Welcome to Amit Zinman's Section

Currently working as Project Manager and Systems Consultant, heading and consulting on Exchange and NT/Windows 2000 based migrations and deployments for large companies such as Checkpoint, Comverse, Smarteam, Nice, Aladdin and leading Israeli Banks, Also involved in writing scripts and custom solutions for clients based on ADSI, CDO and Visual Basic and teaching Windows 2000 and Exchange 2000 in MSCE colleges and lecturing in Microsoft User Groups.

Amit Zinman's Latest Contributions

Upgrading to Exchange 2007 Server – A real life experience
Date - May 29, 2007
Section - Exchange 2007 Articles / Migration & Deployment
Migrating from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2007 in a real life environment.
A User Comes and a User Goes
Date - Oct 26, 2006
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Management & Administration
This article shows how to deal with overlapping and replacing Exchange users.
Remotely Administering Exchange 2003
Date - Sep 14, 2006
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Management & Administration
In this article we will discuss accessing the Exchange Management Console anywhere, anytime.
Public Folder Basics (Part 2)
Date - Aug 31, 2006
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Management & Administration
In the previous article I went over the most basic uses of public folders. However, as mentioned, public folders can be used for all kinds of purposes and have many features which are easy to overlook. In this article I will try to cover more of these features.
Public Folder Basics (Part 1)
Date - Aug 08, 2006
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Management & Administration
This article should server as a tutorial for beginners or occasional Exchange administrators, for setting up the folders and their permissions and points out the benefits of doing so.
Creating Exchange Users with Excel (Part 2)
Date - Jun 29, 2006
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Management & Administration
In this article I will show you how to overcome certain problems and how to synchronize an Excel sheet with Active Directory.
Creating Exchange Users with Excel (Part 1)
Date - Feb 14, 2006
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Management & Administration
In previous articles we discussed tools that create users and their mailboxes in Active Directory. LDIFDE has been mentioned and also VBScripts. However, the most powerful and flexible tool in my opinion is Excel. Excel can read information from various formats and can serve as a handy intermediary. You can manipulate the information in Excel as you find necessary before exporting it to Active Directory. A lot of data originates from Excel which is a common place for large tables. You can also combine data from a few sources into Excel.
Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Certificate-Based Authentication Tool Released
Date - Feb 09, 2006
Section - Exchange Server News / General
This tool deals with one of the weakest features of ActiveSync, namely authentication with certificates.
Microsoft Blogs About Its Migration Tools
Date - Feb 06, 2006
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft have always had the most extensive migration options, and these keep getting more robust.
Exchange Server 2003 Security Hardening Guide is Updated
Date - Feb 03, 2006
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The Exchange hardening guide is updated for Exchange 2003 SP1.
Microsoft Merges Exchange with Real-Time Communication Group
Date - Feb 01, 2006
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Exchange and the Real Time Messaging services have been this on-and-off couple for quite some time. Originally released as part of Exchange 2000, and split up with the release of Exchange 2003 and Live Communications server, the internal real time messaging component continues to evolve.
MS06-003 TNEF Encoding Vulnerability Patched
Date - Jan 11, 2006
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Included in the January 2006 patches released on January 10, 2006, is a critical patch to fix a TNEF decoding vulnerability.
Version 2 of the Exchange 200x Catchall Script Released
Date - Jan 09, 2006
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Allow your Exchange Server to "catch" mail for more than one domain.
Microsoft Messaging Hygiene Documentation Updated
Date - Dec 25, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
This is probably Microsoft's Christmas present for you – not so shocking details of the way Microsoft, the most attacked and spammed entity on earth handles its incoming and outgoing mail.
E12 Beta 1 Has Been Released by Microsoft
Date - Dec 16, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft today announced the release of Microsoft Exchange “12” Beta 1 — the code name for the next version of its leading server for e-mail, calendaring and unified messaging, to a select group of testers.
Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Web Administration Tool
Date - Dec 14, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
In order to complete the new Exchange 2003 SP2 mobile enhancement, Microsoft releases a tool to manage mobile devices at the enterprise level.
TechNet Support WebCast: Understanding and Troubleshooting DSAccess for Exchange Server 2003
Date - Dec 07, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Mid-level webcast covering the way Exchange interacts with Active Directory and the changes made to this process in Exchange 2003 SP2.
New Exchange Best Practices Analyzer version 2.9.0.1 Released
Date - Dec 07, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The most updated Microsoft utility just got better once again. Check out the list of new features here.
Overview of E12 Features (Part 2)
Date - Nov 24, 2005
Section - Exchange 2007 Articles / Planning & Architecture
The release of E12 (possibly Exchange 2007 by the time it’s released) draws near and new details are revealed while others become clearer. Microsoft have made a lot of design blunders with Exchange 2000 and only relatively few of those were fixed with Exchange 2003. However, Microsoft is known for being able to learn from its mistakes and make the right changes in its products.
Exchange 12 will be 64-Bit Only
Date - Nov 17, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
As part of the push towards 64-bit environments, it has been announced at IT Forum 2005, that E12 will be 64-bit only.
Additional Exchange Analyzing Tools Released
Date - Nov 09, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
In a further effort to make Exchange easier to manage and troubleshoot and potentially save support centers some calls, Microsoft releases two more tools, the Microsoft Exchange Server Disaster Recovery Analyzer (ExDRA), and the Microsoft Exchange Server Performance Troubleshooting Analyzer (ExPTA).
Microsoft Exchange Server Public Folder DAV-based Administration Tool Updated
Date - Nov 09, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
As part of the release of Exchange 2003 SP2 you can expect most of the Exchange related tools to be updated. Amongst those is the PFDAVAdmin tool that allows you to gather more information about your public folders and manage permissions and replicas more effectively.
