rcpt to:

2011-12-05T09:47:00.001-08:00

Exchange 2010 SP2 has been released:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28190&hash=XkKXs9Ph75nS%2bOo0lFPMQUZPn9gcpwx6I%2bsLmM7ZQ1W7R2BX0ng5rS8BdOaOT2dbGs4FL16b0aPNGCJQkNzGsQ%3d%3d

I would hold off a few weeks before installing just to see if any major bugs are found.

2011-04-13T13:43:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in a while but I ran across the announcement for the Exchange ActiveSync Logo program and thought 'hey, great idea'. Then I read thru the details and found out they are still missing one Major piece: How can a device (ie, Windows Phone 7) be fully compliant but not support on-device encryption? If you work in the Financial, Legal or Government space this is absolutely mandatory so it's really a mistake to advertise devices as 'fully compliant' while missing this critical piece. Hopefully Microsoft will bring on-device encryption to Windows Phone 7 asap so it's considered a good corporate citizen.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2011/04/13/announcing-the-exchange-activesync-logo-program.aspx

2010-06-24T15:02:00.000-07:00

If you have installed Exchange 2010 on Server 2008 R2 and are having issues getting the EMS to connect to the local server with the following error:

Connecting to remote server failed with the following error message: The WinRM client cannot process the request. It cannot determine the content type of the HTTP response from the destination computer. The content type is absent or invalid. For more information, see the about_Remote_Troubleshooting Help topic.

I changed the following values located in the applicationHost.config file in Windows\system32\inetsrv\config:

Section -->

section name="handlers" overrideModeDefault="Deny" - change this value from "Deny" to "Allow"

section name="modules" allowDefinition="MachineToApplication" overrideModeDefault="Deny" - change this value from "Deny" to "Allow"

Compliments to ddepuy for pointing me in the right direction

I was troubleshooting this issue and going thru this post on EHLO but it failed to mention this particular
detail that fixed my situation:

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2010/02/04/453946.aspx

Hope this saves someone else from the headache I got from this issue.

2010-04-27T08:24:00.000-07:00

Sounds like sp1 for Exchange 2010 is where RTM should have started. At times I love powershell but I also love to use the GUI for single configuration items like setting up a DAG.

http://blogs.technet.com/scottschnoll/archive/2010/04/10/new-high-availability-features-in-exchange-2010-sp1.aspx

2010-03-31T14:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted but ran across an interesting video from Perry Clarke on some of the I/O changes that went in to Exchange 2007 and 2010. For anyone that doesn't know, Perry runs the mailbox team (Within the Exchange group) and has been there for a LONG time. I actually had an interesting discussion/disagreement with Perry back in 2005 during an MVP summit. This was prior to Exchange 2007 and they were just in the middle of some critical design decisions around Exchange 2007. One of those involved not including export to PST (as well as not extending Exmerge to use Unicode PST's) and the discussion got a bit heated as I pointed out many scenarios in our business (Legal) where we needed this feature. Needless to say, Microsoft added 'export-mailbox' to Exchange 2007 sp1 and everyone was once again happy.

Anyways, enjoy the video from Perry:

http://blogs.technet.com/perryclarke/default.aspx

2009-11-09T08:41:00.000-08:00

Exchange 2010 went GA:

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/11/09/453096.aspx

Here's hoping for a solid release, especially considering all the new stuff in this one!

2009-10-08T10:48:00.000-07:00

Exchange 2010 has just gone RTM:

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/10/08/452775.aspx

I'm pretty excited about this release, especially with regards to clustering. Hopefully
the bits are solid and ready for production.

2009-09-04T10:23:00.001-07:00

I am posting this in hopes that it helps other admins. We ran in to an issue that involved a huge increase in log generation on one of our storage groups. After running thru the usual suspects (virus scanning, looping mesages) we attempted to identify any potential users that could be causing the issue by using exmon. Most articles specify looking at the log bytes column for users

on E2k7 but for a mailbox on an E2k3 server, that column is non-functional. You can however use the BytesIn column to get an idea of any clients generating a lot of traffic to the server.

While exmon helped, it still did not definitively identify the user who was causing this issue. The next step was to use powershell to examine a subset of the logs being generated to idenitfy any patterns:

http://blogs.msdn.com/scottos/archive/2007/11/07/remix-using-powershell-to-parse-ese-transaction-logs.aspx

This ended up being the method that allowed us to identify a particular user that was causing an inordinate

amount of updates in the logs (apparently you need at least 50 logs files to get a good set of data). Going on a hunch from another case I had read about, we deleted this users OST file (he was running Outlook 2007/sp2) and the excessive log generation stopped. We are still waiting to hear from MS on whether their is a fix for this issue but at least we have a better method of identifying the problem user.

