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December 2004 - Posts

Friday, December 31, 2004 2:42 PM

Tsunami Disaster - Donate a days pay

I feel so poweless to help, sitting here in my home half a world away from this terrible disaster, and unable to do anything positive, so I wondered what I could do to make a difference to those who have lost their homes and their livelihoods.
posted by Eileen_Brown | (Comments Off)
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Thursday, December 30, 2004 10:35 AM

MOM 2005 resource kit

Well, it's back to work for me with a thump, and I'm hit with several deadlines already!  I've got to deliver an article for FYI magazine on MOM deployment, and I've also got to prepare my sessions on Exchange to deliver at our next event
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Friday, December 24, 2004 11:04 AM

TechNet evening - ExBPA

Paul has agreed to present at a TechNet evening event for me.  He's going to be talking about the ExBPA, and eating pizza (but not at the same time)..Click on the link below to register. Paul Bowden, Program manager, Microsoft Corporation will be
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Wednesday, December 22, 2004 1:07 PM

Auto accept Agent for Exchange 2003

If you want to automatically process meeting requests for resource mailboxes try the Auto Accept Agent for Exchange 2003.  It's an asynchronous event sink that processes meeting requests in a first in, first out ourder at the server. 
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Wednesday, December 22, 2004 12:01 PM

Deploying Office using SMS

Here are some useful links to help you with your deployment of Office using SMS including an Administrative install. I'd blogged about Deployiong Office 2003 before, but I thought it was worth including the link again for reference.  Strategies for
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Tuesday, December 21, 2004 2:39 PM

Finding unused Public folders in Exchange

I saw this tip about how to find out when a public folder was last accessed in Exchange which may be useful if you're trying to rationalise your folders during an upgrade or migration.  There is a WMI class called Exchange_PublicFolder which has
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Tuesday, December 21, 2004 12:23 PM

MOM Operations and deployment planning guides now available for download

Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Operations Guide – Now Available The Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 Operations Guide includes guidance and recommended best practices for backing up and restoring, maintaining, optimizing and monitoring Microsoft Operations
posted by Eileen_Brown | 2 Comments
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Tuesday, December 21, 2004 12:19 PM

Exchange consolidation and migration

We released the Solution Accelerator for Exchange Consolidation and Migration the other day.  Its a document detailing how to plan, implement and test your upgrade from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003 focusing on the IT operations and business
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Monday, December 20, 2004 11:27 PM

Live Communications Server 2005 management pack for MOM 2005

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about how to manage LCS 2005  with MOM 2000.  Here is the management pack for MOM 2005.  Rod Trent actually got there before me though!      
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Monday, December 20, 2004 11:19 PM

To export and import packages in SMS 2003

Try this tool.  The Package loader tool at the SMS toolkit has a lot of neat functionality that is used for manual package distributuion when you dont need a central site to take over distribution.  check this one out...  
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Monday, December 20, 2004 11:14 PM

MOM connector framework through firewalls

I found this informationn from the MOM security guide on the web and thought it was worth passing on:  The MOM Connector Framework (MCF) and MOM-to-MOM Product Connectors (MMPC) are new in MOM 2005 and provide the ability to share and synchronize
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Monday, December 20, 2004 3:17 PM

Pocket Streets 2005

Matt got all excited about Pocket Streets 2005 on his blog the other day.  Its even better when it's used with Map Point mobile location services on the XDAII.  That's cool!  
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Monday, December 20, 2004 2:50 PM

Webcasts on Demand

Useful link if you missed any webcasts recently... http://www.microsoft.com/seminar/events/webcasts/ondemand.mspx
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Monday, December 20, 2004 2:48 PM

Exchange RFC and standards compliance

I've been responding to a tender from a customer who wanted to know which standards and Request For Comments (RFC's) Exchange complied with.  Here is a list from the web: Its quite comprehensive but includes: SMTP o        
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Monday, December 20, 2004 2:39 PM

Exchange 2003 Offline Address books (OAB) Best Practices guide

If you want to know how to deploy and manage OAB's in your organisation, then read this document.  It also has some useful tips on how to automate the deployment of OAB's when you deploy the client along with useful tips on administering
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Monday, December 20, 2004 2:22 PM

Managing Free / Busy Folders and servers in Exchange 2003

I noticed that there has been an addition to the Exchange Technical Documentation library with an explanation of how free/busy data is generated.  It's quite a useful addition to your background reading as I can't find much more on the web about
posted by Eileen_Brown | 1 Comments
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Monday, December 20, 2004 2:03 PM