Exchange 2003 is now Supported on Microsoft Virtual Server
Date - Oct 28, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
It took a while but now this is a supported configuration as long as you've installed Exchange 2003 SP2 and Virtual Server 2003 R2. Clustered Exchange is still not supported.
Mac Office 2004 Update for Entourage
Date - Oct 24, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft are still trying to bring Entourage closer to Outlook's capabilities as an Exchange client. Could it be that Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Service Pack 2 was out the door too soon? Anyhow, an update is already available that fixes issues with synchronization and permissions.
Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 Released
Date - Oct 19, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
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.
Baseline BIS TCO Assessment V3 Released
Date - Oct 13, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
This free tool allows you to assess the ROI (Return on Investment) that migration to Windows 2003 and Exchange 2003 from NT4, NetWare, Exchange 5.5, and GroupWise will bring an end customer. It is an invaluable tool for migration project managers.
Microsoft Exchange 2000 Security Patch Released
Date - Oct 13, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The patch relates to a vulnerability in CDO. This vulnerability apparently does not exist in Exchange 2003 but also appears in the all the other supported Microsoft products that run IIS, including Windows 2003 SP1.
Best Practices for using VSS with Exchange 2003 Guide Released
Date - Oct 11, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
With Windows 2003, Microsoft delivered the Volume Shadow Copy Service, essentially, Microsoft's take on snapshot technology allowing fast backup and restores. I remember everyone at the office excited about this, only it didn't worked quite as we hoped for, initially. Also, it didn't support Exchange. Now, following Windows 2003 and Exchange 2003 service packs, VSS for Exchange is now supported.
Solution of Clustered Exchange Standby Server Released
Date - Oct 11, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Standby servers are really useful in large environments. They are used to implement secondary sites for disaster recovery, and for testing purposes. For years, there was never a good solution for implementing a standby solution for Exchange clusters due to the complex nature of clustering. Now Microsoft releases and supports a solution for standby clustered Exchange 2003.
Security Patch for Exchange to be Released on October 11th
Date - Oct 10, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Nine patches will be released for the Windows platform, one of them affecting Exchange.
ADModify 2.1 Released
Date - Oct 10, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
ADModify.NET is a free tool primarily that can be utilized by Exchange and Active Directory administrators to facilitate bulk user attribute modifications.
Exchange 2003 Webcast Week is Upon Us
Date - Oct 10, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
As Exchange 2003 SP2 draws by, Microsoft will take you through all the new features and improvements in a series of webcasts starting October 17th. Later in the month you get a series of Exchange 2003 In Depth webcasts covering administration and maintenance issues.
E12 Special Developer Conference Announced
Date - Oct 06, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft announced today the agenda for this conference on the 7th and 8th of November. While this conference is aimed at serious exchange ISVs and developers it will shed light on some new features of the next Exchange version. It also means that a circulation of a beta version of E12 is near, even if it is a closed one.
Designing Outlook Forms (Part 2)
Date - Sep 27, 2005
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Management & Administration
In the first part of the article, I concentrated on the very basics of using Outlook Forms by creating a sample Help Desk application. In this article we will learn how to improve the form's GUI and use form automation to improve the accessibility and usability of Outlook Forms.
E12 New Programming Interfaces Presentation Available
Date - Sep 26, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
In the presentation from PDC, the Microsoft developer convention, Exchange Program Managers show how E12 will unify a lot of the APIs available today.
More details on Exchange 2003 SP2 Increase of Standard Edition database size
Date - Sep 16, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
It appears that extending the database size on Exchange 2003 Standard Edition servers after installing SP2 will have to be done using the registry.
Microsoft Publishes In-Depth Details on Application Layer Protection for Exchange with ISA Layer
Date - Sep 13, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
ISA Server, as a newcomer Firewall from Microsoft was generally greeted with some skepticism from security experts due to the reputation Microsoft had for security holes in its other products. That said, as an application layer protection Firewall, ISA server had for a period, no competition and is still considered the best one for allowing secure access to Exchange services from the Internet.
E12 to be Available on DVD Media Only
Date - Sep 12, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
You knew that sooner or later this was going to happen, so make way for the future of computing as the next version of Exchange is made available only on DVD media.
Overview of E12 Features
Date - Aug 30, 2005
Section - Exchange 2007 Articles / Planning & Architecture
Some insight into the promised features of the next Exchange version, E12.
Microsoft Holds Mobility Event in London
Date - Aug 24, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft will hold a great event on Mobility titled "The Mobile Opportunity - are you missing it?" on the 2nd September, 2005 in London.
Microsoft Develops an Exchange SLA Scoreboard
Date - Aug 24, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
It has always been difficult to explain the importance of the IT department. Some executives see this the department as "the one that constantly spends and doesn't make a profit". One of the reasons for this is the difficulty in showing the value of having a competent IT staff and quality software and hardware and measuring the output of this department.
Exchange 2003 SP2 CTP to be Released
Date - Aug 18, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
On August 19, Microsoft will release a preview release of Exchange 2003 SP2.
Planning for Your First Exchange Server
Date - Aug 18, 2005
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Planning & Architecture
Considerations for installing a single Exchange server for first time Exchange admins.
Upcoming Exchange Webcasts
Date - Aug 11, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft will hold a couple of Technet support webcasts today and next week which will help you troubleshoot Exchange Client connectivity issues and Offline Address Book (OAB) download issues.
Exchange Best Practices Analyzer v2.1a released
Date - Aug 10, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
It seems that there were a few bugs with the 2.1 release that indicated poor quality or rushed testing.