2009-09-04T10:20:00.000-07:00

Here is a nice article on the new mailbox auditing features included in sp2 for Exchange 2007. This feature has been sorely missing as the in the box tools were basically useless and the 3rd party tools that we have looked at ended up causing more problems than they solved.

Also nice work adding a special hidden permission to allow you to exclude service accounts from the auditing as it makes looking at the logs much easier and helps conserve log space.

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/09/03/452310.aspx

2009-08-24T18:19:00.000-07:00

Microsoft just released SP2 for Exchange 2007 which is required if you are installing

Exchange 2010 in an existing environment. Be sure to test in your lab environment

before deploying to production servers.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=4c4bd2a3-5e50-42b0-8bbb-2cc9afe3216a

2009-08-18T09:02:00.001-07:00

Exchange 2010 RC has been released and is feature complete:

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/08/17/451974.aspx

2009-05-19T21:07:00.000-07:00

Rollup 8 just hit....

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968012

2009-04-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

SP2 for Office 2007 has been released and there are some major improvments with regards to Outlook performance, especially in cached mode. These were back ported to the Feb. cummulative update but are also included in SP2 along with other stuff.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B444BF18-79EA-46C6-8A81-9DB49B4AB6E5&displaylang=en

2009-04-16T09:23:00.000-07:00

Wow..... the high availabilty changes in Exchange 2010 are a game changer. If it all
works as well as described every Exchange shop in the world will be redundant after
adding a second server. I remember asking about mailbox replication at the MVP
summit a few years ago but they weren't there yet. I'm glad to see they kept on that
direction and hope this turns out to be a solid feature. Paul has a good rundown of the
details involved:

http://www.robichaux.net/blog/2009/04/exchange-2010-availability.php

2009-04-15T08:25:00.001-07:00

The first large scale review of Exchange 2010 is up (one of many) and it sounds like the

next version of Exchange might make up for all the sins 2007 did against the admins. Only

time will tell...

http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/first-look-exchange-2010-beta-shines-485

2009-03-26T09:40:00.002-07:00

Rollup 7 for E2k7/sp1 looks to be a turd as well as there are many reports of the update

failing during the installation process leaving the server in an unusable state. Apply with

caution!

2009-03-26T09:10:00.001-07:00

A recent update to Outlook 2007 really helps speed up the app and allows for much larger cached mode mailbox support (MS claims 5gb now across most hardware should get good performance). This is a big change from the 1-2gb they used to recommend as a max when using cached mode. I've tested this patch on a few systems and it does seem to make performance improvements but time will tell if those improvements stay.

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2009/03/24/450881.aspx

2009-03-18T14:36:00.001-07:00

Well that was quick.... rollup 6 turned out to be a turd causing all kinds of issues. MS just
released rollup 7, hopefully it will be better!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=2074fefd-fa1a-4c3e-bf72-94585e454150

2009-02-04T14:40:00.000-08:00

Just an FYI..... if your trying to run jetstress on a Windows Server 2008 box and having
issues with it starting, try disabling UAC on the server. In my case this resolved the issue
although I haven't seen this documented anywhere.

2009-01-07T08:31:00.000-08:00

Looks like the Mac is about to get a full featured Exchange 2007 client in the near future....

http://www.robichaux.net/blog/2009/01/entourage-to-get-exchange-web-services-s.php

2008-12-05T11:34:00.001-08:00

Found this tool to use for troubleshooting activesync issues. Pretty cool!

https://store.accessmylan.com/main/tools.php

2008-10-08T11:12:00.000-07:00

MS finally released the real E2k7/sp1 update 4 for all to download after a false start

with an early version. Download and patch away:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=8B492ED2-EA92-412F-A852-3AA1C58D9499&displaylang=en

2008-10-01T18:25:00.000-07:00

I came across a great post about OAB issues and wanted to mention an issue we see

fairly often that breaks the OAB. If an admin modifies the smtp address of a user object

to something non valid (like inluding an ~ character) the generation of the OAB will

fail until this is corrected. The only way to catch this is to turn up diagnostic logging

on the OAB and then rebuild the offline address book. In the app log you should see the

errors that will point to the offending object in AD.

