On demand SMS webcasts

Change password in MSN Messenger

10 Webcasts to learn about MOM 2005

Deploying Office 2003 using SMS 2003

MOM 2005 launch - deja vu?

Well, like all of our latest products, its more scalable.  Each MOM Management Server can manage 2000 client agents (servers) that’s an increase of almost twice as many as MOM 2000, with the introduction of the new Operators Console in addition to the existing Administration console, monitoring your systems has never looked so good. There’s support for AMD and Itanium 64-bit as well as 32-bit.  If you’re managing a smaller server estate, then MOM 2005 Workgroup Edition manages up to 10 servers in exactly the same way as its larger sibling does with limitations only on reporting and integration.  In fact, each attendee at IT forum received a full copy of MOM 2005 workgroup Edition.  If you work in a tightly locked down environment, where the installation of an agent on some of the servers would cause issues, then there is the ability to perform Agentless monitoring on these servers.  You’ll actually still get about 80% of the functionality of monitoring compared with using an Agent, one of the noticeable features that would not be available is the ability to execute scripts.

On the MOM web site, there is a management pack catalog where you can search for all of the Microsoft and third party Management packs that are available, logically sorted in one location.  An excellent idea that has been long overdue.   You can download an evaluation copy of MOM 2005 from the MOM 2005 site so start monitoring!

Monitoring SMS 2003 using MOM 2005

This is the "how to" guide from the web

The Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 Management Pack for SMS provides new and improved capabilities for SMS 2003 monitoring, including:

•	Monitoring the starting and stopping of all SMS 2003 services, including critical dependent services like Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), Internet Information Services (IIS), Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) and Microsoft SQL Server™.
•	Alerting the SMS administrator to critical SMS status messages.
•	Monitoring backlogs of discovery data records (DDRs), software inventory, hardware inventory, status messages, and software metering on both primary site servers and management points.
•	Monitoring system resource usage.
•	Monitoring processing rates.
•	Monitoring the performance trends of many SMS performance counters by using views and reports.

In addition to robust monitoring capabilities, this Management Pack expands on existing features and provides new features:

•	Product knowledge content for all alerts and processing rules.
•	Detecting all SMS 2003 computers and computer groups.
•	Views.
•	Reports.
•	Monitoring of Device Management Feature Pack.
•	Tasks for executing SMS Administrator console applications.
•	State view containing the health of all SMS server roles and the SMS Advanced Client.
•	Service Discovery of important SMS server and SMS client information.
•	Suppression of Service Unavailable alerts arising from the execution of SMS Site Backup.
•	Topology diagram of the SMS site hierarchy.
•	SMS 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) configurable alerting on distributed program execution failure through SMS program properties.

SMS 2003 Patch Management Solution Accelerator

Public folder fools to monitor old folders

Darren asked me about tools we have available to monitor and track usage of  public folders so that you can remove unused and low usage folders before migrating.  PFINFO will give you information as to when the folder was last written to.  Getting information as to when a folder was last accessed (read) is more difficult, but MessageStats from Quest does seem to give this information…

Read the Exchange team blog for information about other Public folder tools..

MSN Messenger - password issues

I had a question from Tracy (Userban) about a password issue with MSN messenger.   She had uninstalled and re-installed installed messenger and she had problems signing in with her usual password.  What you need to do to access MSN Messenger is to change your password.

To reset your password, follow the steps below (from the help text).  By the way, you should never tell your password to anyone, or put your password in an email.  That's why I deleted it from your original message, and I'd advise you to change your password from the word you sent me to keep it secret to only you. Click here: http://memberservices.passport.net/default.srf

Live Communications Server 2005 Overview - recorded webcast

There was a webcast earlier this month giving a good overview of the features of LCS 2005.  I noticed that it's been recorded. Have a look at it here

Upgrading from Exchange 5.0 to Exchange 2003 - is this possible?

I presented at a TechNet evening the other night on upgrading from Exchange 5.5 to 2003, and  had a few questions that I thought I'd address here in case anyone else had the same questions.  Ian asked if there was a supported path from Exchange 5 to Exchange 2003, or if they will first need to upgrade Exchange 5 to 5.5. Do any of the wizard tools allow them to move mailboxes from Exchange 5 to 2003?

