The Five (Major) Steps to Recover an Exchange 2007 Server
This quick overview cover how you can easily recovers from a complete server failure (if you have backups) of an Exchange 2007 server.
[ check it out ] Posted 10/9/2008

Limiting external users from sending mail to Exchange objects
This posting goes over how to allow only known external users to be able to send to internal users and groups with Exchange 2007.
[ check it out ] Posted 8/2/2008

AD attribute and indexing settings
This information covers how different flags on an attribute's searchFlag property in the AD schema effect how it is index and a couple of values that effect attributes.  This info was taken from an e-mail thread with Dave Goldmand, from Microsoft.
[ check it out ] Posted 4/10/2008

Creating a Spam Quarantine with Exchange 2007
Out of the box Exchange 2007 has support to store/quarantine possible spam messages.  This articles goes over how to enable and fully utilize this feature.
[ check it out ] Posted 3/25/2008

Integrating SharePoint and Outlook 2007
This article covers how to integrate SharePoint lists with Outlook items. It goes over how to get Calendars, Tasks, Contacts, and Document Libraries in SharePoint to show up in Outlook 2007.
[ check it out ] Posted 11/2/2007

Testing Exchange 2007 - Part 2
In the second part of two parts of this article series I cover DR, clustering, scalability, server roles, and calendaring.
[ check it out ] Posted 9/19/2007

Testing Exchange 2007 - Part 1
In this series of articles I will cover the key areas that really need to be looked at tested before planning for and definitely before starting your migration to Exchange 2007.  The first part covers how the changes in Exchange 2007 can affect applications and why it is so different from Exchange 2003.
[ check it out ] Posted 6/3/2007

Tuning IMF with IMF Tune
Are you currently using IMF? If so you know the limitation of it (no white or blacklist, no control over what gets classified as spam, etc).  Well IMF Tune, which I and Pro Exchange use, allows you to control all aspects of your spam filtering. In this article, I will cover some of the limitations of IMF and how IMF Tune can help.
[ check it out ] Posted 12/20/2006

Configuring Reverse DNS for Exchange
Recent changes made by aol.com, hotmail.com, and other ISPs related to reverse DNS lookups, to help prevent spam, has caused mail sent by some servers to be blocked or rejected.  This article goes over the steps needed to insure that your Exchange server and DNS are configured correctly to prevent mail sent from them from being blocked.
[ check it out ] Posted 10/31/2006

Configuring Exchange to host multiple e-mail domains
Exchange 2003 can easily support hosting multiple domain names.  In this article I will go over how to host multiple domains names using Exchange 2003 and to automatically set the correct e-mail address on users.
[ check it out ] Posted 10/22/2006

Creating a two node CCR cluster with Exchange 2007
In this article I will cover setting up and configuring Exchange 2007 in a two node Cluster Continuous Replication (CCR) cluster.  CCR clustering is new to Exchange 2007 and provides the ability to cluster without the requirement of an expense shared storage system.
[ check it out ]  Posted 10/3/2006

Updating the GAL
Do you know how accurate, or more likely in-accurate your GAL is?  In this article I talk about the Directory Update tool from ITCS Hawaii that allows self-administration of the common properties in GAL from a web-site.  Using this tool, which is VERY affordable, user are given the ability to keep their information in the GAL update to date.
[ check it out ] Posted 9/4/2006

Creating a Rules Extension - IIFP Part 3
In my third, and currently final, article in the setting up IIFP/MIIS series I will cover creating a rules extension to create users in the target domain.  After creating the rules extension we will modify the target domain MA created in Part 2 to allow it to create users also.
[ check it out ] Posted 8/28/2006

Configuring IIFP to Sync User Attributes - IIFP Part 2
In this part of my IIFP article series I cover configuring IIFP or MIIS to synchronize attributes of user objects between two different domains.
[ check it out ] Posted 8/25/2006

Setting up the Identity Integration Feature Pack - IIFP Part 1
Ever had the need to synchronize attributes or objects between two domains?  Do you have Exchange setup in a resource forest or want to populate a test domain based on your production domain?  If so, you can take advantage of Microsoft's free directory synchronization tool, called Identity Integration Feature Pack (IIFP) to do this and more.  Part 1 of my IIFP article series covers installing IIFP.
[ check it out ] Posted 8/21/2006

Securing Exchange Email
Have any "special" users in your environment, that send e-mails that only a few people in your organization should be able to read?  If so read this article on how to use Exchange and Outlook to encrypt messages between users.
[ check it out ] Posted 8/14/2006

