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Exchange 2007 Updates Underway on amset.info

I have started the long process of reviewing every page in the Exchange and Outlook sections of my technical site amset.info for Exchange 2007 compatibility. While for some articles this is quite easy, as the principles remain the same, others require a completely new article - such as the Mobile Access setup guide (original: http://www.amset.info/exchange/mobile-setup.asp)
and the spam cleanup guide (http://www.amset.info/exchange/spam-cleanup.asp)

The articles that have been reviewed and updated are here http://www.amset.info/exchange/exchange-2007.asp and I will keep that list up to date until all articles are updated. It will then contain a list of Exchange 2007 specific articles.

The compatibility table on every page is being updated as I review the articles. If I haven't touched the page then the table says "Maybe" for Exchange 2007 compatibility.

Waiting for my Exchange 2007 Migration Guide? - Sorry, you will have to keep waiting.

If you are waiting for an Exchange 2007 of my migration guide (Exchange 2003 version here: http://www.amset.info/exchange/migration.asp) then you will have to wait a big longer. I have done a few migrations now, but keep changing my mind on the best way to do it. At the moment the "guide" consists of notes in Microsoft One Note, which increases in size with every subsequent migration.

However, if you are migrating off Exchange 2003/2000 to Exchange 2007, then the current guide will help a great deal. The principles still apply, you still need to replicate public and system folders and the order of work are still valid. The Exchange 2007 version, when I get round to writing my notes will almost certainly be based on that just with additional notes for Exchange 2007. I was also waiting for Exchange 2007 as Service Pack 1 introduced GUI for public folder management which makes the migration process much easier and now wish to do a few migrations using that version to hammer down the best way to do it.

Google and a New Site - Who Needs SEO?

Last year I was playing around with Google Custom Search, to try and improve the search functionality on amset.info.

While I was experimenting, I built custom search engines for the knowledgebase's of Microsoft, Symantec, McAfee, Palm, Apple, Adobe and a few others.

Rather than waste the work I had done, I put them in to some rough web code I use for basic web sites, registered a domain name and put it on its own virtual server on the same server that hosts amset.info and this site.
The link initially appeared in one place only, on this site. You will find it in the side bar. I have subsequently added it to my profile on Experts Exchange. It will most likely appear linked to from amset.info when I eventually get round to a design refresh for that site.

It will now appear in a third place, here: http://www.kbsearch.info/

If you look at the site you will see that it isn't the prettiest of code. It was built on some standard asp that I use if I need to throw together something very quickly. I use most of the asp as place holders for a real design to be done at a later date.
I did some basic meta tags, put in the Google Adsense code and left it at that.

Came as a bit of a surprise then to look at the logs for the web site a few weeks later to find that not only has Google indexed it, but it was for a time also at the top of the results (at least on Google UK) for a certain keyword - Symantec KB. It now seems to vary between 1 and 3.

If you believe some of the hype around the Search Engine Optimisation community (SEO) what has happened should not have happened. I should have had lots of links to the site, monitored my keyword density, done the research, crafted my meta tags, used the keywords in the title etc. I also shouldn't have the site name in the title.

I did none of the above. I have probably got lucky with what I did use, but it was just luck. I am not aware of any inbound links (except from here) and the pages are not optimised in any way.

I am not saying that SEO is a waste of time and money, just that it in this scenario it was not required to get the site in to the search engines in a good position.

Experts Exchange - Expert of the Year - Again

For the third year in a row, I am expert of the year at Experts Exchange. I also answered the most questions during the year - 5798 - which is an average of just over 16 questions a day.
I also picked up most points from assists.

http://www.experts-exchange.com/expertAwards2008.jsp

In other Experts Exchange news, I have decided to take a break from it for a while, so that I can concentrate on my business. You will still see me posting on other sites, but the traffic through EE is so high that it was taking up too much of my time to keep on top of it. I haven't posted in a new question on that site since Jan 1st, but I am still getting questions that I worked on before coming through, and have earned 250,000 points without even trying.

Tab Mislabelled in Exchange 2007 SP1

As you are probably aware, Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 was released at the end of November. However, even though this was in beta for quite some time, a few little things did slip past the quality control.

Below is a screenshot from Exchange 2007 Service Pack 1 as originally released. The bug exists in both the 64 bit and the 32 bit trial. Exchange Management Console, Organisation Configuration, Hub Transport. Click on the tab Remote Domains. Right click on the Default and choose Properties. The tab should be labbed "Message Format" - not "Format of original message sent as attachment to journal report:"

Not the only mistake on this window, further down, "Display sender's name on messages" has a formatting error as well.

Neither error appear to affect functionlity, but makes a different bug to report to Microsoft!

Exchange 2007 SP1 Typo

 

Exchange 2007 SP1 Installation - Things to Check Before Starting Installation

Having installed Exchange 2007 SP1 on to a couple of systems in my home lab, a couple of things have caught me out, which I thought may be beneficial to share.

Remove language packs from UM

The first was that you need to remove any additional language packs from the server. I had the UK English pack installed. This is the TechNet article on how to remove a language pack.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124004.aspx

However I found that the command listed in that article didn't work. Instead I used a command prompt in the root of my local copy of the DVD (I copied the files off the original DVD to the machine so that they were always available) and then ran the following command:

Setup.com /RemoveUmLanguagePack:EN-GB

The language pack then removed for me successfully.

Reboot Pending Prompt

If you had installed something that asked for a reboot and had not rebooted then the service pack will not install. You will have to reboot and then try again. Fortunately the service pack itself does not seem to ask for a reboot.

You do not have to remove the rollups

If you have been keeping the server up to date and have the rollups installed, then you may recall that if you downloaded them manually you had to remove the previous rollups before installing the new ones. With the service pack you do not have to do that. This service pack effectively removes the installation files and then replaces them. The download is the complete Exchange 2007 installation set. After the installation of the service pack is complete the rollups have gone from the add/remove programs list.

Receive Connector Configuration

This last one caught me out and seems to be catching many others.
If you have modified the receive connector FQDN away from the default then it will stop the installation of the service pack. However this is NOT picked up during the initial check of the server at the beginning, but midway through. The service pack install stops and you are left with a server that is not running 100%. If you do forget to change it then the service pack will pick up from where it has started.

The receive connector should be set to either the server's FQDN, Netbios name or blank.
So for a server called EXCH-Server this would be exch-server.domain.local, exch-server or blank.

Why would you change this? When you telnet to the server it is the receive connector that is answering the call and you may want to change it so that the public name of the server is answered instead.