In this article I will show you some of the caveats you run into when deploying Windows XP SP2 in an organization where your users rely on the Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2003 client, and because many of the security enhancements included in Windows XP SP2 have been made to Internet Explorer (IE) there are plenty.
Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access and Exchange ActiveSync all use HTTP methods to access Exchange 2003. This article describes the mechanisms behind these features and explains why the features can sometimes be so awkward to configure.
In this article I will give you some information about how to determine the Routing status of your Exchange organization with the help of the WinRoute tool. WinRoute is a Microsoft Exchange Server 2000/2003 tool that you can use to determine the link state routing (LST) information that is known to the routing group master. You can use this tool for troubleshooting Message Routing in Exchange 200x environments.
Because Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2003 has become so feature-rich (in premium mode) and provides a user interface that closely matches Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 (also known as the Outlook MAPI client), provides far better performance and security than was the case with earlier versions, it’s getting more and more popular to use OWA 2003 as the default client among users within the organization (especially when speaking retail stores, schools and factory floors etc.)
Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access and Exchange ActiveSync are all methods of accessing Exchange 2003 using HTTP, but making them all work together can be a bit of a nightmare. The problems multiply when users have email addresses selected from more than one email domain. This article explains the mechanisms behind these HTTP features so that you may avoid some of the common pitfalls.
In this article I will give you a high level overview about the installation of Exchange 2003 on a Windows 2003 two node Cluster. This article doesn’t explain every necessary step for clustering Exchange, but it should give you an overview about the installation process and some basic handling.
In this article I will give you an overview of the Exchange 2003 Migration Wizard (MAILMIG.EXE). With the help of the Migration Wizard you can simply migrate from a foreign messaging system or older Exchange versions to Exchange 2003. The wizard can help you to migrate from: Migration Files, MS Mail for PC Networks, cc:Mail, Exchange 5.5, Lotus Notes, Novell GroupWise 4.x, Novell GroupWise 5.x, Internet Directory (LDAP via ADSI) and, Internet Mail (IMAP4).
A lot of companies are willing to implement Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 as their primary messaging and collaboration system. And therefore these companies need an Active Directory implementation. The question then often is: What’s the best way to design an Active Directory environment for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003? Within this article we will try to delve a little bit deeper in this designing process itself and will have a look at the best practices for implementation.
In this article I will give you a detailed Step by Step solution how to create mailbox enabled users, mail enabled users, contacts and distribution list.
In this article I will provide you with a few useful OWA 2003 end-user tips & tricks. First I will show you some of my favourite OWA 2003 keyboard shortcuts, and then I will move on and explain how you can improve the awkward OWA 2003 Attachment feature simply by installing the S/MIME ActiveX component. I will also show you how you can have multiple mailboxes opened through OWA using one username. Last but certainly not least I will give you an insider tip on how it’s possible to recover shift-deleted (aka “hard deleted”) mailbox items through OWA 2003.
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) makes it easy to counter most forged "From" addresses in email, and thus helps to counter e-mail spam. GFI is offering an SPF module as freeware. In this article I will give you some information about the newest version of GFI MailEssentials 10.1 and how to setup the software with SPF integration.
Improperly configured file system antivirus software on Exchange server can cause you serious problems. This article will show you how to properly configure file system antivirus software on Exchange server and avoid most common pitfalls.
In this article I will give you a detailed overview of: How to remove Exchange Server 2003 from your computer; How to Remove the First Exchange 2003 Server Computer from the Site; and How to completely remove Exchange 2003 from Active Directory.
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.
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.
Nobody likes to start from scratch. This is especially true if you have a well established network and firewall infrastructure that’s working for you. Why would you want to go and change everything just to add a new application layer intelligent firewall to your setup? Things are working already and you haven’t been successfully attacked for at least 6 weeks. This article shows how you can place an ISA 2004 firewall on your network to protect your Exchange Servers with minimal changes to your current network topology. Check it out!