Exchange Tools are Updated
Date - Aug 08, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
I'm happy to note that the Microsoft Exchange team seems determined to continuously improve their Exchange support utilities while we are waiting for Exchange SP2 and E12.
Designing Outlook Forms (Part 1)
Date - Aug 02, 2005
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Management & Administration
This article will show how to utilize the power of Outlook Forms combined with Exchange Public Folders by using a sample help desk example.
Exchange 2003 SP2 to Provide Anti-Spam Enhancements
Date - Jul 22, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Exchange 2003 SP2 will include a number of new anti-spam features as part of Microsoft's ongoing commitment to combat spam.
Microsoft Gets into the Hosted Exchange Business
Date - Jul 22, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft will acquire FrontBridge Technologies, a leading provider of managed services so it will be able to offer in the near future hosted messaging services based on its constantly improving hosted offerings.
Exchange 2003 SDK June 2005 Update
Date - Jul 22, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The quarterly update of the Exchange Server 2003 Software Development Kit (SDK). Documentation and Samples are available for download.
Exchange 64-Bit Support
Date - Jul 15, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Exchange 2000 and 2003 are not supported on Windows 2003 64-Bit Edition. Unfortunately, Exchange 2003 SP2 will not even deliver WOW64 support for Exchange.
Sender ID Framework SPF Record Wizard is Available
Date - Jul 04, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft is trying to push the Sender ID technology in an effort to globally reduce junk e-mail levels. One of the major obstacles is that this technology needs to be adopted by all the DNS servers providing mail services. The next versions of Microsoft's anti-spam components of Outlook and Exchange will think of any e-mail coming from a source that did not implement Sender ID as suspect. Should you panic? Not yet.
Microsoft Baseline Analyzer Tool v2.0 Released
Date - Jul 04, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The Microsoft free security analysis tool has just been updated. For Exchange admins this tool can be used to determine whether patches are required for Exchange server, Outlook clients and supported operating systems.
Microsoft Issues Fix for SBS 2003 Slow Shutdown
Date - Jul 04, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The problem of slow shutdowns is not actually a SBS specific one. It exists for every server which is both a domain controller and an Exchange server. There are workarounds for this available which mostly include shutting down Exchange services before shutting down the operating system as described in one of my articles.
Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer v2.1 Released
Date - Jun 27, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
New version of ExBPA v2.1 is now available. It includes new WMI extensions to collect hardware information, performance baseline scan, cluster reporting, wildcard collection from the registry, UDP support, checksum operations, improved interface , and over a hundred new rules. It also includes various bug fixes.
Messaging Webcasts in July
Date - Jun 23, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
July is a mixed bag in terms of Exchange webcasts, though it seems that security remains the primary issue for Microsoft as webcasts continue to focus around this subject.
Configuration of Exchange SMTP Gateways at Microsoft Revealed
Date - Jun 23, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft is known for the transparency of its internal IT services that serve as a model for large IT infrastructures.
Scripting Exchange Using VBScript and ADSI (Part 3)
Date - Jun 21, 2005
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Tools
The first two parts of my scripting series discussed Exchange users in almost every possible angle. This third part of the series will go over ways for accessing Exchange objects, such as servers, storage groups and databases.
Exchange 2003 SP2 News
Date - Jun 08, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Great news for Exchange users as the expected service pack will raise the 16GB limit to a mind boggling 75GB which is more than enough for most small to medium businesses considering the cost of disk space.
Updated Outlook Profile Update Tool is Released
Date - Jun 06, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The Exchange Profile Update tool (Exprofre.exe), released last year as a replacement for the Outlook 2000 newprof.exe tool is now updated to support Exchange 2003 SP1.
Small Business Server 2003 SP1 is Released
Date - May 20, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
This update includes a number of Service Packs including Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP1 and Microsoft Outlook 2003 SP1.
New Security Enhancements in OWA 2003 Webcast
Date - May 18, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
A webcast on the 25th of May presented by Kevin Laahs, Principal Consultant in HP Services' Advanced Technology Group, about the new security enhancements and other features in OWA plus options for implementation.
New Public Folder Administration coming in Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2
Date - May 17, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Public Folder management is finally getting some interesting improvements and will become wizard based with Exchange 2003 SP2.
Windows Mobile 5.0 is Released
Date - May 11, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
In a packed hall of developers and industry partners at Microsoft Mobile & Embedded DevCon 2005, Microsoft Corp.'s annual mobile and embedded developers conference, Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft, announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Mobile (TM) 5.0.
Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2003 Deployment Kit
Date - May 06, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft has published a Deployment Kit for Upgrading Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2003 in a Medium-Sized Organization.
SBS 2003 SP1 Soon to be Released
Date - May 02, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The Microsoft Small Business Server page has already begun preparations for the rollout of the next service pack due at the beginning of next month.
A Sneak Peak at the Future of Server Clustering Webcast
Date - Apr 25, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
For some companies, Exchange server availability has become a top priority due to the increased use of e-mail for business use. For some companies Exchange downtime could mean loss of millions of dollars.
Exchange 2003 SP2 and E12 Features to be Revealed in Tech Ed 2005
Date - Apr 25, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Tech·Ed 2005 is Microsoft's largest technology educational conference and will be held in Orlando, Florida June 5-10. It is sold out by now but you can get your hands on the latest Exchange and other developments by watching webcasts, ordering the DVD box or attending some of the other worldwide Tech Ed conferences. Here at MSExchange.org we will comb through the information released in Tech Ed and bring you a summary of the new Exchange developments.
Microsoft Release Improved Log Parser Tool
Date - Apr 22, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The Log Parser tool has been quite a useful tool for analyzing IIS, Event Viewer log files and such. This tool is now even better, allowing you to analyze those cryptic XML outputs that almost every new Microsoft application now provides. It can also read registry and Active Directory information which can be quite handy.