Checkout the article for a ton of great info on other stuff that can break the OAB:

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/10/01/449924.aspx

2008-10-01T18:21:00.000-07:00

I've been away for a few months working on some fairly large projects but hope to

be more active on here again.

2008-02-28T11:13:00.000-08:00

Here's a doozy of a problem that is resolved by the recent E2k7 rollups:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/943479/

Nothing like ending up with two mailboxes merged to one after the move. Maybe
MS could turn this in to a feature?

2008-02-28T11:09:00.000-08:00

Rollup 1 for E2k7/sp1 is now available:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=945684

2008-02-01T13:28:00.000-08:00

Good info to have for troubleshooting permissions issues on Exchange 2007:

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2008/02/01/447989.aspx

2008-01-29T15:00:00.000-08:00

hHere's a nice post on the performance impact of OCS 2007 against Exchange server. This topic has not been widely discussed and seems to be difficult to obtain.

http://communicatorteam.com/archive/2008/01/29/54.aspx

2007-11-29T09:19:00.001-08:00

Exchange 2007 with SP1 has just been posted:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=44C66AD6-F185-4A1D-A9AB-473C1188954C&displaylang=en

2007-10-11T09:32:00.000-07:00

MS released a new mailbox server role calculator for E2k7....

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/01/15/432207.aspx

2007-09-26T09:31:00.000-07:00

SP1 help file for the EMS in Exchange 2007 is available for download:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0e14dd15-bb52-4b3f-9756-5146179a0809&displaylang=en&tm

2007-08-23T15:13:00.000-07:00

A new rollup has been released for E2k7. Get it while it's hot!

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=940006

2007-07-03T17:17:00.000-07:00

Installing certs on Exchange 2007 has become a topic worthy of a book by itself. The
Exchange team just posted a great blog article that sums up most of what you need to
know in one location. Check it out!

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/07/02/445698.aspx

2007-06-08T09:42:00.000-07:00

There's a great post about SMIME support over at EHLO. I've been testing this
feature with a WM6 and so far it works well. My only complaint here is when you
go to verify a certificate, it fails for me each time. Not sure if this is a device issue
or something else (I only have one WM6 device to test with) but it's a minor issue.

On a side note, while it's nice to see that MS has included encryption of the storage
cards for WM6, why did they also not include on device encryption? This point will
be the difference that alot of corporations use to choose NOT to go to WM devices.
In my environement (Legal), having devices out there with exposed data (even if
only for the amount of time you choose for idle lock out) is un acceptbable. The
thousands of Blackberry devices we have already offer this option so it's a must for
us.

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/06/07/440445.aspx

2007-05-09T09:52:00.000-07:00

Bink has an interesting post about a new IP PBX that he is testing. Apparently
they have a version that works with Exchange 2007 UM (currently in beta) which
makes this a fairly inexpensive way to go.

We will most likely see alot more of these as the space matures.

http://bink.nu/Article10054.bink

2007-04-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

Update rollup 1 for Exchange 2007 is now available and patches two fairly
serious issues:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fced5b74-b39f-48d4-a9d7-3aef11451f89&DisplayLang=en

2007-04-13T16:43:00.000-07:00

Finally! Support (via powershell) for greater than 2gb exports of
mailboxes from exchange. This comes via some powershell scripts (export-mailbox
and import-mailbox) courtesy of Exchange 2007 sp1 (yet to be released). It even supports batch processing and filtering in both directions!

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/04/13/437745.aspx

Here's hoping we see SCR in sp1 as well.

Thanks guys!

2007-03-28T09:07:00.000-07:00

Exchange 2007 sp1 beta 1 release notes are now available. No mention of the
feature I'm hoping for.... Standby Continuous Replication (SCR). Being able to
use log shipping without the requirement of a cluster would be HUGE.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/5/e/6/5e672458-592a-44a2-b489-11cec19d3c82/RelNotes.htm

2007-02-24T09:16:00.000-08:00

Just an FYI for those working on the DST change with Exchange - on 2/22/07 they updated
the order in which patches are applied so that now they recommend not apply the Exchange CDO patch until after the users calendars are rebased. Previously they were saying to apply the Exchange CDO patch before rebasing. Apparently the change was due to a problem they discovered with the CDO patch and OWA that would allow a user to create a recurring meeting in OWA that would not get fixed with rebasing.

