New Features in Exchange 2010

Here are the important changes you should know about:

* For starters, note the new orange color to the Exchange logo icon. It's not a technical facet of the new version but good to note, nonetheless.
* In Exchange 2007, clicking Microsoft Exchange at the top gave you Finalize Deployment and End-to-End Scenario tabs. In the Exchange 2010 beta, you get nothing when you click Microsoft Exchange; instead, you have to click Microsoft Exchange On-Premises to see the Finalize Deployment, Post-Installation Tasks, and Community and Feedback tabs. Also note a little option in the Actions pane called Gather Organizational Information; it kicks off a wizard that collects your organization's data for the number of servers, mailboxes, server roles, and licensing summary.
* Clicking the Organization Configuration top branch in Exchange 2007 shows you Exchange administrators and their roles. The Exchange 2010 beta displays three tabs: Federation Trusts, Sharing Relationships, and Sharing Policies. They may seem a bit cryptic if you don't understand the new concept of federation, which amounts to trust of other domains. Clicking the New Federation Trust wizard tells Echange 2010 to create a federation trust with Windows Live to prepare for secure sharing of information with external Exchange organizations. This requires a certificate for federation being deployed on all Exchange servers with client access and hub server role.
* Clicking Mailbox under Organization Configuration offers some new tabs in the Exchange 2010 beta, such as Database Management (which formerly resided under Server Configuration | Mailbox) and Database Availability Group. The Database Availability Group options are exciting to work with because they relate to your High Availability and Disaster Recovery options. Creating a New Database Availability Group launches a wizard that defines a set of servers that provide automatic database-level recovery from database failure. Note that Storage Groups are gone in favor of these new Database Availability Groups (DAGs). Also note some major changes to the High Availability options: specificall, LCR, and SCC are no longer available.
* Clicking Client Access under the Organization Configuration branch shows that ActiveSync policies are still around, and it offers a new set of policies called Outlook Live Mailbox Policies.
* For the most part, the Hub Transport settings look the same. But there are some new transport-policy settings worth looking into. One is If the Sender and Recipient's AD Attribute Are Evaluation. I had a hard time figuring that one out until I actually created the rule and discovered that it lets you change the AD Attribute and the Evaluation. Give it a try, and you will understand.
* The Unified Messaging tabs under Organization are the same. However, after creating a dial plan and going into the properties, I noticed some interesting changes: a check box on the General tab for Allow Voice Mail Preview and another one for Allow Users to Configure Personal Auto Attendants. One of the biggest interface changes I noticed when clicking through was in the UM policy settings on the General tab; new check boxes include Allow Message Waiting Indicator and Allow Play on Phone. There is also a Protected Voice Mail tab to help enforce options that may involve legal requirements for a company (for example, some companies are required to play a message on phone and not through a computer's speakers for confidentiality's sake).
* Moving on to Server Configuration. If you select this branch, you now see Exchange Certificates, which Exchange 2007 did not have. You can create a new certificate, assign services to certificates, or import/export certificates.
* Under Mailbox for Server Configuration, you see Database Copies.
* Client Access under Server Configuration holds the same four tabs as in Exchange 2007 for OWA, POP, and IMAP4, Exchange ActiveSync, and Offline Address Book Distribution.
* Under the Recipient Configuration branch is a new option called Mailbox Migration. In clicking through the properties of a mailbox user, I noticed a few interesting changes. There is a Calendar Settings tab where you can enable the Calendar Attendant and make some quick modificaitons such as Remove Meeting Forward Notifications to the Deleted Items Folder and Remove Old Meeting Requests and Responses without having to create entire policies for them. I didn't see too much else that was different other than a Federated Sharing option for a sharing policy on the Mailbox Settings tab.
* Last but not least, the Toolbox: On the surface, the two versions' interfaces match up perfectly. There are no new tools, it seems. No doubt the Exchange Best Practices Analyzer is newer. I couldn't find, however, some of my options for managing databases and working with Recovery Storage Groups.

Source: infoworld.com

Exchange Server 2010 Beta Tips

On April 15, Microsoft released a public beta of Exchange Server 2010, formerly code-named Exchange 14. I've had the opportunity to spend a lot of time working with the new version of Exchange since before the public beta, and I thought I'd share a few tips and tricks that might be useful to you.

First of all, don't even think of installing the beta in production. It's not supported or licensed for production use, and there's no guarantee that you'll be able to upgrade from this beta to later betas (if any) or to the release version. Nino Bilic on the Exchange team blog also has something to say about this point.

Second, keep in mind the prerequisites you'll need to download and install before you install the Exchange 2010 beta. I had hoped that Exchange 2010 would automate installation (or at least downloading) of the prerequisite updates it requires, but it doesn't. Microsoft's Scott Schnoll posted a step-by-step installation guide on his blog that you can use as a guide. There are two sets of prerequisites: Windows features that you must have installed, such as the Windows RPC over HTTP proxy server for the Client Access server role; and patches or updates to existing features, including Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 and the latest version of the Windows Remote Management (WinRM) management service.