Microsoft Exchange Team Releases Mailbox Manager FAQ
Date - Apr 20, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Anything and everything you always wanted to know about this handy tool that helps enforce corporate message retention policies and manage information store sizes, straight from the guys who develop it.
Protecting Exchange 2003 Using the Windows Firewall
Date - Apr 19, 2005
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Security & Message Hygiene
How to use the Windows 2003 SP1-introduced port and application filtering options to protect your Exchange server.
Security Patch for Exchange Released
Date - Apr 13, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft released a warning regarding a security flaw in the SMTP engine of Exchange 2000 and 2003.
Microsoft Exchange User Monitor (Exmon) Tool Released
Date - Apr 08, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The new tool, originally used internally in Microsoft, allows you on a user basis, to see how much resources a user on an Exchange server consumes in terms of CPU, latency, network traffic and disk space.
Tape Backup Alternatives
Date - Apr 07, 2005
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Monitoring & Operations
Tape backup is an old technology. It is sort of like the car engine. Though the technology has definitely matured, the basic principle and shortcomings have remained the same. In this article I will discuss backing to hard drives and DVD RAM drives for small and branch offices.
Quest Software Provides Free Exchange Migration Survival Guide and Poster
Date - Apr 07, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The company which has automated Exchange-related products, including a handy migration assistant, provides yet another general migration guide.
Microsoft Releases News Exchange 2003 Management Pack Configuration Wizard for MOM
Date - Apr 06, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Any of you using Microsoft Operations Manager to monitor Exchange should be glad to know that a new version is out.
Running Windows 2003 SP1 Security Configuration Wizard May Prevent Outlook Access to Exchange
Date - Apr 04, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The Security Configuration Wizard (SCW) adds the Exchange services executables to the Exceptions tab of the Windows Firewall. However, if these executables are not found in the default location then SCW misses them.
SBS 2003 SP1 will be available in two months
Date - Apr 01, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Following the release of Windows 2003 SP1, SBS 2003 SP1 is planned for release at the beginning of June 2005.
DataViz Licenses Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Protocol to Integrate with RoadSync
Date - Apr 01, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
So, by now all the major players in the mobile solutions business have licensed the Exchange ActiveSync technology and will enable all of their newest models. But what about existing models?
Windows 2003 SP1 is Released
Date - Apr 01, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The new Service Pack contains a lot of bug fixes and security enhancements.
Scripting Exchange Using VBScript and ADSI (Part 2)
Date - Mar 29, 2005
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Monitoring & Operations
The first part of my scripting series discussed ways of accessing and searching for Exchange objects such as users and contacts in Active Directory. This second part of the series will go over creation of a new object, and over the most important attribute of an Exchange recipient, the e-mail address.
Learn about Messaging Hygiene at Microsoft
Date - Mar 28, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
It is no secret the Microsoft is the most attacked company over the Internet. There is much to be learned from the way the Microsoft IT department handles its large quantities of unsolicited e-mail and infected messages.
Microsoft Team Asks You to Tell Them about Annoying Exchange Messages
Date - Mar 28, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
I've encountered some pretty weird error messages in my time as an Exchange expert. Microsoft plans to change this situation in the upcoming service pack and with E12, the successor to Exchange 2003.
Webcasts in April
Date - Mar 24, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
More webcasts are coming your way in April, it feels like its online TechEd all year long. April, so it seems, is the month of in-depth technical presentations, all level 300, and recommended even to Exchange experts. Watch out for slides showing inside tips as they can be quite useful!
Windows Server Update Service has Reached Release Candidate Status
Date - Mar 23, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Now officially called WSUS or Update Services, the next version of Software Update Services has been released in release candidate status.
Symbian licenses Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync Protocol for Symbian OS
Date - Mar 23, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Following Nokia's declaration of licensing the ActiveSync Protocol used to synchronize mobile devices with Exchange over the web.
Outlook Deployment Options Whitepaper is Released
Date - Mar 21, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft posted on its web site a whitepaper describing the use of the PRF that can be used to configure new Outlook profiles or modify existing ones.
Exchange Best Practices Analyzer v2.0 is Released
Date - Mar 18, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The fastest growing Exchange tool ExBPA just reached the second full release.
Scripting Exchange Using VBScript and ADSI (Part 1)
Date - Mar 18, 2005
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Management & Administration
In this article I will show you the basics of writing scripts in VBScript language using the ADSI interface provided by Active Directory for storing and retrieving Exchange information.
Exchange Best Practices Analyzer Management Pack for MOM 2005 Released
Date - Mar 17, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
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.
Exchange Server 2003 Security Hardening Guide is Updated
Date - Mar 09, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
This important guide has been updated with a document detailing the specific issues when securing Windows 20003/Exchange 2003 Clusters.
Migration from Novell GroupWise 6 and 6.5 to Exchange is Now Supported
Date - Mar 09, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft now supports using the Exchange Migration Tools to upgrade from the latest versions of Novell GroupWise.
Adding Events to Multiple Mailboxes using Exmerge
Date - Mar 08, 2005
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Tools
Add a holiday or some other company event to all the calendars without sending a meeting request.
TrendMicro Issues Fix for its VSAPI Engine
Date - Mar 04, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
TrendMicro's Antivirus products are widely used, especially in medium to large companies. The Internet Security Systems Protection Advisory has published an advisory concerning flaw in the ARJ parsing engine used by the entire TrendMicro Antivirus line that has been discovered and researched by Alex Wheeler of the ISS X-Force.