They have also realeased a hotfix for the CDO patch for a rare issue that caused the stores not to mount after the patch was applied:

930241 The Exchange 2003 database does not mount, and event IDs 9518 and 9519 are logged in the Application loghttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;930241

The hotfix can be downloaded from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=2A835A09-8E57-4027-A488-1E61C4B43A10&displaylang=en

For anyone who has used the workaround outlined in:
932599 Information Store database does not mount with Event ID 9519 and 9518http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;932599

2007-02-24T09:10:00.000-08:00

MS just announced a parital list of features for Exchange 2007/sp1 and one of them will
be huge if done right - SCR or Standby Continuous Replication. The big killer for us with CCR
was the requirement of both boxes to be on the same subnet. We also did not really want to
have to run a cluster to get replication to a remote data center, instead we were looking to replicate remotely via stand alone boxes. This greatly reduces the complexity (no clustering)
while giving us the data protection necessary in today's environment.

Please, please MS, make SCR work and make it work without stretched subnets.

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2007/02/23/435699.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage

2007-02-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

MS just released the calendar update tool that will fix calendar entries tha show up with
the incorrect time after you apply the OS and Exchange DST patches. As always, be sure to
test this on non-productions servers first since it's a new tool with no history.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=a9336886-4b28-4010-9416-36d38429438d&DisplayLang=en

2007-01-17T04:18:00.000-08:00

MS released the hotfix for the upcoming DST time change in the US (March 11, 3 weeks earlier then previously). There are also patches for the OS/Outlook and other apps so you may want to check those out as well. This patch requires sp2 for Exchange be installed so if you haven't updated now would be a good time.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=c16aea4a-ed33-4cd9-a7c3-8b5df5471b7a&displaylang=en&tm

2007-01-16T03:37:00.000-08:00

The Exchange team blog posted a new storage calculator to use for Exchange 2007 that integrates all the current recomendations towards 2007. Pretty cool!

http://msexchangeteam.com/attachment/432207.ashx

2007-01-16T02:07:00.000-08:00

For those people rolling out 2k7 in your production environment, there is a fix for the OAB
server if it lives on a 2003/sp2 box still.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=b217a4c9-4aad-49b9-92dd-10754af1029e&displaylang=en&tm

2006-12-17T09:11:00.000-08:00

The RTM download of Exchange 2007 is now available on the licensing
site for those with select or premier accounts.

Test away!

2006-12-08T07:34:00.000-08:00

Exchange 2007 has RTM'd! Congrats to the whole Exchange team.

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/12/07/431782.aspx

2006-11-13T10:51:00.000-08:00

Paul was blogging from Exchange Connections in Vegas and posted
some great info on what features we will see post-beta 2 as well as
the RTM date (December).

http://www.robichaux.net/blog/2006/11/live_blogging_david_lemsons_keynote.php

2006-11-09T14:26:00.000-08:00

Here's a really nice post on the routing changes coming with Exchange 2007. This
will be a great departure from what currently exists with Exchange 2003 so read up
now so your prepared!

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/11/01/430185.aspx

2006-10-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

In conjuction with the last post, here is good discussion of archiving from
the Exchange team. They talk about why (or why not) to install an archving
system and what problems it can solve (and create).

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/10/18/429216.aspx

2006-10-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

Looks like MS is getting in to the email archiving business with IBM:

http://www.cxotoday.com/India/News/Microsoft_to_Resell_IBM_E-mail_Archiving_System/551-76637-912.html

With competing products such as EAS and KVS having a big headstart, it will be
interesting to see how well they compete. I'm actually surprised MS didn't build
archiving in to the product with Exchange 2007.

2006-10-02T15:12:00.000-07:00

AOL appears to be bouncing some mail with a new error I haven't seen:

http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554hvuip.html

It seems some people are getting this NDR even if they don't have a URL
in the message. Haven't heard anything from aol but just an FYI.

2006-10-02T13:25:00.000-07:00

Check out this great post over at EHLO about sizing suggestions for Exchange
2007. We are going to start seeing much large base memory configs with Exchange
2007 now that we are 64bit. I know we are already looking at making our base
config for a two proc mailbox server with 1000 mailboxes use 8gb of memory.

http://msexchangeteam.com/archive/2006/09/25/428994.aspx

2006-08-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

After applying the latest hotfixes that MS released, we found one of our
E2k3 OWA servers was getting the dreaded 'Loading...' error in the task pain.
After digging thru the KB I found this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;910119&sd=rss&spid=1773

Now in our case, the cause did not match exactly as the FE server was upgraded
to sp1 first then sp2 and the BE server was already running sp2. But... copying
the new folder from the BE to the FE resolved the issue.

Just an FYI if you run in to this issue.