Adding Content to a SharePoint Site - WSS Part 2
In this article I will go over creating and customizing an Issues list for the basic IT site created in Part 1.
[ check it out ] Posted 8/11/2006

Setting up Windows SharePoint Services - WSS Part 1
If you haven't seen or used SharePoint you should!  SharePoint can help you stop users from e-mailing around large attachments, prevent users from using old versions of documents, and provide a web based portal to documents, files, lists (think web based Excel spreadsheets), and more.  This article includes step-by-step instructions on setting up Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) on Windows 2003 and Windows 2003 R2.
[ check it out ] Posted 8/7/2006

What's New and Cool in Exchange 2007
Interested in what's new, cool, and changed in Exchange 2007?  If so check out this article and the various links provided in it. 
[ check it out ] Posted 8/2/2006

Disaster Recovery for Exchange - Restoring - Exchange DR Part 2
In the second part of this article, I cover restoring Exchange using a Recovery Storage Group and merging restored mailbox data into the users' current mailboxes.
[ check it out ] Posted 7/27/2006

Disaster Recovery for Exchange - Backing Up - Exchange DR Part 1
Probably the most important administrative task for Exchange admins is ensuring the effectiveness of their disaster recovery plan and the integrity of the backups themselves. In this article, I show you a brief rundown on the Backup or Restore Wizard and how it can satisfy the scheduling and backup needs for most Exchange organizations even though few realize it's scheduling and automation features.  [ check it out ] Posted 7/27/2006

Where's the Web Admin Page for the AD?
Since AD was released I have been waiting for Microsoft to provide a basic user administration tool for AD and Exchange. But six years later they still haven't and I haven't been able to find a free tool that does what I have been looking for. After searching around the Internet for a web based user admin tool and not finding one I finally decided to write my own. 
[ check it out ] Posted 5/8/2006

Retiring Exchange 5.5 sites with Exchange 2003 SP1 Tools
Starting with Exchange 2003 Microsoft made some key additions to the migration tool kit needed to migrate from Exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003.  With SP1 Microsoft further enhanced these tools to allow cross-site mailbox migrations.  With this additional support the process to consolidate multiple 5.5 sites into few 5.5\2003 sites base become easier. In this article I will outline the basic steps need to migrate to Exchange 5.5. 
[ check it out ] Posted 4/18/2006

Replicating Public Folders across Orgs
Public folder replication allows data on one Exchange server available to another Exchange server. This allows users connecting to the second Exchange server to access the public folder data without going across the network to the first server. This type of replication is only available between servers within the same Exchange organization. When a company\organization has more than one Exchange organization or needs to migrate to a new Exchange organization, the standard tools do not provide away to migrate public folders across organizations. In this article, I will show you a formal process you can follow to replicate public folder information across Exchange organizational boundaries. [ check it out ] Posted 3/8/2006

Reducing Exchange Downtime with ExMerge
Recovering Exchange mailbox data from a backup can be a lengthy process. Moreover, if you have a large Exchange store it can take hours just to restore the data, not to mention the time it takes to build a recovery server. Microsoft has shipped tool since Exchange 5.5 that can batch import and export messages between an Exchange store and a PST file. ExMerge can be run using the GUI and it can be automated using the CLI, a custom INI file, and an input file. In this article, I will show you how to automate the process which can be handy for migrations or for simply saving mailbox data to a PST on a schedule basis.  [ check it out ] Posted 2/3/2003

Using Exchange Server components to fight SPAM
Anyone who has had an e-mail address more then a few months should be familiar with spam. The technical issues related to filtering out spam are very complex due to the many different techniques spam companies use to try to prevent their spam from being filtered. So what is needed to prevent 100% of spam is someone who can scan every incoming e-mail and make a choice if it is spam or not, and if it isn't then forward it on. In this article, we discuss how to combine human process with automation to protect your Exchange environment from unwanted SPAM. [ check it out ] Posted 12/5/2002

Building a List of Spam Hosts
In Part 1, Using Exchange Server components to fight SPAM, I went over how to create and install your own spam filter by registering a VBScript with the SMTP service for Exchange 2000. One of the features of this filter was that it would query the Active Directory to see if it should block e-mail from a specific host by checking for the existence of a contact that matches the host IP. In this article I will cover a VBScript that can be used to create these contacts in the AD by processing all mail items in a folder or by reading in a list of hosts from a text file. [ check it out ] Posted 12/2/2002