32K Storage Limit for Server-Side Rules Lifted in E12
Date - Mar 03, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
In all Exchange versions since version 5.0 you can create up to 75 rules using the Outlook Rules Wizard and the Out of Office Assistant. The numbers of rules you can create may vary according to the size of each rule. Rules grow larger if you have a lot of recipients in them, for example.
Free Exchange Web Seminars
Date - Feb 23, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Extending your knowledge of Exchange by using the web has become quite easy in the last month with Microsoft providing webcasts, articles and documentation. If this isn't enough for you, you can now register to two free Exchange web seminars provided by Windows IT Pro, known for their popular magazines.
Migrating Contacts and Distribution Lists from Outlook to Active Directory
Date - Feb 22, 2005
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Management & Administration
Use script magic to turn your Outlook MAPI based contact information to a lightening fast Active Directory, Exchange enhanced LDAP implementation.
Exchange 12 Features Announced
Date - Feb 21, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft revealed some of the features and other changes planned for E12, the next Exchange version.
March Exchange Webcasts
Date - Feb 18, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Next month webcasts will focus on real life issues and are targeted at Exchange administrators who are interested in technical issues.
Exchange 2003 Post-SP1 Update Fixes Memory Leak Condition
Date - Feb 18, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The memory leak could happen when you use a program such as LoadSim that uses Collaborative Data Objects (CDO) or MAPI32 to log on to or to log off mailboxes from multiple mailboxes at once.
IMF Managers
Date - Feb 17, 2005
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Tools
An overview of free IMF add-on tools allowing administrator to track which e-mails are blocked, view them, unblock them and more.
Nokia jumps on the ActiveSync bandwagon
Date - Feb 14, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Following PalmOne and Motorola's licensing of ActiveSync, Nokia has also announced the inclusion of this technology synchronizing Exchange with cellular devices.
SMTP Security Patch Released
Date - Feb 11, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft released in the last few days a few security related patches for all kinds of vulnerabilities. I would recommend installing all of them, preferably after testing in a lab environment. For Exchange Administrators a new vulnerability found in the SMTP engine allowing remote execution of code is the most relevant patch.
Microsoft releases an Exchange 2003 Post SP1 Update
Date - Feb 08, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
This time it’s a minor update allowing you to move a mailbox ,using a script, from one Administrative Group to another.
Intelligent Message Filter Update
Date - Feb 03, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
A much anticipated update for IMF, the Exchange 2003 free anti-spam add-on, has been released.
New Patches for Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003
Date - Jan 31, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
A bug has been found in Exchange allowing Outlook 2003 users to recover deleted items even if the server has been configured not to allow this. This problem affects both Exchange 2000 and Exchange 2003.
Next Exchange Version is E12
Date - Jan 25, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft decides to align its next Office version and Exchange version naming which apparently will go back to version numbers instead of years. For now the next version, scheduled to be released in late 2006 or early 2007, is named E-12.
The Exchange Best Practices Analyzer Tool has Been Updated
Date - Jan 25, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
It seems like just a week and a half ago the ExBPA tool has been updated and yet 50 more rules have been added and the version has been updated from 1.6.3.1 to 1.6.7.1.
Security Update for Exchange 2003 Server
Date - Jan 24, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
A recipient filtering configuration has been discovered that can make your Exchange 2003 server susceptible to directory harvesting attacks.
Microsoft Publishes Small and Medium Whitepapers
Date - Jan 24, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Just when you thought Microsoft published through its website all the whitepapers you could use, fifteen new ones are now available, aimed at the small to medium business market.
Upcoming Microsoft Webcasts
Date - Jan 19, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Tune in for the webcasts listed below intended for IT Managers, decision makers and for Exchange 2003 newbies.
Microsoft Scriptomatic Version 2.0 Released
Date - Jan 19, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The Scriptomatic tool allows you to easily create WMI based scripts to query your hardware, operating system and applications for all type of information.
Microsoft Publishes New Troubleshooting Exchange KB Articles
Date - Jan 13, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Two new troubleshooting articles, one about RUS permissions and the other regarding (mostly SMTP) transport issues have been published on the Microsoft website.
Microsoft Releases Activesync 3.8
Date - Jan 11, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Anybody who deals with synchronizing Exchange and PocketPCs or Mobile Smartphones (soon to be simply called Windows Mobile) would know that doing so is not always a straightforward process. Sometimes the process provides cryptic errors, and is accompanied by all kinds of reboots in an attempt to troubleshoot them. So, a new release of Activesync naturally brings joy to our hearts.
Upcoming Technet Exchange Webcasts
Date - Jan 10, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Over the next couple of days Microsoft will be holding two Technet webcasts that cover Exchange 2003 troubleshooting and high availability.
Microsoft updates the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer Tool
Date - Jan 10, 2005
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Now in version 1.6.3.1, this tool keeps getting better, now adding checking abilities for FSMO roles, directory replication connectors, ISA server, recently installed Windows and Exchange updates, and cluster node discrepancy detection.
Preparing Exchange 5.5 Directory for Migration to Exchange 2003
Date - Jan 05, 2005
Section - Articles & Tutorials / Exchange 5.5 Articles
How to make sure your Exchange 5.5 directory database is ready for the upgrade to Active Directory and Exchange 2000/3 based messaging. This article will evaluate the ways of making changes in the Exchange 5.5 directory before installing the Active Directory Connector (ADC) tool that synchronizes Exchange 5.5 with Active Directory to ease matching of users and mailboxes.
Microsoft Releases Some Exchange Edge Services Components as Part of Exchange 2003 SP2
Date - Dec 30, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
It has been a confusing week as different media sources got conflicting announcements from Microsoft officials regarding the release of Exchange Edge Services, essentialy a componentialized mail relay system that will also protect e-mail from junk e-mail and other attacks.