The answer is that you must be running Exchange 5.5 SP3 as a minimum.  If you have multiple Exchange 5.0 Servers, you must upgrade at least one server to Exchange 5.5 SP3 to run the Active Directory Connector.  KB article.

Upcoming MOM Webcasts for December

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 at MSN—Using MOM 2005 to Monitor One of the Largest Web Portals in the World (Level 300)

Wednesday, December 1, 2004 - 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM Pacific Time

Baelson Duque, Program Manager - WEMD, Microsoft.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn how Microsoft does IT, you won’t want to miss this informative webcast. See how Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 is used to support the unique business requirements of MSN®, Hotmail®, and Passport through proactive monitoring and alerting.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032258045&Culture=en-US

Upcoming SMS Webcasts for December

TechNet Webcast: Creating a Highly Available SMS Site (Level 200)

Tuesday, December 7, 2004 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time

Ed Goad, Senior Systems Engineer, Microsoft Corporation.

Do you have a large number of clients in your environment, demanding high availability from your servers? Join this webcast to learn how to deploy an SMS cluster with network load balancing (NBL) and availability in mind.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032258953&Culture=en-US

SMS 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack now released to the web

I noticed today the the Systems Management Server 2003 Operating System (OS) Delpoyment Feature Pack has been released and is available for download from the web

The features of OS Deployment are:

• Image capture management

 Steps administrators through the process of capturing an image of a reference computer in the new Microsoft Imaging format

• OS package management

Customize and manage the settings for individual deployments including notifications, distribution settings, or network settings

• User state migration

Integration with the User State Migration Tool 2.6 preserves user profiles when installing new operating systems

• Image deployment

Scalable deployment utilising the SMS 2003 infrastructure with customisable task-based installation

• Reporting

Rich status reporting on specific deployments aid in troubleshooting and demonstrating deployment success

SMS Device Management Feature Pack now available

The SMS 2003 Device Management Feature Pack extends the enterprise change and configuration management capabilities of SMS 2003 to mobile devices running Windows CE 3.0 or later (ARM based devices with required OS components) and Windows Mobile 2002 for Pocket PC or later.  The Device Management client included with Window CE 5.0 Platform Builder (all processor types) is compatible with the Device Management feature pack. The Device Management Feature Pack allows IT administrators to capture the asset characteristics, configure settings and security policies of mobile devices, and update or deploy new applications with minimal interruption to the end user’s experience, dramatically reducing the cost of deploying and managing devices in the enterprise.

The Device Management Feature Pack is available for download and provides the following capabilities: 

• Hardware inventory

• Software inventory

• File collection

• Software distribution

• Settings management*

• Password policy management*

*Not available for Windows CE

MOM 2000 Management Pack for Routing and Remote access - now on the web

I've been asked when this management pack would be available - so here are the details...

The MOM Management Pack for Routing and Remote Access provides the ability to monitor Availability, Health, and Configuration of Routing and Remote Access (RemoteAccess) service, Remote Access Connection Manager (RASMAN) service and Routing on Windows Server 2003.

The Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) Management Pack for Routing and Remote Access provides monitoring for RAS, VPN and Routing. e.g.

• Automatic notification of events indicating service outages
• Performance degradation
• Health monitoring
• Centralised management

Exchange Disaster Recovery event @ Microsoft Campus UK

I'm delivering an Exchange disaster recovery event in the UK in December and we've been owerwhelmed by the responses to the event.  It has been very well subscribed, and this makes me wonder if there aren't enough prescriptive guidance documents available on strategies showing how you cope in the case of a catastrophic  event. 

We've got a couple of documents detailing how to recover from disasters.  The Disaster Recovery Operations guide explains how to back up and restore critical data, whilst the Whitepaper on using recovery storage groups allows you to recover data from an older backup copy of the database without disturbing access to current data.  I got these documents, amongst others from the Exchange documentation library but I wondered, do we need to run more "how to recover from disaster" type events like this one, or do we need to produce more documentation?  If so, what would we need in addition to what's already out there on the web?  It would be interesting to know.

Live Communications Server 2005 Product Features Guide

The Live Communications Server (LCS) 2005 product features guide has been released to the web .  This new white paper provides details about the benefits and capabilities of Live Communications Server. It describes the differences between the Standard and Enterprise Editions, the key features of each and provides a set of six scenarios and examples of using real-time communication in a business setting.

