and have news from these sites be delivered right into your Outlook folders."

I'm running it just now on Outlook 2003, and it's really awesome, the integration into Outlook just works so well.

Free upgrade Office XP to 2003

"If you acquire a Microsoft Office XP product between August 15, 2003, and November 30, 2003, you may be eligible for a free upgrade to a Microsoft Office 2003 Edition or other Microsoft Office System program through the Microsoft Technology Guarantee Program."

Pre-order Outlook at Amazon

Pre-order Outlook 2003 at Amazon.co.uk... £89.99 for despatch on 21st October... it's currently 165th in the sales rank, which is quite respectable.

Paul Robichaux's new ebook

I had a meeting with our Sybari Account Manager today and he tipped me off about a new eBook "The Administrator Shortcut Guide to Email Protection", by Paul Robichaux, which is "being made available to readers in real-time, with chapters delivered on a monthly basis as the book is published." You can access it by visiting the Sybari site, registering, and following which you'll be sent a user ID and password to log into their site and access chapter one.

Other Sybari news... both HP and Microsoft have apparently been running Antigen on their Exchange 2003 servers for some months now, and the feedback/results have all been very positive.

By the way, if anyone out there needs a quote for Antigen, let me know and I'll put you in touch with the very helpful Mr Clifford.

"You can migrate faster, easier, and with less disruption"

"Edward Wu has been a product manager on the Exchange Server team at Microsoft for more than three years." Read what he has got to say about the release of Exchange 2003.

"Congratulations you have passed..."

So, I finally pulled my finger out today and took the Microsoft "Installing, Configuring, and Administering Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server" exam... there's nothing like a bit of job insecurity to motivate you to get your CV up-to-date :-)

The exam was easier than I expected, although the preparation as usual included the great (but expensive) Transcender practice questions, which really do get you ready for the real thing. If you have yet to sit the exam, for whatever reason, I can recommend Microsoft's own study guide... it's not the most exciting of reads, but it covers the course content.

For those of you who sit the MCSE exams in London, and have perhaps used Parity's testing centre in Marylebone Lane in the past, this is no more it would seem - their training and testing centre is now in High Holborn. I was disappointed to learn this when I made the booking to sit the exam, as I had a 100% record there... A+, NT4 MCSE, two W2K MCPs... Anyway, I will be thinking twice about sitting future exams at the swanky new office, as the testing room was in a small glass fronted room next to a corridor and other offices, with a constant flow of people passing by, many of whom were making loud mobile phone conversations about their weekend exploits. This is not what you want when you are trying to concentrate!!!!

Next up, it's the "Designing and Deploying a Messaging Infrastructure" exam... I'm aiming to do an exam each month until the end of the year. It should get easier as the months go by, studying in August in the recent heat wave has not been much fun!

Exchange 2003 Discussion Forums

The discussion forums over at www.msexchange.org now include forums for Exchange 2003.

You can check them out now by clicking here.

Don't forget to bookmark this page!

Exchange RSS Feed

Mark Fugatt, Exchange MVP and contributor to www.msexchange.org, has created an Exchange related RSS feed. This is yet another way for you to keep up-to-date with Exchange news and gossip.

If you have an RSS feed reader, such as FeedReader from www.feedreader.com, just point it to:

http://www.exchangetrainer.com/exchangetrainerrss.xml

Nice one Mark!

More visiting...

Sure, this blog should be you're one stop shop for all Exchange news and tips, but in case you haven't come across MSD2D.com before, I thought I'd better let you know about it! It's definitely worth a visit...

What do they think?...

PC Mag review Exchange 2003...

Better migration tools, enhanced security, new licensing options, lower TCO, and improved client access features make this a compelling upgrade.

Troubleshooting SSL - Webcast

Microsoft are holding a webcast tomorrow on SSL troubleshooting, and since that's a relevant technology for the Exchange community, this will be a valuable webcast for us.

The link to the webcast on the Microsoft site is here.

Here's the description of the event:

This webcast will focus on a commonly used protocol for securing data transmission between a client and the Internet Information Services (IIS). It will discuss SSL on each IIS platform currently supported by Microsoft and will also outline tips, tricks, and tools that make diagnosing SSL problems much simpler. This webcast will be appropriate for Windows and Exchange administrators as these are the responsible parties for ensuring smooth transmission of data between client and Windows and Exchange Servers (Outlook Web Access).

Ximian Acquired by Novell

Some enterprises have messaging needs beyond Microsoft Windows. For Linux clients, there is an email application called Ximian Evolution.
Ximian makes a connector to allow Ximian Evolution clients to participate in some collaborative aspects of Microsoft Exchange 2000.