Simulating Stress for your Exchange 2003 Hardware using LoadSim 2003
Date - Dec 16, 2004
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Tools
This article deals with testing a brand new Exchange server hardware in a lab environment by simulating Outlook activity.
Microsoft Releases an Overview of Exchange High Availability
Date - Dec 14, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft's internal IT department publishes the means by which they keep their own Exchange servers available 99.99% of the time.
Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Version 1.1
Date - Dec 09, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft really are intent on making this tool a useful one for Exchange admins as version 1.1 is out the door real fast. It now includes a slightly improved GUI and performs more tests.
Microsoft Release An Update for the Exchange 2003 SMTP Component
Date - Dec 06, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
This update is the second version for the SMTP componenet since Exchange 2003 SP1 has been released and takes care of a problem that occours when you use VAPI 2.5 and the Intelligent Message Filter.
Microsoft continues to publish more information and guides about Exchange 2003
Date - Dec 02, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The recent publications include The Offline Address Book Best Practices Guide and The Exchange 2003 Operations Checklists guide.
Motorola Licenses Activesync Technology for its Smartphones
Date - Dec 01, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Though Motorola has been delivering synchronization with Exchange using Activesync technology for its MPx220 Smartphones based on Microsoft's Smartphone OS, Motorola now lincensed Activesync technology for use in its Linux based A780 mobile phones.
Microsoft publishes an update for Exchange Best Practices Analyzer Tool
Date - Nov 30, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The MSExBPA tool used to diagnose Exchange problems and offer solutions just got better as Microsoft publishes version 1.6.0.1. Updated in this release are the XML file used by the tool to analyze information and the help file.
Microsoft Releases Exchange 2003 Post SP-1 Update
Date - Nov 15, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Earlier than expected, Microsoft releases a rollup update containing bug fixes found since the release of Exchange 2003 SP1.
Attend Live Technet Exchange 2003 Webcasts and Win Prizes!
Date - Nov 05, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
It's Exchange 2003 Webcast week (November 8th - November 12th) at Microsoft so you can tune in to several Level 200 Technect Webcasts.
Microsoft resubmits the Sender ID framework specification to IETF
Date - Nov 03, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft resubmitted the Sender ID framework specification to the Internet Engineering Task Force which should publish a preliminary RFC in a few weeks.
Shared Hosting with Exchange 2003 (Part 2)
Date - Oct 28, 2004
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Migration & Deployment
This article deals with hosting Exchange 2003 services for multiple customer companies by creating virtual Exchange organizations in a single domain.
Microsoft Announces Windows Mobile Webcasts Week
Date - Oct 27, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
If you like Technet webcasts and are interested in connecting devices to Exchange 2003 November 15-18 is the week for you as Microsoft tells all about wireless connectivity using mobile devices to Exchange 2003.
Microsoft's Solution Accelerator for Exchange Consolidation and Migration
Date - Oct 25, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft publishes new online guides on migrating to and implementing Exchange 2003 as part of its "Solution Accelerator".
Microsoft Releases Exchange MSSearch Administration Tool
Date - Oct 19, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The MSSearch component of Exchange provides a way to create Full-Text Indexes for Exchange Stores which allows for faster searches. Microsoft has now released a VBScript based tool to manage, fix and get the status of Full-Text Indexes in the entire organization.
Using IIS Lockdown Tool to Secure Exchange Installations
Date - Oct 14, 2004
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Security & Message Hygiene
Exchange 2003 when installed on Windows 2003 is secure by default. However, Exchange 2000 and 2003 on Windows 2000 are not very secure because IIS 5, the Windows 2000 built-in web server installed installs some components that are not required for Exchange and can be exploited by hackers. True, Firewalls may protect you, but nowadays sophisticated viruses and Trojans may attack you from inside, catching you unaware. Learn how to secure Windows 2000 IIS for Exchange 2000/3 installations.
Microsoft Provides A Technet Support Webcast on Hosted Exchange 2003
Date - Oct 14, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
There is little information on hosting Exchange on the Internet. Microsoft provides a seemingly comprehensive document about hosting Exchange 2000 but with little real technical know-how information. Now is your time to learn about this hefty subject straight from the source.
Microsoft Issues Warnings About SMTP and NNTP Vulnerabilities
Date - Oct 14, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The SMTP vulnerability affects Exchange 2003 and Exchange 2003 SP1 when installed on Windows 2003 and Exchange 2003 when installed on Windows 2000.
Exchange Memory Allocation
Date - Oct 12, 2004
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Planning & Architecture
Deciding how much memory to use for Exchange is rarely an exact science. Large organizations might have statistics for Exchange usage so they can plan according to charts, but even then the planning might fail if user's mail usage changes or a virus spreads internally. Any Exchange hardware or software problem might also prove to be too much for systems that usually run smoothly. This article will deal with how much memory Exchange servers should have and how to deal with servers with large RAM.
Microsoft Publishes New Implementation and Interoperability Exchange 2003 KB Articles
Date - Oct 06, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
Microsoft has always been the company most dedicated to providing extensive documentation of its products. To make it easier to search for these articles Microsoft published the availability of these articles at the Microsoft support web site as Knowledge Base articles.
Microsoft Delivers a TechNet Webcast on Microsoft Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer
Date - Oct 05, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
This Level 300 webcast will be delivered by Paul Bowden, a Program Manager at Microsoft and will focus on the now commonly referred to as ExBPA tool, the automated health check and troubleshooting tool for Exchange 2000/3.
Installing and Configuring SBS 2003
Date - Sep 22, 2004
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Migration & Deployment
Implementing Microsoft's small business full featured package from an Exchange 2003 perspective. This article will not detail all the countless features of SBS 2003. Instead, it will focus on installing SBS 2003 as an Exchange server that also features file and monitoring services.