2006-07-25T08:37:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard already.... E2k7 Beta 2 is out:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/2007/downloads/beta.mspx?wt.mc_ID=MarHero

2006-07-17T09:22:00.000-07:00

Been out for a while.... here's some good powershell links:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1dc0f61b-d30f-44a2-882e-12ddd4ee09d2&DisplayLang=en

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=01A441B9-4099-4C0F-B8E0-0831D4A2CA86&displaylang=en

2006-06-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

For those testing/using Direct Push, there is a log file created
on each device that records all the information related to the sync
process between the device and your server. The file name is 'ctrllog'
and is located in the \windows\activesync folder. One useful bit of
information from this file is the current heartbeat interval your
device is using. Values are in seconds with the device starting at 480
and increasing the interval as conditions warrant it. On my device,
the heartbeat tends to hover between 780 and 1080.

This value is critical in the consumption of battery power so if your's is hovering
at 480 most of the day your battery will most likely be consumed quickly.

2006-06-20T15:29:00.000-07:00

Just an FYI... they announced at Tech Ed that E2k7 Beta 2 would be
available in July to the general public.

Another intersting note mentioned in one of the sessions.... the log
file size has been changed from 5mb to 1mb to help minimize the chance
of lost data when using LCR or CCR. Looks like we will have a bunch
more log files now.

2006-06-05T17:38:00.000-07:00

Here's some interesting info I've found relating to direct push. In the KB
article below it states that the default setting for 'maxheartbeatinterval' is
45 minutes. So if nothing is set in the registry, this is supposed to be the
value used. We have seen a large increase in battery consumption when upgrading
our devices to a rom with direct push.... in the nature of 30-40% reduction in
run time. This didn't make sense to me considering how often the device was
syncing (about 140 messages a day, maybe 10 minutes of voice time) so on a hunch
I manually set the 'maxheartbeatinterval' to 45 minutes. Since making this change,
my battery life has gone from 10-12 hours per charge to 24-26 hours per charge.

I've verified this change on two different devices (a PPC-6700 and a 700W) so
there must be something to this setting. It may be that the setting is forcing
Exchange to use this setting irregardless of the network conditions but I have
seen no adverse effects of changing this. If you have seen similar decreases in
runtime, try this change and let me know your results.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=905013

2006-06-03T18:27:00.000-07:00

Here's some good documentation on V2 of the IMF. Much improved over
V1, we are actually using this as an additional layer of antispam filtering
and have seen good results.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b1218d8c-e8b3-48fb-9208-6f75707870c2&DisplayLang=en

2006-05-09T19:23:00.000-07:00

Microsoft just announced the fix list for this month and Exchange just happens
to have a critical update involving a remote code issue. Test on non-production servers first (as always) and be mindful of the issue with Blackberry/Good servers
this patch brings.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms06-019.mspx

2006-04-30T09:41:00.000-07:00

Here's a heads up on a new product coming out that looks interesting. It's
called MailShadow and is made by Cemaphore (www.cemaphore.com). The product is
geared towards DR scenarios and works at the transaction level so there are no
issues with database level corruption (like you see with other Exchange replication
products.)

I haven't seen the product yet in action so I'll reserve my judgement for then
but if it works like they say it could be a great addition for companies looking
to replicate Exchange data to other locations.

www.cemaphore.com

2006-04-30T09:11:00.000-07:00

MS made this announcement quite a while ago (about breaking permissions in accounts with certain post-sp2 store fixes) but now they have added a script you can run that will identify these accounts before you apply any of those store fixes. I advise everyone run the script now to identify if they do have any account configured in this manner so you can fix them before one of these store fixes sneaks in on a hotfix you desperately need.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912918

2006-04-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

There is now a way to set a list of smtp addresses that will not be scanned
by the IMF on Exchange 2003/sp1. This is a nice addition to a product that
already works very well. Most likely this functionality will be rolled in to
the GUI but for now, regedit is your friend.

http://support.microsoft.com/?id=912587

2006-03-20T16:29:00.000-08:00

MS just release IE7 Beta 2 preview:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/ie7betaredirect.mspx

Go take it for a spin!

2006-03-18T08:44:00.000-08:00

As more people are updating their device with AKU2, questions are coming up about
battery consumption on the device. The consensus is Direct Push will consume a larger amount of battery compared with the old method (SMS), where we are seeing about a 15% depletion over 2G protocols and and a 30% depletion for 3G protocols (just for the heartbeat.) If your seeing excessive decline in battery usage after enabling Direct Push you may want to check the time-out value for HTTPS connections on your firewall. MS recommends setting this to 30 minutes as anything less could un-necessarily cause your device to resend additional heartbeats (thus draining the battery quicker.)