Using MOM 2005 with a disjointed DNS namespace

The deployment guide for MOM 2005 has an interesting excerpt about DNS.  So if you have problems when the target machine cant find the MOM 2005 server, then try this tip:   Using MOM 2005 With a Disjointed DNS Namespace. To discover
posted by Eileen_Brown | 1 Comments
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Monday, December 20, 2004 1:49 PM

Windows Update Services (WUS) Deployment guide

The WUS deployment guide was published a couple of weeks ago, and I've just got around to reading it.  It's useful that WUS uses BITS technology for trickle downloads and allows you to migrate from SUS to WUS by using the command line utility WUSUTIL.EXE. 
posted by Eileen_Brown | 1 Comments
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Friday, December 17, 2004 11:47 AM

Slowing and Stopping email viruses in Exchange

As everyone is blogging like crazy about our acquisition of GIANT company the other day, the focus has really been on malware, spam and viruses.  My blog has been inundated with blogspam for a few days (but my blog is moderated, so the spam
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Friday, December 17, 2004 11:26 AM

Exchange Server mailbox merge wizard - Exmerge

Exmerge isn't included on the Exchange CD, and I was asked where it could be downloaded from during my TechNet evening presentation the other night, so I thought I'd point to the download location on my blog.  
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Thursday, December 16, 2004 11:05 PM

Messaging and mobility webcasts for January

Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast:  Low Cost Mobile Technology for Increasing Patient Safety at Healthcare Institutions Wednesday, January 19, 2005 - 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM PT Pacific Time Robert Quinn, Vice President, Engineering and CTO, Epocrates
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Thursday, December 16, 2004 11:00 PM

Management Technologies: Webcasts for January

TechNet Webcast: Implementing SMS 2003 Software Metering - Level: 200 Thursday, January 06, 2005 - 11:30 - 1:00 PM Pacific Time Wally Mead, Program Manager, Microsoft Corporation Software applications represent a considerable and ongoing investment for
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Thursday, December 16, 2004 10:47 PM

Office System Webcasts for January

Discover Today’s OfficeLive and On Demand Webcasts Available Now Discover how to get the most out of Microsoft Office System to save time and be more productive. Tune in to these live and on-demand webcasts to learn time-saving tips for optimizing your
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Thursday, December 16, 2004 10:36 PM

Localised Versions of Windows Messenger 5.1 now available

I blogged about Windows Messenger 5.1 being available the other day, but I've just noticed that it's now been released in 25 localised languages and is available for download: Go to Change language drop down to view all available localized versions.
posted by Eileen_Brown | 1 Comments
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Thursday, December 16, 2004 4:26 PM

Exchange 2003 Disaster recovery articles

I presented at a TechNet evening on Disaster Recovery for Exchange 2003 the other night and had several questions about web resources to assist with Disaster recovery.  So here they are for reference:  I'll create some BlogCasts of the demos
posted by Eileen_Brown | 3 Comments
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Wednesday, December 15, 2004 6:33 PM

Exchange Best Practices Analyzer Tool (ExBPA) 1.1 now released

The ExBPA has been released to the web. Download it here. Paul Bowden has added several imporovements which are listed in the Exchange team blog.  Paul has also agreed to talk about the ExBPA for one of the UK TechNet evenings on February 9th. 
posted by Eileen_Brown | 2 Comments
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Wednesday, December 15, 2004 11:17 AM

Connecting to the SMS Admin console

If you're having problems connecting to the SMS Admin console, then you may have problems with DCOM.  To fix this, make sure that you have Distributed COM available on the site server.  This KB article explains how to do this. Also check that
posted by Eileen_Brown | 2 Comments
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Wednesday, December 15, 2004 11:12 AM

MSN Messenger - via the web

If you're at a PC that doesn't have the MSN Messenger client installed, and you want to chat to people on your buddy list, you can use the MSN Web Messenger interface. The interface is very similar and you have access to your address book as usual. 
posted by Eileen_Brown | 7 Comments
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Wednesday, December 15, 2004 11:07 AM

MOM Management packs and product connectors

There are about 12 management packs on the MOM 2005 CD, but you can find loads of them at the Management Packs site.  If you're looking for Product connectors like the HP Openview connector, you can also search for them here.  If you want to
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Wednesday, December 15, 2004 11:02 AM

How to set up and configure an Outlook email account

I get asked this question quite a lot, so I thought I'd blog about it. Follow these steps to create a new e-mail profile in Outlook 2003: 1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel. 2. Click Switch to Classic View, and then double-click Mail.
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Wednesday, December 15, 2004 10:47 AM