There are useful links to partners who provide products and services, and a link to the developer page on MSDN for writing applications to the API's

New MSN Messenger account - worrying request to be on the "buddy list"

I got myself a new Hotmail address the other day when the new @hotmail.co.uk addresses became available on the web.  I wanted to have something easier to remember than my current @hotmail.com address, and wanted to use the @hotmail.co.uk Instant Messaging address to add to my e-mail signature at work.  The first time I signed into MSN Messenger 24 hours later, I had a request from someone (b**b***2*****@hotmail.co.uk) wanting to be added to my MSN messenger contact list.  I'd never heard of this person, and when I checked my Hotmail e-mail account, there were 2 messages from the same email address telling me I was added as a friend and asking to be placed onto my MSN buddy list.  Fortunately Hotmail had identified both of these messages as spam, and junked them.

But, I wondered, how many other "recognisable" names had this request been sent to?  Both of my messages ended with "xxxxxxxxxxxx, hope you'll add me to your contact list".  I hope that everyone just treats this as spam and ignores it.  I've already reported it.

But if there are any parents out there, whose child may have had a similar request to add a stranger to their contact list, please could you make your child aware that this scam is happening - just in case.

MSN Messenger - blocking everyone not on your contact list

In a recent blog I mentioned that you could block unwanted anonymous people from contacting you by configuring your options. I've been asked how this can be acheived iusing MSN Messenger.  The help text gives the following advice:

Windows Messenger - Customising branding

If you want to add branding to your Windows Messenger 5.0 client, either to add a banner to the client window which can be configured with hyperlinks and banner information, or add up to 32 tabs with optional tooltips to the client there is a document available in Technet online.

There are script and XML samples and registry keys to have a look at which will get you started with your customisation.  Please be aware that the above works with Windows Messenger only, NOT MSN Messenger

Exchange 2003 Intelligent Message Filter

I've  been playing with the Intelligent Message Filter trying to get it to bypass certain messages.  There are 2 ways of doing this:

Use SMTP authentication. Authenticated messages like those also submitted by MAPI clients to Exchange won't be processed by the IMF.  You could also add the sender's SMTP server's IP address to the Allow Address exception override in Connection Filtering.  IP Allow addresses under connection filtering will bypass the Intelligent Mail Filter and result in messages that have no Spam Confidence Level (SCL) value stamped.

The IMF release notes can be found here, and there is also a Deployment guide available.

Modifying your own details in the Exchange Global Address List (GAL)

I was talking to one of the delegates attending IT Forum who was having challenges with users changing their details in the Global Address List (GAL) and causing lots of administration work for the Exchange administrators.  He wanted to know if it was possible to give users permission to edit their own personal information (mobile, office location, title...) in the GAL  Each user should have permission to edit only their information not the information of anyone else. Users must be administrators of their own personal information only.  

MOM 2005 licence requirements for a Virtual Machine

I had a question from a customer today asking how MOM 2005 is licenced in a Virtual machine.  I had a look around and found the pointer to the document which explains this.  So a single physical server running either Virtual Server or VMWare requires only one Operations Management Licence (OML), regardless of the number of virtual machines or processors.  There is a licencing document for MOM 2005 available here  but it doesn't have detailed information on how Virtual Machines are licenced.

Exchange Inter-Org replication between Exchange 5.5 orgs

I've been manning the Ask the Experts stand at IT Forum today. and talking about various flavours of Exchange and answering questions.  A consultant came along and wanted to know about the existance of an interorg replication tool for replicating Free/busy information between 2 Exchange 5.5 organisations.  There is a Inter-Org replication tool to do just this on the web, with a comprehensive document explaining how to implement it.  It works for all versions of Exchange too.

Free MOM hands on labs in London

After Bill Gates' keynote on Management at IT Forum you may want to try out Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) in a Lab environment with technical resources on hand to effectively get MOM up and running.  Well, if you're based in the UK, one of Microsofts partners is providing some free hands on labs in London.  Follow the link to register. 

If you prefer to stay ar your own PC, then the Technical Walkthroughs  and Virtual Labs  also give you a good introduction to the product.