With Exchange Server 2003 you have the possibility to use mobile devices to connect to your Exchange Server 2003 environment. Generally there are two ways to connect: through Outlook Mobile Access and, Exchange Active Server Sync. Within this article we will have a closer look at the configuration and the implementation of Exchange Active Server Sync and especially what has to be done to configure your device properly to make it work.
In this article I will give you some information about SPF – Sender Policy Framework and its implementation. Some statistics state that nearly 75% of all e-mail traffic is Spam, sometimes called UCE (Unsolicited Commercial Email). To help against this threat, several vendors are developing solutions against Spam. One solution is SPF. What is SPF? SPF is a solution to fight against email address forgery. SPF makes it easier to identify spam mails, viruses and worms.
Migrate your mail system from Exchange 2000 Server running on a Windows 2000 Server system to a new server running Exchange Server 2003 on Windows Server 2003. This scenario will take you through all Exchange-related issues from adding your first Windows Server 2003 system to unplugging your old Exchange 2000 system when finished.
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.
In this article I will give you an overview of the Microsoft Active Directory Connector (ADC). I will give you some background information about the ADC and its functions.
There are several Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that you can use to access an Exchange 2000 or 2003 Mailbox. WebDAV is not the easiest to learn, but can often be the most convenient. This article is an introduction to the topic.
In this article I will explain what Freedocs are all about as well as explain how you can benefit from enabling access to FreeDocs through OWA 2003. In Exchange 2000 (and prior versions) access to FreeDocs via OWA was enabled by default, but as many other things this was changed in Exchange 2003 (as part of Microsoft’s secure by default initiative.)
This guide presents a configuration for ensuring the Exchange 2003 HTTP remote access features (Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access and Exchange ActiveSync) work together harmoniously both in single-server Exchange deployments and more complex frontend-backend deployments. This guide also illustrates how the use of ‘Integrated’ authentication can provide internal Outlook Web Access users with ‘transparent’ logons.
If you are going to allow people outside of your organization to use Exchange to collaborate with each other you don’t really want to give them access to your default Public Folders, so in this article we will look at creating a new Public Folder tree, a new Public Folder Store, how to allow access to it via a web browser, and some of the configuration options you might want to apply.
In this article I will give you an overview of Exchange 2003 Mailbox Management. We will cover the following topics: Mailbox creation, Recipient Policies, Mailbox Management, and Mailbox Recovery.
In this article I will give you a Step by Step solution how to rename a Windows 2003 domain with Exchange 2003 installed. This article will not explain every step how to do a domain rename. This is documented in the “Step-by-Step Guide to Implementing Domain Rename“. You will find the link at the end of this article. The Windows Server 2003 Active Directory Domain Rename Tool provides a supported methodology to rename one or more domains in an Active Directory forest. The DNS name and the NetBIOS name of a domain can be changed using the domain rename procedure. Note that implementing domain rename is a complex undertaking that requires thorough planning and a good understanding of the domain rename procedure.
If someone already tried the Exchange Server 2003 Beta 2 he should have found out that at least one feature was missing in comparison to the final release. With the Beta 2 you were able to reconnect a mailbox that was mounted via the recovery storage group feature with a user from your Active Directory. So it was quite easy to configure and no Exmerge utility was needed at that time. With its final release things changed and you have had to use Exmerge to recover the mailbox. Now with Service Pack 1 this feature is back.
Okay so you have enabled Forms-based Authentication (FBA) and your users can now logon to Outlook Web Access (OWA) 2003 either by typing domain\username or username@domain.com. But ever since you enabled FBA your users have found it annoying they can’t type username anymore, the other day even the CEO told you his opinion about it, and he definitely wasn’t satisfied so you better come up with a solution.
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.
In this article I will give you tips for troubleshooting Exchange 2003 POP3 access and SMTP E-Mail transfer using the good old Telnet client. Why am I writing an article about POP3 and SMTP troubleshooting with the help of Telnet? Telnet gives you some powerful information about every connection step for POP3 or SMTP processes.
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.
