Global Address List (GAL)

I had a customer call me because he added a new user to his Small Business Server and wanted to see them in the Global Address List in his Outlook. Exchange doesn't automatically update the GAL upon user creation in Active Directory. I think it's strange that Exchange doesn't automatically update the GAL when it creates a mail box for the user. Instead Exchange is set up to update the GAL once a day. If you want that person to be listed immediately you will have to manually start the update.

First you need to open up the Exchange System Manager and navigate to Recipients > Offline Address Lists

Second, double click on the Default Offline Address List

Third, under update interval click the Customize button.

From there, select a time that is closest to your current time and wait for it to pass. Outlook should update automatically. And your employees won't have to manually type in the new users full email address.

Remote Computer Access

I had a need to remotely access a Windows 2000 Professional computer, but Microsoft didn't have Remote Desktop capabilities built into it. I found TightVNC which is a free program protected by GPL licensing. You can set it up as a viewer, or to control a remote computer based on password access. It operates on ports 5900 and 5800. However I wouldn't recommend it for using over the internet because of weak encryption. I first remote into another machine before I use this program, or you could use OpenSSH to secure it. The website to download it can be found at http://www.TightVNC.com

Outlook 2003 not default email handler

This article is a re-posting of some help I received from google groups:

UaHardwick wrote -
Let me rephrase that title. Outlook 2003 is the default email handler, yet it won't respond when I click on a mailto: someb ...@example.com link. In my start menu (WinXP) the e-mail Icon is an envelope not the Outlook 2003 icon. If I right click on the start menu > Properties > Start Menu - Customize; the email option is Microsoft Outlook, not outlook express.

In Internet Explorer I go to tools > internet options > Programs(tab) Microsoft Office Outlook is already chosen for email.

In Outlook 2003 I go to Tools > options > other(tab) the checkmark box next to "Make Outlook the default program for E-mail, Contacts, and Calendar." is greyed out.

Also note that I am running a small business server 2003 domain with Outlook 2003 installed as an assigned application through Active Directory.

How can I really make this program my defalult email handler? Or at least show the Outlook icon on the start menu.

Robert Sparnaaij [MVP-Outlook] www.howto-outlook.com wrote -
It's a Windows setting. You can change the icon on a per shortcut basis or change the default in Control Panel-> Folder Options-> tab File Types-> URL:MailTo Protocol

UaHardwick wrote -
Thank you for the reply, I actually installed the service pack 2 for office 2003 and it resolved the problem for me.

Windows Small Business Server 2003 Migration

This weekend I, along with a couple of coworkers, performed a migration of a customer's network from Windows 2000 server to Windows Small Business Server 2003. I didn't realize it would be so complicated at first, but SBS 2003 wants to be the Primary Domain Controller. I thought PDC's were out the door since Windows NT. So instead of just installing a new server in the environment and promoting it to domain controller status, we needed to create a whole new network. SBS' features are cool and cheap, but are they worth the price? In my test network of the migration I ran into a few false starts, but the migration went as planned.

 

During our actual migration things didn't go quite so smoothly, but nothing disastrous. First we needed to demote one of the current Domain Controllers so I could be migrated to the new network. Upon demotion we had our first casualty, ePolicy Orchestrator. ePO was running on MSDE but it could no longer read from the database. It gave suggestions to log in as the local administrator, but that didn't help. We decided to scrap it and install it fresh on the new server. Besides McAfee had updated the software since it was initially installed.

 

Users and groups migrated just as they should've. The computers were giving us some trouble, but I think it was because we had to wait for DNS to update all the computers. For the most part all computers migrated with only two needing to be done manually.

 

Exchange was the easiest part of the migration, although I wish the migration tool included public folders (there were so many of them!). We started the migration and left for the weekend. I think that it took at least 16 hours to complete. It took 30 minutes to bring over 8,000 messages and we knew it was time to leave it alone.

 

Monday morning, preparing for the users: Exchange Migration 0 errors! However the discovery of our biggest headache: Roaming Profiles. It started with the server that roaming profiles was stored on. The permissions to the drive they were on didn't migrate over, so I had to take ownership of the drive and files. This created a bigger problem, Administrator was the owner of the network file and not it's respective owners. We did not know this was the problem for a long time. Every time the user would log she would get an error saying that the roaming profile could not be loaded and that a local copy would be used. I found that it was also creating an event log application error: userenv 1000. Upon research we found there was a solution. Lo and behold, Group Policy could solve our ails. What was the group policy setting?

 

Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > System > User Profiles > Do not check for user ownership of Roaming Profile Folders = Enabled

After solving that problem the rest was downhill. All the clients' Line of Business Applications worked as normal with little quirks and hickups.

Disable Hidden Windows XP Programs

Here's a useful tool if you want to disable certain features hidden within the Windows XP operating system quickly and simply. Items such as Windows Messenger, Automatic Updates, Balloon Tips, and Sending Error Reports are among some of the items that can be turned off with this free utility. The website where it can be found is:
http://xp-antispy.org
This site can be trusted, but, however, there are some that have created similar sites that end with .de that contain malware that will download to your PC if you happen upon them.

Exchange Logs

Here's an interesting thing I learned about exchange logs. You know that you shouldn't be deleting them because Exchange should be taking care of that for you. But what if Exchange isn't clearing the logs for you? I have one customer that hasn't done a backup in over a year. We're going to install a new server on his site because a)the email server is at it's storage capacity, and b)he's still on Windows 2000 Server. In preparation for the new server I need to back up his current server. I bring the tape drive from my office and install it on his server and perform a full backup using ntbackup. Today he has over 40GB of storage space available on his harddrive. What happened? Did simply clearing the archive bit on all those log files give Exchange the okay to delete them? All my other customers do a daily backup so I've never seen this behavior before. I'll definitely have to keep this in mind for the future.

Google Mail Hosting

I'm very excited this weekend. Why? Because I just moved my website over to a much cheaper hosting provider: GoDaddy.com. My previous hosting was $10 a month and I wasn't even taking advantage of all its features. GoDaddy has double the storage space for less than $3 a month. I purchased my domain through them anyway so the transition was easy. Mail was included in GoDaddy's hosting plan but I wanted to use GMail services.

I signed up for Google's Domain Mail Hosting service. It's free if you don't mind harmless text adds next to your messages. I love how it groups email messages together that are replys back and forth. I always wished Outlook would do that. Google calls them conversations, not email messages.

Another great feature is I can add in all my friend's blog feeds to show up as a headline ticker just above my message window. The page will refresh itself to display any new emails arriving, and I can stay logged in all day without being kicked off because of this refreshing (double entendre) feature.

With all the storage space they provide for you, Gmail reccomends you to archive your messages instead of deleting them, so they'll always be there to search for; google search 'em. Like when somebody sends you their new address in an email, but you're too lazy to update their contact info. Just search it, you'll find it. I love it!