Month: August 2005

Windows: Internet Protocol Security for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e6590330-d903-4bdd-9655-81b86df655e4&displaylang=en   XP: Understanding Security in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 in Windows XP SP2 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e550f940-37a0-4541-b5e2-704ab386c3ed&displaylang=en   Exchange: CIS Benchmarks for Exchange 2003 http://www.cisecurity.org/bench_exchange.html   SQL: How do you spell S-Q-L? – I am not sure if this is sad or funny or both http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sMcCown/howdoyouspellsql_printversion.asp   LCS: Office Communicator 2005: Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 Planning and Deployment Guide http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=04ce058b-5024-4198-8d27-2aa331fd5a3d&displaylang=en

It’s out!! The Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2 Community Technology Preview is here! Great, late on a Friday. Thanks Microsoft, what are you trying to do waste my entire weekend? You can download it here – http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=db3813c5-b0fa-4230-813b-902aca775ada&displaylang=en Should be fun! Only 112 MB 🙂 It is of course unsupported and not to be used on a production network.

As predicted here 4 days ago Zotob hit the Internet pretty hard. CNN reports that CNN, ABC and the New York Times took a pretty big hit. All of this prompted Microsoft to release an official statement – http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/aug05/08-16zotob.mspx. The text says:   “Zotob has thus far had a low rate of infection. Zotob only targets Windows 2000. Customers running other versions such as Windows XP, or customers who have applied the MS05-039 update to Windows 2000 are not impacted by this attack.”   I am guessing the press people at Microsoft have not read the Internet buzz around this … Continue reading How much longer can you afford to run Windows 2000?

Free: Free Course on Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (One) – Nice! http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2005/08/15/409201.aspx https://www.microsoftelearning.com/security/   SQL:    http://www.escapeyesterworld.com – Very interesting   Exchange: Community Technology Preview Build of Exchange Server 2003 Service Pack 2 Coming on Friday http://hellomate.typepad.com/exchange/2005/08/community_techn.html   Resources you may not know about – http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2005/08/15/409202.aspx   Microsoft Executive Circle Webcast: Windows Mobile Enterprise Features http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?EventID=1032276580&EventCategory=5&culture=en-US&CountryCode=US     Windows: Microsoft Windows Server Update Services http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2478d594-a29c-483c-9dc1-9740bf3081a5&displaylang=en   Microsoft Windows Server Update Services Operations Guide http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e26bcdb4-ef0b-4399-8a71-9b3b00c4f4cd&displaylang=en   Interoperability Considerations for IPsec Server and Domain Isolation http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=10359569-ef11-499a-9e1f-85da3fca608c&displaylang=en   LCS: Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 Intelligent Instant Message Filter http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=0ed13372-f3d2-40f0-ba5d-c880359a40f5&displaylang=en   Role … Continue reading Free, SQL, Exchange, Windows, LCS

Did you patch last Tuesday? Everything? If not beware:   New worm using a fresh exploit found – http://www.f-secure.com/weblog.   “This worm replicates by scanning random machines at port 445/TCP” Which is good, because we block that port, but what about non-fire walled machines and laptop that got infected while not on our network?“   ISC information:http://isc.sans.org/diary.php?date=2005-08-14   FrSIRT information: http://www.frsirt.com/english/advisories/20050814.ZotobA.php

I read Robert Scoble – Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek – all the time. Truly great stuff, the man is nuts (and I mean that in a good, geeky way). While surfing this past weekend I found a couple of unique items that I know Robert would just love. Or at least he would find the humor in. The first is a combination Cup Holder and Cigarette Lighter for your PC – http://www.isellsurplus.com/product.asp?id=9754&C=10. Way too cool. This is also known as the Redneck PC Option J Yes, you too can light up and have a beer while surfing the web! The second … Continue reading A couple of items that the Scobleizer (Robert Scoble) would approve of

Windows: Vulnerability in Plug and Play Could Allow Remote Code Execution and Elevation of Privilege (899588) – Microsoft is warning everyone to patch ALL Windows 2000 servers with this. The word is all over the Internet. http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/advisory/899588.mspx   Exchange: Why should you use Diskpar (Diskpart in W2003 SP1)? http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2005/08/10/408950.aspx   Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Domain Rename Fixup (XDR-Fixup) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=24b47d4a-c4b9-4031-b491-29839148a28c&displaylang=en   LCS: Live Communications Server 2005 Document: Planning Guide http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=f7bc430f-3cac-4dbd-8ec3-b93186f343fa&displaylang=en   Live Communications Server 2005 Document: Deploying Intelligent Instant Message Filter http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=e6b4131a-f3c7-4c56-acb3-1b6e0c5d73ae&displaylang=en   SMS: Scenarios and Procedures for Microsoft Systems Management Server 2003: Security http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3d81b520-a203-4376-a72d-fd34a6c4a44c&displaylang=en   Miscellaneous: Visio Connector for Microsoft … Continue reading Windows, Exchange, LCS, SMS, Misc.

When we installed our first Exchange 2003 Cluster at work our firewall group was very mad, they called screaming about how we had set it up. They did not like the fact that ingress (inbound) traffic was to the Virtual IP (VIP) and egress (outbound) traffic was via which ever node was controlling the Exchange Virtual Server (EVS) at the time. “This will simply not do”, they said. “We want you to use the same IP for inbound and outbound traffic”. “You are making our firewall rules very difficult to maintain and manage!”   Hmm, I see the point our … Continue reading Microsoft Clustering and Firewalls

Exchange: Exchange Server Best Practices Analyzer Tool v2.1a – Run the old one, it will update itself (US only). http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=dbab201f-4bee-4943-ac22-e2ddbd258df3&displaylang=en   Exchange Server Mailbox Merge Wizard (ExMerge) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=429163ec-dcdf-47dc-96da-1c12d67327d5&displaylang=en   Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Auto Accept Agent http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3d0884e6-c603-491d-bf57-acf03e046bfe&displaylang=en   Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Load Simulator (LoadSim) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=92eb2edc-3433-47ca-a5f8-0483c7ddea85&displaylang=en   Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Exchange Profile Update http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=56f45ac3-448f-4ccc-9bd5-b6b52c13b29c&displaylang=en   Designing Outlook Forms (Part 1) http://www.msexchange.org/articles/Designing-Outlook-Forms-Part1.html   Implementing iSCSI for Exchange Server 2003 http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Implementing-iSCSI-Exchange-Server-2003.html   Windows-based SMTP Tar Pitting Explained http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Windows-based-SMTP-Tar-Pitting-Explained.html   The difference between “Replication Status” and status of replication http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2005/08/03/408600.aspx   OMA 2003 Logon Process http://blogs.technet.com/exchange/archive/2005/08/05/408728.aspx   Public Folder Replication Fails with … Continue reading Exchange, SQL, LCS, SPS, AD, Project, SMS, Misc.