This KB talks about the setting in more detail:

http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?kbid=905013

2006-03-16T12:10:00.000-08:00

It's arrived! Unofficially (since I haven't seen an official announcment
from Sprint yet) Sprint has released the MSFP (aka AKU2) for the PPC-6700
and we have been testing it over at the great www.pdaphonehome.com site:

http://www.pdaphonehome.com/forums/showthread.php?t=68618&page=16

So far the Direct Push feature is working great. Sync times seem to be
about 50% faster and no more SMS messages flying around. The ROM also seems
to have fixed a number of issues with this device making it really shine.

If you have this device, run, don't walk to install this update.

UPDATE: Sprint has now officially rolled this out. Here is a link to the
official rollout download (which is the same as the one posted previously).

http://www4.sprint.com/pcsbusiness/d...11200_ship.exe

2006-03-09T14:14:00.000-08:00

If your in the UK and have a C600 phone from Orange you can now download
MSFP for your device. This is the first carrier in the UK to release the
MSFP for any device.

http://msmobiles.com/news.php/5007.html

And where still waiting here in the US...

2006-03-08T08:06:00.000-08:00

And the waiting continues.... Very few Carriers have released the MSFP
for their devices thus far (None in the US, only one in Korea I believe) and it looks like most are still a few months out. Microsoft needs
to do something about this as the carriers are becoming huge road blocks for
the adoption of Windows Mobile devices in the enterprise. If it takes each
carrier 6-9 months to do a ROM upgrade for a device most devices will only ever
get one upgrade (if their lucky).

There must be a way they could separate the carrier logic from bits MS needs
to update (kind of like how drivers are written now with MS doing the heavy
lifting and developers writing to that core driver)so upgrades are easier to
push out and don't require the carrier's integration efforts.

Are you listening MS?

2006-03-08T07:55:00.000-08:00

Brian Desmond .http://briandesmond.com/blog/archive/2005/10/19/13474.aspx"
had a great article about a potentially bad situation that can
arise from a poorly designed feature in Exchange System Manager. In KB article
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=841516 it talks about how if you choose the delete option by right clicking a server under the system policies section, it doesn't just delete the server from the server policy but also deletes the actual server object from AD. I cannot imagine why MS chose to even allow this but it's there and you should be aware of it.

The KB goes thru the steps to recover the object, needless to say it's alot of
work. BTW, the delete option is only seen if your running Exchange 2003 native
mode.

Hopefully MS will correct this in a future sp/hotfix

2006-03-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

MS just made Beta 1 of E12 available to MSDN subscribers. Download away (remember, no production servers at this time).

2006-01-30T15:15:00.000-08:00

According to Cnet, Microsoft is merging the Exchange group with the RTC group to
form an new group for development purposes. Seems logical although the two are
separate products now so the bringing these two teams together may be more for cost
savings rather than interop between the products.

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+merges+Exchange%2C+corporate+IM+units/2100-1014_3-6032889.html?tag=nefd.top

2006-01-30T08:17:00.000-08:00

Just an FYI... I'm hearing from one of the largest CDMA vendors that we will see AKU 2.2
next month sometime. I have a feeling Motorola is delaying the Motorola Q rollout until this
is released (which IMO, is a good idea).

Hopefully AKU 2 will bring some improvements since the current WM5 ROM image seems
to have a few issues.

2005-12-29T15:14:00.000-08:00

The Exchange team posted a great piece over on their blog about the reasons
behind going to 64bit for E12. The big doozy here (a 70% reduction in disk I/O)
almost seems impossible but if they pull it off it will more than make up for the
64bit requirement. That type of disk I/O reduction makes running multiple
Exchange 12 virtual machines possible and even probable once we get the windows
hypervisor in Longhorn.

Lot of exciting things happening!

http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2005/12/29/416613.aspx

2005-12-20T08:43:00.000-08:00

Over at pocketpcthoughts.com they announced the first WM5 device to be released with
the MSFP (AKU2). Of course it was only released in Taiwan but it's nice to see them coming
out anywhere with the rumors of the Visto lawsuit. Here's hoping Sprint get's theirs out the
door asap.