Microsoft releases Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool
Date - Sep 22, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
A new tool is available on Microsoft's web site that can be used to troubleshoot Exchange configuration problems by collecting information from your servers.
Microsoft re-releases Outlook 2003 Junk E-mail Filter
Date - Sep 20, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
The Outlook 2003 built-in SPAM filtering mechanism has been re-released.
Microsoft Provides an SSL Diagnostics Utility
Date - Sep 16, 2004
Section - Exchange Server News / General
As part of last days' barrage of utilities that Microsoft is releasing a tool that can diagnose SSL problems with IIS.
Configuring SMTP for Branch Deployments
Date - Aug 19, 2004
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Migration & Deployment
An overview of setting up SMTP flow in a sample medium sized Exchange organization.
The Hidden Power of Sender and Recipient Filtering
Date - Aug 03, 2004
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Security & Message Hygiene
Filtering in Exchange 2003 can be a powerful tool in the right hands. It can help you to protect your mail server, especially in a single server or branch scenario when no mail relay is provided and ease the load off your regular anti virus and anti spam packages if it is used right.
Things to Do When Your Exchange gets Blacklisted
Date - Jul 27, 2004
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Monitoring & Operations
One day you get a lot of phone calls regarding mail not getting anywhere and your SMTP queue is full of junk. This could easily get you into panic and much calls to outside expensive consultants. Instead, a few steps can rid you of these attacks. This article will deal with how to get your Exchange server out of block lists and stop attacks at the same time.
Protecting Exchange against Spam
Date - Jul 20, 2004
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Security & Message Hygiene
Unsolicited e-mail, more commonly known as spam is a rising and complex problem. Unlike viruses, spam mail does not have a clear and cut signature. Anyone could send you an e-mail you wouldn't want to receive so determining which e-mail you definitely would not want to accept can be tricky. Various anti-spam packages exist. However, integrating them into your mail systems is not trivial. They have so many options that may help you prevent spam but can also cause a lot trouble and increase "where is my mail" type help desk calls. I hope to cover most aspects of combating spam here to make it easier for you to decide which solution is best for your needs.
Securing SMTP Connections to Specific Servers
Date - Jul 13, 2004
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Security & Message Hygiene
SMTP is basically a non-secure protocol. E-mail fraud and spoofing is not difficult to do. This means anyone can send you an e-mail posing as someone else. Moreover, SMTP mail is typically sent in clear text and can be intercepted on the way by anyone using "sniffers", programs that record network activity. In this article you'll learn how to send and receive encrypted mail.
Exchange 2000 Diagnostics Logging
Date - Jul 06, 2004
Section - Exchange 2000 Articles / Monitoring & Operations
Diagnostics logging might be a powerful tool, especially if you know something about the inner workings of Exchange. It can also be a time saver when talking to Microsoft support services that can analyze the information and help you in a time of need.
Defragmenting your Exchange Database
Date - Jun 24, 2004
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Management & Administration
This article deals with the importance of shrinking your Exchange database using the ESEUTIL tool. Defragmenting your database is a good practice though should not be overdone due to its disk intensive nature. It is a useful tool but as all tools should be dealt with care when used in a production environment.
Exchange Backup Strategies
Date - Jun 22, 2004
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / High Availability & Recovery
The ability to restore Exchange is important but not trivial as there are various options to choose from. Taking the time to evaluate these options can be critical and save you time and money if you make the right decisions.
Exchange 2003 Service Pack 1 Review
Date - Jun 03, 2004
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Planning & Architecture
Step by step guide to installing the latest Exchange service pack and quick overview of some of the new features.
Choosing the Right Storage for Your Exchange Server
Date - Jun 01, 2004
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Planning & Architecture
Choosing the right storage solution depends on balancing budget and functionality. Knowing about alternatives is always good since having a cheaper solution is better than having no solution at all. This article provides an overview of the hardware used to store the Exchange operating system and databases.
Accelerating the Exchange Server shut down process
Date - Apr 23, 2004
Section - Exchange 2000 Articles / Monitoring & Operations
What do you do when your Exchange server takes a long time to shut down? Here is a short simple way to speed up your Exchange server shutting down.
Exchange 2003 Upgrade Checklist
Date - Apr 06, 2004
Section - Articles & Tutorials / Exchange 5.5 Articles
For those about to migrate from Exchange 5.5 to 2003, refer to this handy checklist before you plunge into the upgrade process. Being aware of the things that need to be considered will help you prepare for a smoother migration.
Using Public Folders to Maximize Exchange Standard Edition Use
Date - Mar 03, 2004
Section - Exchange 2000 Articles / Management & Administration
Most small businesses rarely use their public folder. At most they share their company contact list there. It is ironic that these businesses can benefit most from using public folders.
Logging the SMTP Service
Date - Jan 21, 2004
Section - Exchange 2000 Articles / Monitoring & Operations
SMTP logging can, at times, the key to troubleshooting many mail problems by providing valuable information regarding incoming mail. It can also be used for providing statistics on mail flow from the Internet. The following article describes the secrets of logging SMTP activities for troubleshooting and other purposes.
Configuring DNS for Exchange 2000
Date - Jan 06, 2004
Section - Exchange 2000 Articles / Management & Administration
Exchange 2000, internally, unlike traditional SMTP mail servers, does not rely on DNS MX records for mail delivery within the organization. Instead, it maintains a dynamic routing table used to transport mail around the Exchange organization. However, Exchange 2000 does depend on DNS for resolving host names, finding global catalog servers and finding other mail servers on the Internet. Also, without MX records on Internet DNSs, you wouldn't get mail from the Internet into your corporate environment.