Distributing Office 2003 using SMS 2003

There is a new white paper  that has been released to the web describing how to distribute Office 2003 by using SMS 2003.  This white paper supplements the Office 2003 documentation and the SMS 2003 software distribution documentation by providing information specifically targeted at deploying Office 2003 to SMS 2003 clients in the organisation.  This combined with the SMS 2003 OS Deployment Feature Pack  gives administrators a lot of flexibility in deploying desktops easily and under control. 

Microsoft Management products made sexy

I was watching the Keynote talk at IT Forum yesterday, and listening to Bill Gates speak about our management products and his roadmap for the future. One of his many predictions was that in the future, mainframes won't be able to deliver the same performance that industry standard hardware will deliver (I'm typing this on a Dell Inspiron 5160 with a P4 3.2GHz hyperthreaded processor and 2GB of RAM so that's not too hard to imagine already).  The overriding theme of the Keynote was how individual systems could be simplified and managed to give an integrated view of what's happening in the organisation.  Management software would reduce complexity as a wave of developer tools would be introduced to provide a service oriented approach to management.  The Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) would encourage a move away from individual systems to a resource allocation model where web services would use management protocols using web service standards.

I was watching the demo where 100 Dell XP Desktops were upgraded from XP Service pack 1 to XP service pack 2 with a single SMS script and I was standing with Eric Rudder, the senior Vice President for the Server and Tools division.  "Wow!" he said. "That demo with MOM and SMS shows that Microsoft has made Windows management sexy!"  I said I'd quote him - so here it is!

Dynamic Systems Initiative Website

I noticed this morning that the Dynamic Systems Initiative (DSI) Website is now live on Microsoft.com. DSI addresses the issues that companies have around managing their infrastructure by effective monitoring and management, and using this knowledge to increase Operational Efficiency. 

Microsoft has done a lot of work monitoring applications and creating guidance and best practice documents so that application manageability and health can be improved. Comprehensive information on system health is necessary for effective maintenance and diagnosis. The knowledge captured translates directly into the information needed to encode and create a MOM management pack. Management packs for MOM 2005 show how this knowledge can be captured to improve manageability and simplify identification of issues to prevent potential outages.

For a general overview of DSI, have a look at the live, or on demand Webcasts which walk you step by step through the vision for DSI and our managment products roadmap

MOM and SMS Webcasts for December

TechNet Webcast: Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 at MSN—Using MOM 2005 to Monitor One of the Largest Web Portals in the World (Level 300)

Wednesday, December 1, 2004 - 10:00 AM - 11:30 PM Pacific Time

Baelson Duque, Program Manager - WEMD, Microsoft.

If you’ve ever wanted to learn how Microsoft does IT, you won’t want to miss this informative webcast. See how Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 is used to support the unique business requirements of MSN®, Hotmail®, and Passport through proactive monitoring and alerting.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032258045&Culture=en-US

Exchange Webcasts for December

Office System Webcasts for December

Microsoft Office System Webcasts

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Tips and Tricks to Make Meetings More Effective (Level 100)

Thursday, December 2, 2004 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Andrew Reed, Senior Training Specialist, Pacific Technical Consulting

Is your definition of a team meeting "wasted time?" Learn how the Microsoft® Office System can help dramatically increase meeting effectiveness and maximize quality time with your colleagues and customers. Take a brief walk-through of key Microsoft Office System products, like Microsoft Office OneNote® 2003 and Microsoft Windows Server™ 2000 technologies like Microsoft Windows SharePoint® Services. Learn new ways to schedule meetings, share related documents, take and repurpose meeting notes, and stay on top of meeting-related tasks and action items. The webcast includes links to a handout detailing the tips and tricks covered.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/eventdetail.aspx?EventID=1032264839&Culture=en-US

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Outlook Web Access (OWA) Tips and Tricks (Level 100)

Monday, December 6, 2004 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Evan Archilla, Senior Training Specialist, Projectline Services

Microsoft® Office Outlook® Web Access enables you to gain access to your messages, calendars, contacts, tasks, and public folders from any computer with an Internet connection and a Web browser. With Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003, Outlook Web Access has even better performance, is more secure, and has user interface improvements that closely match those of Microsoft Office Outlook 2003. Join us for this brief walkthrough of Outlook Web Access and we'll show you tips and tricks for getting the most out of this unique online service.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/eventdetail.aspx?EventID=1032264841&Culture=en-US