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/index.php?action=expand,45107

2005-12-16T14:31:00.000-08:00

MS released one more piece in the road to the new AUTD in Exchange 2003/sp2. The activesync web admin tool is now available for download. This allows you to remotely wipe a device if needed and can also be used to view/delete devices associated with a specific AD account. This was a big piece that was missing when comparing their solution to something from RIM or Good so it's nice to see it's out in advance of AKU2 being released by the carriers.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e6851d23-d145-4dbf-a2cc-e0b4c6301453&DisplayLang=en

2005-12-16T14:20:00.000-08:00

Been busy for a while with year end stuff.... thought I would post today to get back
in the swing of thing:

MS released the office communictor 2005 web client for LCS 2005/sp1. This is a nice
addition to the stand-alone client. Now all we are missing is the soon to be released
communicator client for windows mobile! Download away.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A7499AC3-09A6-4491-BDD1-1E41F4719E90&displaylang=en

I've also been hearing some rumors of the possibility that AKU2 for windows mobile devices
(the one that will enable the new push AUTD) may be delayed because of the Visto lawsuit. If
this is true it will be a real shame. It's obvious MS engineered the new version of AUTD on
their own and then some shell company comes along with a few non-specific patents and attempts to litigate their way in to a settlement. The USTO really needs to change the way they hand out patents or nothing is going to get done in this business.

Hopefully this is all just rumor and we will see AKU2 shortly.

Happy Holidays!

2005-11-08T12:27:00.000-08:00

Microsoft just released a bunch of new or updated tools for exchange:

ExBPA - updated to version 2.5
ExPTA - performance troubleshooting analyzer
ExDRA - disaster recovery analyzer
PFDAVADMIN - updated version of a great tool for bulk modification of permissions
on public folders and mailboxes. Now officially a supported tool (yeah!)

I use ExBPA frequently and it's a great tool. ExPTA apparently uses the Exmon
technology to assist with troubleshooting outlook popup errors relating to slow RPC
performance. Check them out!

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/exchange/downloads/2003/tools.mspx

2005-10-28T08:48:00.000-07:00

Microsoft posted updated support policies for running Exchange on Virtual Server. It is now
officially supported under certain scenarios (see the KB for specifics). I think this will open
up some interesting doors although performance will be suspect until we get to Longhorn
server with the new virtual machine aware processors (VT and Pacifica)from Intel and AMD
respectively.

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

2005-10-19T17:58:00.000-07:00

SP2 for Exchange 2003 is out! Be sure to install on test/lab servers first to identify
issues in your specific environment.

http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/downloads/2003/sp2/download.mspx

2005-10-17T10:20:00.000-07:00

Another great post over on the Exchange team blog about some specific in the SenderID
piece coming in sp2 for Exchange 2003. It's not going to stop spam (considering most of
the people publishing SenderID records are spammers) but it will at least give us another
tool to identify 'possible' spam.

http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2005/10/13/412487.aspx

2005-09-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

Over at the Exchange Team blog they just announced some additional info on sp2
and database size limits. One really cool feature now available in both standard and
enterprise is the ablility to set a maximum size limit for a database. This was something
not available in the past and is a nice addition. They also give you a 24hr warning window
before taking the database offline so you can take the appropriate action. Hopefully
these changes will be implemented in the UI instead of as registry settings.

http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2005/09/14/410821.aspx

2005-09-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

Microsoft just announced a new 'SBS-like' offering for medium size businsesses (50-500 users)
that will included Longhorn server and E12 (among other things.) It's called 'Microsoft Windows Server Centro' and will probably end up being a multi-server solution with a managed interface.

Sounds Interesting.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/sep05/09-07BizSummit05PR.mspx

2005-09-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

Looks like there is more controversy over Sender-ID and SPF brewing. Since spammers
have been the biggest adopter of Sender-ID/SPF it remains to be seen how well this will
combat spam.
http://bink.nu/Article4788.bink

2005-08-19T14:27:00.000-07:00

The link to the CTP release of Exchange 2003 sp2 is active now. Just an
FYI that this is not production ready and should only be used in a test environment.

http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/

2005-08-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

Microsoft will be releasing a CTP preview of Exchange 2003 sp2 on Friday according
to many different sources. This service pack has some great updates in it with regard
to mobile messaging and spam filtering. Since this is not released software, only install
on non-productions sytems and be sure to test thoroughly.

http://blogs.technet.com/haroldwong/archive/2005/08/15/409222.aspx

2005-08-12T08:13:00.000-07:00

Not mail related but.... there is a great article on securityfocus about Microsoft's
'honeymonkey' project. It great to see them being pro-active about finding security
vulnerabilities.... hopefully that translates in to much more secure client OS in Windows
Vista.