Dealing with Localization of Outlook Folders
Date - Dec 17, 2003
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Management & Administration
This article provides a few tips and tricks for making sure that Outlook folders are using the language you want when Exchange is involved.
Testing Mail Flow using Outlook Express
Date - Dec 04, 2003
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Monitoring & Operations
Sometimes, in order to troubleshoot mail problems you can use a handy tool installed on every Windows 2000/2003 server, Outlook Express. Outlook Express is a powerful SMTP diagnostic tool. It's availability on almost all mail servers and workstations makes it easy to play Sherlock Holmes finding clues regarding mail problems.
Using the SMTP Connector Internally
Date - Nov 26, 2003
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Management & Administration
Although all of us Exchange administrators would like to have Exchange as the sole mail server, sometimes more SMTP mailers exist. The following article explains how to configure Exchange to relay mail for these systems.
Using Mail Relays to Enhance Exchange Security
Date - Nov 19, 2003
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Security & Message Hygiene
Virus, Trojan and denial of service attacks are quite common these days and Exchange is a popular target for these attacks due its popularity and inherent vulnerabilities. Mail relays can be used to thwart most attacks. I'm constantly discovering that although the concept of mail relays is not new they can be used against the latest sophisticated attacks, just long as they're not the weakest link in the chain of e-mail delivery.
Migrating from POP3/SMTP servers using the M Drive
Date - Oct 09, 2003
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Migration & Deployment
Moving users from using an internal POP3/SMTP server can be a tricky and costly business, with many pitfalls. The Exchange IFS "M" Drive can be used to ease some of these migration scenarios.
Shared Hosting with Exchange 2003 (Part 1)
Date - Sep 30, 2003
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Migration & Deployment
Active Directory and Exchange allows you to provide service to more than 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.
Using Outlook 2003 to connect to Exchange 2003 using RPC over HTTPS
Date - Sep 23, 2003
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Mobility & Client Access
Using Windows 2003/XP's new RPC over HTTP feature, Outlook 2003 clients can now connect to Exchange 2003 by encapsulating regular RPC/MAPI communications in HTTPS communications.
SMTP Virtual Server Uncovered
Date - Aug 22, 2003
Section - Exchange 2000 Articles / Management & Administration
Mastering the inner workings of Exchange 2000's SMTP service can be very useful when configuring servers to deal with mail problems such SPAM attacks and virus outbreaks. This article will provide some insight into better SMTP queue management to improve your ability to cope when your queues get swamped with spam and virus outbreaks.
Exchange 2003 Active Directory Connector Wizardry
Date - Jun 23, 2003
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Migration & Deployment
Migration from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2000 was a bit of a headache for those who tried it, especially using the early versions of ADC, the component used to synchronize Exchange 5.5 and Active Directory. Microsoft will soon release Exchange 2003, which is not a great leap in design as Exchange 2000 but basically, the same product with some additional capabilities, improved web interface and Windows 2003 operating system support. The Exchange 2003 ADC has evolved to make basic migration scenarios more easy using automated and wizard based mechanisms. Let's look at some of the changes.
Exchange 2003 Beta 2 – Improvements and Questions
Date - Jan 24, 2003
Section - Exchange 2003 Articles / Planning & Architecture
Exchange 2003 is supposed to be a minor upgrade of Exchange 2000, mainly delivering improvements based on customer feedback. Exchange 2000, a major leap from Exchange 5.5 had some incomplete features and stability issues. Some features have been added through services packs (STM files virus checking, fault tolerant domain controller access, and more) and some have been saved for the new code named Titanium version. Some of the new features are only available when installed on the Windows 2003 platform, some only when used with the upcoming Outlook 11 client, also in its beta cycle.
Using Exchange 2000 as a low end contact management solution
Date - Sep 16, 2002
Section - Exchange 2000 Articles / Management & Administration
Many companies, not wanting to invest a lot of money in an expensive contact management solution use Outlook public folders for this purpose.
Moving Users from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2000
Date - May 16, 2002
Section - Exchange 2000 Articles / Migration & Deployment
So, you've successfully deployed Active Directory and managed to synchronize it with Exchange 5.5 using the ADC. Everything is stable and working okay, so now you decide to install a brand new Exchange 2000 server and move the users to a brave new messaging world. You must be thinking, how do you move the users?
Migrating the Address Book from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2000
Date - Apr 25, 2002
Section - Exchange 2000 Articles / Migration & Deployment
The old Exchange address book was not very powerful or complex but it did the job in most situations. A handy feature that existed in Exchange 5.5 was automatic creation of address lists. All you had to do was go to File a New Other a Address Book View, choose a mailbox attribute and almost immediately you would get address view for all your departments or whatever attributes you decided to sort users by.
Creating a list of Users and their e-mail addresses in Exchange 2000 (2)
Date - Mar 27, 2002
Section - Exchange 2000 Articles / Management & Administration
In my previous article I presented a script that iterated through all the OUs to export mail enabled users' mail addresses to a CSV file. Active Directory allows you, instead of going through each and evey the OUs, to perform directory wide searches by constructing an LDAP query. LDAP is a pretty complex and powerful query language. The more precise you want to get in your query, the more it gets difficult to control a query.
Creating a list of Users and their e-mail addresses in Exchange 2000
Date - Mar 01, 2002
Section - Exchange 2000 Articles / Management & Administration
In Exchange 5.5 you had a GUI interface that let you easily import and export users in the Exchange Administrator utility. Active Directory essentially lets you do the same thing with two utilities: Ldifde and CSVDE. However, both utilities are not that easy to use. Basically you have to unappealing options: either you export the entire directory and start filtering through the many fields available there (and there are a lot!) or you deal with command line switches.