Windows Messenger : Istanbul client

I found this article when I was looking for information on the next version of our Real Time collaboration client (Istanbul), and found that the beta program is open for nominations if you want to try it out.  There's lots of information
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Tuesday, December 14, 2004 5:40 PM

Exchange Active Sync (EAS)

The Exchange team have posted this great article on how scalable EAS is.  I've used my smartphone with EAS for 2 years now, and can honestly say that its the best productivity device I use.   You can read how we implemented EAS here (from
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Tuesday, December 14, 2004 5:27 PM

Best practices and tips for Exchange 2003

Rod Trent has found this gem on the web which is full of tips and too good not to pass on...  Lots of tips for Exchange 2003.  
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Tuesday, December 14, 2004 4:46 PM

Level 200, 300 and 400 - Terms explained

I often get asked what these terms mean so here's an explanation of what each term means.  200 = Basic Overview Sessions of this level require no pre-requisite and highlight future product or technology directions. 300 = Intermediate Level Sessions
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Tuesday, December 14, 2004 4:34 PM

December Webcasts: Management Technologies

TechNet Webcast: Deploying SMS for Server Management (Level 200) Tuesday, December 14, 2004 - 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Pacific Time Ed Goad, Senior Systems Engineer, Microsoft Corporation. Ever wonder what is involved in an effective deployment of an SMS infrastructure?
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Tuesday, December 14, 2004 4:32 PM

Systems Management Server 2003 Service Pack 1 Administration Feature Pack Updated for JPN/DEU/FRE

The SMS 2003 Administration Feature Pack (JPN/DEU/FRE) has been updated for SMS 2003 Service Pack 1.  The SMS 2003 Administration Feature Pack contains three tools: the Manage Site Accounts Tool, the Transfer Site Settings Wizard, and the Elevated
posted by Eileen_Brown | 1 Comments
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Monday, December 13, 2004 2:56 PM

Synchronise Pocket PC with Exchange 2003

I was going to blog about how this is done, but I  noticed that Daniel Petri has written a comprehensive walkthrough on how to do this, so here's the link to his page. There are lots of useful bits of information, and also about configuring
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Monday, December 13, 2004 2:11 PM

Creaing an Active Directory site for Exchange 2003

Microsoft IT have released a discussion document on how they created an AD Services site to Optimise Exchange 2003 perfomance.  There are some walk throughs on how this has been done.  
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Friday, December 10, 2004 9:38 AM

MSN Hotmail Facts

I had a look at the recently published fact sheet on Hotmail and the new features like MSN spaces integration and the increased storage up to 250mb.    I was amazed that MSN has been running since August 1995.  It seemed like only a few
posted by Eileen_Brown | 3 Comments
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Thursday, December 09, 2004 5:05 PM

BlogCast on Mobility

Sometimes there just isn't time to view a whole Webcast, when all you want to do is learn something specific.  Wouldn't it be great to have a demo and dialogue covering the exact component that you want to learn about? Blogging allows me to link
posted by Eileen_Brown | 27 Comments
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Thursday, December 09, 2004 3:56 PM

Evaluate MOM 2005

I saw this link on the US version TechNet Flash this week to download a 120 day copy of MOM 2005. I try to keep up to date with whats new on TechNet by subscribing to the newsletter.  I usually sign up to receive the newsletter so that
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Thursday, December 09, 2004 2:21 PM

Microsoft Management Summit 2005

On-line registration for MMS 2005 is now open, and can be accessed from the event web site.  This site also provides an overview of the event, the facilities at the venue and information about the schedule and receptions. This year’s summit will
posted by Eileen_Brown | 2 Comments
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Wednesday, December 08, 2004 5:23 PM

Evaluate Windows Update services

If you want to have a look at the Windows Update Services (WUS) beta, you can find it here. You need to have the BITS 2.0 beta installed before downloading WUS.  If you're running Windows 2000 you'll need a different beta for BITS though.  
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Wednesday, December 08, 2004 5:16 PM

Configuring clients to go to specific SUS servers for updates.

I was reading some threads about SUS earlier today, and in particular came across one that wanted information on how to configure which servers clients could go to for updates.  You need to add the WUServer and WUStatusServer settings to the:
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Wednesday, December 08, 2004 4:51 PM

Windows Messenger 5.1 Planning and Deployment Guide

If you're trying to find out how to set up and deploy the new Windows Messenger client, have a look at this deployment guide which was released to the web yesterday.  There is a discussion on spim prevention (unsolicited IM's), prevention
posted by Eileen_Brown | 3 Comments
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Tuesday, December 07, 2004 3:51 PM

Small Business Server recommended updates

Allister reminded me to blog about having a look at the critical and recommended updates for Small Business Server, especially this one which can cause chaos with emails building up in the Exchange server queue.  SBS machines are rarely properly
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Tuesday, December 07, 2004 2:30 PM

Come to the Motorcycle museum and learn about Technology!