Leveraging WebDAV, a user on Linux can access Exchange Server public folders, view free-busy information, and book resources, in addition to working with their mailbox, address book, calendar, and tasks as expected.

I chatted briefly with a Ximian rep a few days ago, and they are still completing work on updating their connector to allow Ximian Evolution to work as an email client for Exchange Server 2003.

Now Microsoft surely would prefer all the clients were in the form of Outlook on Windows, but certainly with Evolution requiring an Exchange CAL, it is certainly
a fair compromise.

With Novell's acquisition of Ximian, one wonders whether a "Groupwise connector" is in the works.

Ximian Press Release

ZDNet article

Ximian Exchange Connector

William Lefkovics, MCSE, A+, ExchangeMVP

"SMTP trusts too much"

End of the road for SMTP?

T minus one day...

"Microsoft's Open License customers will receive Exchange 2003 on Friday"

Bringing up the rear?...

Blackberry don't as yet support Exchange 2003, only 5.5 and 2000 are catered for at the moment. Their tech support have suggested that their website be visited regularly for "updates on new software releases and service packs."

Chris Meirick

Using Outlook 2003 with 5.5?.. be careful...

Interesting...

"Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5 using the Outlook Web Access (OWA) service is vulnerable to a denial of service attack. If a authenticated remote attacker accesses the mailbox through Outlook 2003 and then accesses this mailbox through OWA, the attacker can cause the Internet Information Server (IIS) Web services to crash."

I guess they'll be fixing this 'beta bug' :-) ...

Chris Meirick

Free Skills Assessments

Are you ready to take the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Skills Assessments?... Good luck...

Chris Meirick

How many?

Towards the end of last year I read an article which stated that...

"Microsoft had reduced from 35 mail servers under Exchange 5.5, to 10 under Exchange 2000, with each server now supporting 3,500 mailboxes. Now with Titanium, that is being increased to 5,000, as multiple sites are supported by a single Exchange server. Microsoft now only has 19 Exchange servers."

I remember being impressed with those numbers at the time, especially as the company that I work for has 48 servers for a measly 10,000 users! (using 5.5)

Now that Microsoft have completed their deployment of 2003, I wonder how many servers they are now using?

Chris Meirick

Microsoft completes its Exchange 2003 deployment...

About a week ago, Microsoft revealed that they had completed their deployment of Exchange 2003 across the organisation.

That's about 80,000 mailboxes.

It was also revealed that this system had produced 99.98% availability over the previous 3 weeks.

That's great news.

Neil Hobson

"as many as 60 percent of Exchange seats continue to run on Exchange 5.5"

Exchange 2003 -- Is There Enough There? ... Interesting article from ENT news, which includes a quote from none other than Mr William Lefkovics - who just happens to be our latest guest contributor to join in, hot on the heels of Neil.

Chris Meirick

Come on down...

I am pleased to announce that we have a special guest contributor on-board... the one, the only Mr Neil Hobson...

Neil has kindly agreed to post items of interest to the blog. There is a bit of an issue at the moment however, as it seems that guest authors can't be set up, so Neil will probably be using my logon in the meantime... You should be able to tell the difference however... Neil's submissions will likely be about the latest and greatest releases ie 2K & 2003, while mine will be all about the good ol' 5.5 that I'm still using!

Mobile E-mail

Interesting article in the Guardian recently about mobile e-mail

Play with OWA on 2003

This is a smart marketing move...Microsoft are providing seven day trial accounts for OWA on Exchange 2003... that's right, you can play with Exchange 2003 via OWA for a week...I'm off to sign-up, I'll let you know how I get on...

Playing with Outlook 2003

A New Outlook on Outlook... Jupiter's Microsoft Monitor on their fun and games with Outlook 2003 Beta 2

Exchange 2003 Goes RTM

w2knews reports that Exchange 2003 has been released to manufacturing. They go on to say "MS Officials said prices will hold the same for E2K and E2K3. This puppy took 3 years to build. We have it running over here and our Tech guys like it. They will introduce a new per-user licensing option with the E2K3 release, basically legitimizing the way many companies already use their existing versions of Exchange. The new license type will be offered in addition to the per-device license introduced with E2KServer."

Welcome

Hello, thanks for popping by. This is my new weblog for everything related to Microsoft's Exchange Server, versions 5.5 through to the latest release 2003. I intend to post details of interesting Exchange articles, tools, how-tos, links and so on... please feel free to pop-by on a regular basis, and to get in touch if you have any Exchange news or advice to share.