Third: Exchange 2010 requires PowerShell 2.0, which supports remote management. When you use the Exchange Management Shell link on the Windows Start menu, you're actually getting a remote PowerShell session on the same machine. In some cases, remote PowerShell sessions don't start properly. If that happens, look in the Start menu again and you'll see an Exchange Management Shell (Local PowerShell) link. Use it instead, and you'll be in good shape.

Exchange Server 2010 beta by Microsoft

Source: windowsitpro

Kaspersky Security for MS Exchange Server 2003 5.5

Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 protects users of corporate mail systems against viruses, spyware and spam, and can be centrally administered. Kaspersky Security for Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 provides anti virus scanning of incoming and outgoing messages and mail stored on the server, as well as messages in shared folders.

It also helps mail system users to block unwanted mail using intelligent spam recognition technologies in addition to technologies provided by Microsoft. Advanced technologies for protection against viruses and spam. In addition to its proven anti virus technologies that ensure traditionally high detection rates of malicious programs, the product makes use of the Spam Test technology to detect unwanted mail.

Two-tier spam filtering. The product filters unsolicited mail in conjunction with Microsoft Exchange 2003 / Outlook 2003, guaranteeing high recognition of spam.

Source: zdnet.de

Save With an Online Exchange Server

Get through lean times by watching your business expenses like a dieter tracking calories. Is the cost of your ISP bandwidth and IT support worth hosting your own Exchange Server? Many businesses can save money with an offsite, hosted Exchange Server.

Self-hosting, up-front fees sting the hardest. Let's first figure you'd buy Small Business Server Standard for about $1,000 and a middle-weight server for about $1,500. That'd get you support for five users at an initial cost of about $2,500. Additional user licenses run $77 each. So for a business of about 20, you'd pay more than $3,500 to get started, and you'd likely pay more for help from an IT consultant.

A hosted Exchange Server eliminates these initial costs and ongoing IT maintenance fees. In this situation, hardware, software, and user licenses are billed monthly. Depending on the host and service, expect to pay about $10 a month per user.

Based on this rough 20-person business example, you'd be even with the up-front, $3,500 cost of self-hosting after about 18 months. But that still doesn't factor in your specific, ongoing ISP and IT bills, which could double this figure. And you'll eventually have to pay for hardware and software upgrades, too.

A hosted Exchange Server makes even more sense when you further scrutinize employee needs. Does everyone need the full features of an Exchange account, or can some employees get by with a simpler POP setup?

Source: pcworld.com

Exchange Server 2010 beta by Microsoft

Microsoft has unveiled the public beta of Exchange Server 2010, with the final release slated for year's end.

Among the new features, Exchange Server 2010 will allow users to opt-out of group email threads they're not interested in, and offer a voice-to-text transcription feature allowing voice messages to be stored in the inbox.

Elsewhere, Microsoft's making a big noise over privacy and Exchange Server 2010 will now offer MailTips - a series of configurable warnings that will alert users before they send out mail to large groups, people with their out-of-office switched on and those not on "trusted" organisation lists.

It will also feature to three Gmail innovations: Mail Googles which requires the user to complete a difficult sum before sending an email; Undo Send, which holds the email for ten seconds in case the user immediately regrets pressing the send button and wants to stop it going out. Outlook will also now present mail in threads, a feature pioneered by Gmail.

From: pcpro

How to install the Microsoft Exchange Server Clustered Mailbox Role during Microsoft IIS error? How can I install it??

Answer:

First, make sure you've installed the required prerequisites: ISAPI Extensions Basic Authentication Windows Authentication IIS 6 Management Compatibility

The common cause for this error if you meet the prerequisites is that your .NET installation is incomplete or corrupt. When you attempt to install the Clustered Mailbox Role, you'll get the following error. An error occurred while creating the IIS virtual directory 'IIS://savdalex01.savilltech.net/W3SVC/1/ROOT/Exchange' on 'savdalex01'. Could not load file or assembly 'Microsoft.Web.Administration, Version=7.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

The solution is to reinstall .NET 3.0, even though it may show as installed.

Source: Windowsitpro

Exchange Tool Tests Remote Connections

Microsoft announced an online service for IT pros that enables them to test incoming e-mail traffic to Microsoft Exchange Server.

The tool, called Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer, was announced last week as a beta version. However, it's apparently been available as a test version since late last year.

The Microsoft Exchange team on Wednesday pointed to the availability of the beta version. The team's blog includes a video that demonstrates how the tool works, which can be accessed here.

The remote analyzer tool helps IT administrators assess server setup problems, particularly when e-mail clients located outside an organization's firewall are having problems trying to connect. While Exchange Server comes with its own test tools, those tools can only test traffic within an organization's firewall.

The Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer will test incoming e-mail traffic by simulating three client types, including Windows Mobile clients using Exchange ActiveSync, Outlook clients using Outlook Anywhere and clients that use SMTP.

You can run the tests for Windows Mobile and Outlook with autodiscovery turned either on or off.

The beta still has some usability limitations, and it requires certificates for some tests to work, according to the Exchange team blog. The team plans make those improvements in a future version, along with adding new tests for Exchange Web Services, IMAP, Outlook Web Access and POP.

The Exchange Server Remote Connectivity Analyzer tool, nicknamed "ExRCA," can be accessed for free online here.

Source: http://entmag.com/news/article.aspx?editorialsid=10734