In this article I will give you a step by step solution to deploy the Site Consolidation Tools for Exchange 2003 in Mixed Mode. Have you ever tried to move a Mailbox between different administrative Groups in Exchange 2003 Mixed Mode? – It doesn’t work. What do you do when you are deploying an Upgrade from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003? What do you do with the Outlook Profiles? How can you update these settings to reflect the new Server? The answer is easy. Install Exchange 2003 SP1 and the updated version of the Exchange 2003 Deployment Tools and life will go easier. You will see this later in this article.
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.
The Inter-Organization Replication tool was initially released as part of Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 SP3, with an Update for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. This tool is used to replicate public folder content and free and busy information between different Exchange organizations. It allows the coordination of meetings, appointments and contacts.
In this article I will give you a step by step solution to setup an InterOrg Replication between two different Exchange 2003 Organizations.
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.
The Windows 2003 Forest is the logical boundary of Exchange 2003. Microsoft recommends deploying only one Active Directory Forest whenever possible. There are many reasons for single forest deployment beginning with the administrative overhead through the need to synchronize the Global Address Lists of Exchange 2003 between two forests to provide a central GAL. But what if you have more than one forest with Exchange 2003 (through a merger or acquisition)? In this article I will explain in high level steps how to synchronize the GALs (Global Access Lists) of two Exchange 2003 organizations with the help of IIFP. This article should give you an overview about this complex process.
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.
You can configure an SMTP Connector to connect your Exchange Organization with the Internet or with another organization using SMTP as a transport protocol. This article explains in detail how to configure an SMTP Connector in Exchange 2003.
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.
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.
As already described in one of my last articles about Exchange Server 2003 you do not have to install a second Exchange Server environment in an isolated forest to restore a single mailbox or a single mailbox item. You can use the recovery storage group to restore a mailbox database onto your running Exchange Server 2003. After having done this you now have to extract the mailbox you want to recover using the ExMerge utility.
Finally Microsoft has released the new Exchange Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) - a SmartScreen-based Exchange 2003 add-on specifically developed to help Exchange Admins reduce the amount of unsolicited commercial e-mail (UCE) also known as spam received by their users.
The Microsoft Outlook Web Access 2003 Web-based Administration tool provides a long-awaited way of easily (and safely) making UI changes that previously required direct manipulation of the registry.
Get a glimpse into Henrik Walther's recently published book - Securing Exchange Server 2003 & Outlook Web Access! This essential book serves as a comprehensive checklist to all of the security-related configuration consoles in Exchange. Best of all, it's written in a "get to the point" style that clearly explains exactly what you need to know about installing, managing, and troubleshooting. This chapter focuses strictly on OWA security OWA authentication, enabling SSL on OWA, restricting user access, allowing password changes through OWA, and redirecting HTTP to HTTPS.
Exchange 2003 Standard and Enterprise offers the feature to monitor the Server status of the Exchange Servers in your Enterprise. If some of the monitored services and other Resources (RAM, CPU, Services) are in “Warning state” or “Critical State” you receive a status E-Mail or a customized action provided by a script notification. This article explains in detailed steps how to configure Monitoring and E-Mail notification.
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.
With Exchange Server 2003 we have some integrated mobile access features with the Microsoft messaging solution. In this article we firstly discuss the chances and risks of providing mobile access in Exchange and then describe the best practises configuring these ones.
Microsoft Exchange 2003 Server can create and manage full-text indexes for mailbox stores and public folders to provide users to search in message or public folder contents. With the help of full-text indexing, the content in an exchange database is indexed with the result of faster content searching. This article gives you best practices for deploying full-text indexing with Exchange 2003 Server.
“I will be back” – said Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator I – This is true for the IMW (Internet Mail Wizard) in Exchange 2003. Available first in Exchange 5.5, left in Exchange 2000 and new in Exchange Server 2003. This article explains in detail how to use the Exchange 2003 Mail Wizard to configure Internet E-Mail Access for your organization.
Your only true defense against spam mail using Microsoft Exchange is to install third-party solutions. With this article, we are going to compare and evaluate four products, each of them somewhat differentiated by its mode of operation and email filtering techniques.