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11273

2005-08-03T07:36:00.000-07:00

Enterprise Magazine posted a story this morning about Microsoft including their
speech server technology in a future release of Exchange, most likely as part of
their unified messaging strategy. Should be interesting to see.

http://www.entmag.com/news/article.asp?EditorialsID=6838

2005-07-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

Today I was explaining to someone how to align a disk using diskpar for Exchange
2003 and thought some documentation would be nice for this person to reference. Fellow
MVP Daniel Petri has a nice write up about this process with pictures!

http://www.petri.co.il/exchange_disk_geometry.htm

2005-07-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

One question I get asked alot is how to export the membership of a distribution
group in Exchange 2000/2003. The easiest way I know is to use 'ldifde' against
Active Directory to export that information into a text file. So I wrote up a KB
article describing the process:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555365

2005-07-14T09:04:00.000-07:00

Microsoft just posted a great doc on -1018 errors with some extraordinary detail
on why they happen and what changes were made in Exchange 2003 sp1 to correct
them.

Good stuff!

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=7d6d90f2-50f8-4072-8ce9-b073069b8756&displaylang=en

2005-07-07T08:25:00.000-07:00

Over at www.bink.nu, he posted about some of the changes coming in Exchange 2003 sp2:

IMF (now called junk mail filter) included by default
Sender-ID Support
Anti-phishing support (non-configurable)

With these changes and the windows mobile changes talked about earlier, this should be
a feature packed service pack.

http://bink.nu/Article4467.bink

2005-07-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

A couple different sites have posted about a new powertoy released for windows
mobile called 'Global Contact Access' that allows you to do GAL lookups from any
pocket pc or smartphone 2003 device. I haven't seen any documentation yet but
the download is here:

http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/4/3/6436471b-d61a-4ca0-addb-f48d5265f6ac/GlobalContactAccess.zip

Exchange 2003 FE server is required for this to work.

Enjoy!

2005-07-05T08:34:00.000-07:00

Head on over to www.bink.nu as he is blogging from Tech-Ed Europe. Seems MS is
talking more open about details in Exchange 12 than they did at the US Tech-Ed.

Highlights for E12:

Log shipping
Fully scriptable UI (based on Monad)
Public Folder support gone after E12

2005-06-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a worthwhile blog post.... sometime in November, Microsoft is going to mark
any message coming in to hotmail as spam if it doesn't have a Sender-ID record. This
will definitely get people motivated to get their record setup and will most likely spur
other big ISP's to do the same.
http://news.com.com/Microsoft+pushes+spam-filtering+technology/2100-7355_3-5758365.html?tag=nefd.top?headline=Microsoft~pushes~spam-filtering~technology

2005-06-08T06:56:00.000-07:00

Tech-Ed 2005 (Day 3):

Some additional announcements include Sender ID support in Exchange 2003 sp2
and raising the limit for the standard version of Exchange server to 75gb. The second
accouncement was a huge win for small businesses as old limit (16gb) did reflect current
usage for a business of <50 users.

Attended a few sessions so far.... Paul Bowden gave a great talk on performance monitoring
in Exchange 2003. If you ever get a change to see him talk, run dont walk to the class.

I'll post more later.

2005-06-06T08:32:00.000-07:00

Tech-Ed 2005: Day one

Announced Exchange 2003 sp2 with new mobile features for windows mobile 5.0
device:

Remote wipe
Policy Based control
True "push" email to devices with no reliance on SMS.

Good stuff... more to come later.

2005-06-05T13:35:00.000-07:00

I will be in Orlando the whole week for Tech-ed 2005. I'm working in the exchange
cabana so if your in town stop by. I will be blogging the big announcmens made by MS
and anything else worth posting so stay tuned.

2005-05-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

MS just released sp1 for SBS 2003. Good news for all those small business
customers running this release (which is the best release to date).
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2003/sbs/downloads/sp1/default.mspx

2005-05-17T20:12:00.000-07:00

There is a great post on some new public folder bit coming out with E2k3 sp2 over at
the Exchange team blog. This stuff can be very confusing and it's worth checking it out
to get a better understanding of how it all works.
http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2005/05/16/404997.aspx

2005-04-25T12:50:00.000-07:00

An issue has just been found in MS05-019 and W2k3/sp1 that can cause clients
to be unable to connect to Exchange servers after either of these has been applied.
This KB talks about this issue and a hotfix that is now available for the issue:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=898060