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Tips and Tricks to Work Better Together with Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services (Level 100)

Tuesday, December 7, 2004 – 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Evan Archilla, Senior Training Specialist, Projectline Services

Windows SharePoint Services-a component of Windows Server 2003-allows teams to create Web sites for information sharing and document collaboration, benefits that help increase individual and team productivity. Using Windows SharePoint Services in conjunction with Microsoft Office 2003 offers users new and efficient ways to work together, such as Document Workspaces and Meeting Workspaces. Learn how you can take advantage of the power of Office 2003 and Windows SharePoint Services for better collaboration.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/eventdetail.aspx?EventID=1032264843&Culture=en-US

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Taking Information Management to the Next Level with Microsoft Office Outlook (Level 100)

Wednesday, December 8, 2004 – 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Evan Archilla, Senior Training Specialist, Projectline Services

Feel comfortable with the basics of Microsoft® Office Outlook® 2003? Ready to go a bit deeper? This brief walk-through of Outlook 2003 focuses on some of the product's intermediate-level capabilities. Learn how to setup inbox rules and alerts, share online calendars, protect and control sensitive information with Information Rights Management, and more. Improve the way you manage information, communicate with others, and organize your work—all from one place with Outlook 2003.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/eventdetail.aspx?EventID=1032264845&Culture=en-US

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Take Note! Microsoft Office OneNote SP1 Tips and Tricks (Level 100)

Thursday, December 9, 2004 – 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Evan Archilla, Senior Training Specialist, Projectline Services

Microsoft® Office OneNote® 2003 combines the freedom and flexibility of paper notes with the efficiency and power of digital organizational tools. Tune in and learn tips and tricks for getting the most out of this exciting new Microsoft Office System application. In addition to core OneNote features, you will learn about the new performance enhancements and tighter Office 2003 integration of Service Pack 1.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/eventdetail.aspx?EventID=1032264917&Culture=en-US

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Tips and Tricks for Administrative Assistants: Outlook and Beyond (Level 100)

Tuesday, December 14, 2004 – 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Evan Archilla, Senior Training Specialist, Projectline Services

Managing your own day is challenging enough-managing someone else's doesn't have to be. From e-mail and calendaring, to meeting and document preparation, the Microsoft® Office System can help you support your manager or management team more effectively than ever before. Join us for this informative webcast and get useful tips and tricks to get the most out of Microsoft® Outlook® 2003, Word 2003, and Windows® SharePoint® Services-a component of Windows Server™ 2003.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/eventdetail.aspx?EventID=1032264955&Culture=en-US

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Consultants, Better Mange Project Information Using Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 (Level 100)

Wednesday, December 15, 2004 – 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Pacific Time

Scott Rockfield, Product Manager, Microsoft

Microsoft® Office OneNote® is the new digital note-taking program that enables you to capture, organize, use and share information more productively. With all of your notes in one place, you can quickly find what you need, so you'll be better prepared and make more informed decisions. Join this webcast to learn how OneNote can help consultants increase individual and team productivity through better project information management.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/eventdetail.aspx?EventID=1032260725&Culture=en-US

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Tips and Tricks for Simplifying Complex Documents with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (Level 100)

Thursday, December 16, 2004 – 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Stephanie Krieger, Document Production Expert, Stephanie Krieger

Want to create incredible documents, but have a tough time even knowing where to begin? Would you like to use tables, graphics, and text, but spend less time getting your documents done? This webcast will show you how to make the most of the time you spend in Microsoft® Office-by using Word, Excel, and PowerPoint® together for documents that are more professional, have a stronger impact on their audience, and are easier-to-manage than you ever imagined!