The UK IT Evangelists had such a good time at IT Forum in November, we've decided to re-run some of the sessions in the UK on January 13th 2005.  We've got a fantastic venue - the Birmingham motorcycle museum.  The museum was ravaged by a huge
posted by Eileen_Brown | 11 Comments
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Tuesday, December 07, 2004 11:45 AM

SMS 2003 SP1 Advanced client for XP Embedded

The advanced client for XP Embedded has now been released.  It installs into the XP embedded SP1 or SP2 development environment. This allows an XP Embedded image to be created which includes all the SMS 2003 SP1 advanced client components. 
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Tuesday, December 07, 2004 11:40 AM

Active Directory MOM Management Pack Technical Reference

This document provides a detailed technical reference for Active Directory Management Pack (ADMP) for Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005. ADMP is designed for administrators who are responsible for maintaining a healthy Active Directory directory
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Tuesday, December 07, 2004 11:36 AM

Managing Live Communications Server 2005 with MOM 2000

The Live Communications Server 2005 Management Pack for MOM 2000 is now available for download.  It monitors the health of computers running Live Communications Server 2005 on Windows Server 2003 and alerts IT administrators about critical health
posted by Eileen_Brown | 2 Comments
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Tuesday, December 07, 2004 9:49 AM

Windows Messenger 5.1 now available

John blogged about the availability of Windows Messenger 5.1 which is now available to download.  It's a double stack client which means I can sign in to chat to my SIP contacts and my MSN Messenger contacts at the same time.  It doesn't
posted by Eileen_Brown | 6 Comments
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Monday, December 06, 2004 3:26 PM

MapPoint Location Service on my XDA

I'm currently evaluating MapPoint Location Server with location information on my M1000 XDA II.  It's a bit spooky being able to be located by my colleagues, who think I'm in the supermarket in our area, instead of working from home.  The
posted by Eileen_Brown | 3 Comments
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Monday, December 06, 2004 2:10 PM

Creating custom emoticons in MSN Messenger

I really like the way I can create my custom emoticons in the new beta version of MSN Messenger.  Its really simple too.  Just follow these steps: In the main MSN Messenger window, click the Tools menu, and then click Create Emoticons.
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Friday, December 03, 2004 10:01 PM

How to give Users "Outside access" to Live Communications Server 2003

The document shows you how to configure ISA Server so that people working from home (like me, now), can access presence information without using VPN.  Users can connect using TLS through ISA Server.  This is possible by using a Live Communications
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Friday, December 03, 2004 9:00 PM

17 tips for dealing with Outlook meeting requests

Ever had a meeting "disappear" from your calendar?   Here's a link showing how you can keep track of all those appointments in Outlook without dropping a single one.  
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Friday, December 03, 2004 8:57 PM

TechNet Exchange 2003 Virtual Lab

Want to play with Exchange 2003 but are limited for time and space?  Try the TechNet Virtual Lab. Learn how to take advantage of key features of Exchange Server 2003.  This lab provides exploration of the Microsoft Active Directory and Exchange
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Friday, December 03, 2004 8:42 PM

How to get RPC/HTTP enabled for Exchange

Andrew emailed me the other day with a couple of questions about how to access the Exchange servers in his organisation without using a VPN so I pointed him towards the web article detailing how to do this.  Michael Kleef has also written a useful
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Friday, December 03, 2004 8:27 PM

System Center Reporting Server

I was going to blog about System Centre Reporting Server 2005 but SMSPerf guy beat me to it!  Download the datasheet for more information about the features.
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Friday, December 03, 2004 8:13 PM

MSN Messenger 7.0 beta - available for download

I was reading Mikes MSN spaces blog and noticed that he's blogged about the new beta version of MSN Messenger.  MSN Messenger 7.0 beta has arrived and is now available for public download.  I've downloaded it, and the nudges are bizzarre although
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Friday, December 03, 2004 7:48 PM

Preventing write operations to USB block storage devices

My colleague Julius sent this handy tip around on email the other day, and didn't blog about it - so I have! Although it may be more appropriate if you're a security guy, you may find it of use . Controlling block storage devices on
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Wednesday, December 01, 2004 7:26 PM

Read the help text!

I'm totally amazed at the quantity of comments and feedback that I've had since I posted my blog on how to change passwords in MSN Messenger, and issues with passwords.  Most of the comments include the users full email address in the comments to
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