Being an Exchange Administrator involves several different maintenance tasks, one of them is to regularly check if mail messages flows properly through your X.400 and SMTP Virtual Server queues, which is where the Queue Viewer contained in the Exchange System Manager comes into the picture. In this article I will introduce you to the Queue Viewer improvements found in Exchange 2003, as well as give a brief description of the different queue types available.
Getting help when you need it is not as complicated as you may think, there are many "self service" options available to you in the form of newsgroups, forums, discussion lists, blog and websites. In this article I hope to provide you with some valuable resources that you can use to build your knowledge of Exchange.
When you use Outlook 2003 with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, you can configure some folders in your mailbox for offline use, that is, you can use the contents of a folder without a Network connection. This article explains in detail how you can create, use, and synchronize offline folders.
In this article I will spend some time covering the much improved Move Mailbox Wizard found in Exchange Server 2003. The new Move Mailbox Wizard has been improved in several areas, its now possible to move up to 4 mailboxes at the same time (called Multithreading), you can decide how corrupted items are handled, mailbox moves can now be scheduled and there are different options for reporting etc.
Nowadays, with the great success of Exchange Server 2003, you have to prepare yourself on what action to take should message flow related problems occur. To ensure that you, as an administrator, become aware and recognize any problems before your users have reported them, you will need to make use of monitoring. This article will describe how to monitor your server queues and how to react if there are any problems.
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.
Exchange 2003 uses the Windows Server 2003 PKI architecture to provide secure e-mail services for Exchange users. Exchange 2000 KMS is no longer supported. The Windows 2003 Enterprise CA provides central key archiving and recovery. This article explains in high level steps how to migrate an Exchange 2000 KMS database to a Windows Server 2003 CA.
Why spend money on a 3rd party SSL certificate, when you can create your own for free? In this article I will show you step by step how you create your own SSL Certificate, which among other things is needed in order to properly secure Outlook Web Access on your Exchange 2003 Server.
There’s no doubt that spam is public enemy number one, not only to the e-mail administrator, but also to the firewall admin. Spam clogs Internet connections, wastes corporate bandwidth, reduces employee productivity and consumes valuable Exchange Server software and hardware resources. Spam, together with its evil cousins e-mail worms and viruses, represent the primary threats against corporate networks today. Find out how the ISA 2004 firewall protects your Exchange Server by acting as the first line of defense against spam and viruses.
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.
Ever since its first appearance, many Exchange Admins have attempted to customize the Outlook Web Access user interface. In Exchange 2003, the concept of 'themes' makes things a little easier. This article explains some of the theory.
An Exchange System policy provides a new way to apply common settings to servers, public folder stores and mailbox stores for all or selected objects in an Exchange administrative group. This article explains in detail how to implement a mailbox store policy.
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.
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.
We would like to welcome Microsoft MVP Henrik Walther to our team of authors as he presents his first article to MSExchange.org readers. As companies seems to start their Exchange 2003 deployments way faster, than was the case with Exchange 2000, I thought it was about time to provide you with information on how you handle an in-place upgrade from Exchange 2000 to 2003.
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.
A query-based distribution group is a new additional type of distribution group in Exchange 2003. This new type of distribution group provides the same functionality as a standard distribution group; however, instead of specifying static user memberships, a query-based distribution group allows you to use an LDAP query to dynamically build membership in the distribution group (for example All employees with a special group membership). Using query-based distribution groups we can reduce the administration costs dramatically. However a Query-based Distribution Group needs more Server resources like CPU power and RAM.
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.
The RPC over HTTP protocol allows your full Outlook 2003 MAPI clients to connect to Exchange 2003 Servers using HTTP/HTTPS. This solves the problem remote Outlook 2003 users have when located behind restrictive firewalls. The trick is to figure out how to properly configure the Outlook 2003 client to use this protocol. If you have remote users who need to access Exchange 2003 via Outlook 2003, then check out this article and see how to configure Outlook 2003 to use RPC over HTTP.
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