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/eventdetail.aspx?EventID=1032264966&Culture=en-US

Microsoft Office System Webcast: OneNote Tips and Tricks (Level 100)

Tuesday, December 21, 2004 – 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Chris Bertelson, Senior Technology Specialist, Chrisber.com

Do you ever have trouble finding that important piece of information from a meeting you attended a month ago?  This problem could become a thing of the past with Microsoft OneNote 2003.  Digital note taking comes of age with Microsoft OneNote 2003, a versatile tool that can efficiently capture your thoughts and ideas, organize them for maximum effectiveness, and share with others in a variety of ways. Join this lively webcast and learn how to flag notes, manage pages and sections, and use stationery and outlines in e-mail and other Office applications. The presentation will also highlight the OneNote features added this year and include links to a handout detailing the tips and tricks discussed.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/eventdetail.aspx?EventID=1032263583&Culture=en-US

Microsoft Office System Webcast: Tips and Tricks to Enable Collaboration with Microsoft Office (Level 100)

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 – 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Andrew Reed, Senior Technical Specialist, Pacific Technical Consulting

Can working effectively with others be like pulling teeth? Learn how the Microsoft Office System can help you collaborate with ease on all kinds of documents—from presentations to publications. Discover new ways to modify, access, and save documents in a central location, protect and control who can access vital business information, and increase communication between team members. This webcast highlights key Microsoft Office System products, such as Word 2003, PowerPoint 2003, and Window SharePoint Services. We will provide links to detailed handouts of tips and tricks covered in the webcast.

http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/eventdetail.aspx?EventID=1032264960&Culture=en-US

Is the Internet overwhelmed by spam?

 I was looking at some statistics yesterday about how the volume of spam has increased over the past year, and having a look at some projections.  Over 3 days in December 2003, Hotmail processed about 3 billion messages, 2.7 billion of them were spam, which equates to about 10% of mail actually making it to a mailbox.  During one day this month, 3.78 billion were processed with 3.39 billion being rejected as spam, either being rejected at the server, or dropped by the connection.  So if 90% of traffic reaching Hotmail (and thousands of other mail servers) is spam, what a waste of processing cycles, resources and electricity!  It makes me wonder just how fast the Internet would be if it was free from all of this spurious spam traffic. 

Oh, and by the way, spam should always be referred to in lower case. SPAM (upper case) is the registered trademark of the company that makes the canned meat product, and they're very keen to keep it that way in case some time in the future, people forget the origin of the nickname for Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE) and incorrectly link SPAM meat with unwanted email.

Exchange 2003 and WINS

I was chatting to my colleague the other day about how Exchange uses WINS, and whether it was still really necessary to implement WINS in the organisation.  From searching the knowledge base, it became apparent that the Recipient Update Service, and Exchange clusters resolve names by using NetBIOS for full functionality, and will not process users in remote Exchange 2000 domains.  WINS name resolution is necessary for functionality of Exchange such as:

You may have a setup that proves that WINS isn't neccesary, but check that the configuration will be supported if you have any issues with the environment.

Live Communications Server 2005 has been released to manufacturing

I'm preparing my presentation on Live Communications Server (LCS) for IT forum at the moment, and have been looking around the internal and external LCS resources for some background information when I came across these links about LCS 2005.  We've been using LCS 2005 internally for some time now, and now with the ability for use to use IM from the Internet (IMI), I can access presence information without the need to RAS or VPN into the corporate network. (VPN can be a pain for me sometimes, as my smartcard is in my handbag, and I can never find it at home when I need to actually access internal resources and need to VPN in, and I'm very conscious of not carrying my smartcard with my laptop after my colleague Steve Lamb's warnings).

So here are the links: Office online resource centre:   LCS home page

Spim: Spam for Instant Messaging

I presented at an Instant Messaging workshop in London yesterday hosted at Microsoft's London office.  The workshop was aimed at companies working towards implementing IM in the organisation, and wishing to hear any issues on industry practice, best practices, and future strategy and direction.  I always enjoy presenting at industry events like this, as it's good to hear views about the technologies implemeted in organisations without all of the competitive stuff that goes on when 2 vendors are working towards winning the deal.

The panel discussion got to talking about Spim (Spam over Instant Messaging) where there is a very simple rule for eliminating it.  At the IM client you need to block all messages that don't come from people on your contact list.  If you get any adverts via the Messenger service however, then you could have an insecure system.  You can disable the Messenger service by following the steps in this article.  Hopefully, with the growth of Instant Messaging, companies are implementing the correct steps to ensure Governance and Compliance regulations are complied with, and appropriate measures are in place to prevent intellectual property documents leaving the company via IM.

User Forums - is online really better than face to face ?

I spent the whole of yesterday, with the UK based MVP community who were at campus in Reading, and I was keen to know their views on how they feel about how Microsoft interacts with the IT Pro's, and to capture some of their thoughts.  Most of the MVP's I spoke to seemed to be happy with their involvement through newsgroups and other online user forums, but none of them interacted with their contacts in a face to face user group or forum environment.  So this got me thinking.  Are user groups happy to interact with each other primarily through the newsgroups, or do they feel that there is benefit from regular face to face meetings?  I had a quick search on the web for some UK centric User Groups or Forums in the messaging or management technologies areas and found very few IT specific user groups for platform people (as opposed to developers who seem to have lots).

Why is this?  Don't the IT Pro's have the same sort of challenges as developers?  Don't we need to have user groups in the UK?  Or are we happier in front of our PC's with blogs and newsgroups?  Is this a UK specific issue, or is it just down to the good old UK weather?...

RSS: the future of email - without spam?

I was chatting to my manager Mike yesterday about a focus meeting I'm attending next week.  I'm going to be talking about messaging, collaboration, the increase of Instant Messaging as an Enterprise application, and some Microsoft futures and some vision ideas.  We got around to talking about the future of email, and in particular, how spam could be eliminated.

Yes, you're ahead of me.  Imagine an email system of the future where RSS feeds provide the delivery mechanism.  You only subscribe to receive mail from entities that you choose, and any unsolicited or spam feeds can quickly be unsubscribed.  Naturally, all mail from registered users within your organisation would be classified as legitimate, and there would be a mechanism for other organisations to be recognised as valid too. Email as a pull mechanism instead of push, and just imagine how this would change the way we use public folders...

Now where can I make this suggestion to the Exchange team?...

Exchange Management Pack guide for MOM 2005

I noticed this morning that the Exchange Server Management Pack (EMP) guide for MOM2005 has been published to the web.  The document gives a comprehensive walk through of how to set up MOM to manage Exchange which is useful for Exchange admins who may not have much experience of MOM, and MOM admins who may not have much experience of Exchange.

Topics like using IIS lockdown, preventing SMTP anonymous relay and configuring SSL are covered in detail, as the EMP will genreate alerts if the monitoring environment is not secured.  Clusters can be monitored too, as the EMP components automatically detect a clustered environment.  The scripts run on active cluster nodes identifying virtual servers running on those nodes.  Passive notes also have events generated by the scripts, namely:

·         Check HeapDeCommitFreeBlockThreshold Registry Key

·         Check 'services to monitor' registry key

·         Collect Operating System Server Information

·         Publish ExMP Data

·         Verify IIS Lockdown was run

·         Verify required Windows hotfixes

Best practices in configuration are also covered in detail (this document is 130 pages long) and I think that it's a really comprehensive guide to managing your Exchange organisation, and goes nicely hand in hand with the Exchange Best Practice Analyzer tool currently on the web

How many Licences per Exchange Cluster?

I was talking to a customer this morning about Exchange and configuring Active/Active/Active/Passive clustering and the topic came around to licences and how many were required in the cluster.  I get this question quite frequently in customer meetings, so I thought I'd see if the information on the web was clear enough.  From the Exchange web site it says: "All servers in a cluster that are running Exchange Server require a licence. Note that Exchange Server 2003 Enterprise Edition is required for clustered configurations"

This means that the Passive Exchange node also needs a licence which was the part my customer was unaware of.  Exchange has been installed on the passive node, but not initialised as part of cluster fail-over: therefore it needs a valid licence.

QWERTY on a cellphone? - no thank you!

I went to the Computing magazine's awards dinner last week as Microsoft had been nominated for a couple of Technology awards.  At each table, one of the main sponsors had placed a BlackBerry so that we could send messages to other tables.  I was keen to have a try, and decided to text the next table to see how easy it was.

The BlackBerry has characters arranged in the standard QWERTY style, and I think it's really counter intuitive and difficult to send messages quickly.  For a start, I can't get both hands onto the key pad, so I can't touch type, and finding the keys takes ages using just one finger.  I've used a Smartphone for a couple of years now, and can effectively respond to emails, or texts using the text keypad and one thumb (The teenagers next door can text messages to their friends with their mobile phones in their pockets but I haven't reached that stage yet).