written by admin on Jan 06, 2009
Please go to our Mailbox Server Role Storage Requirements Calculator updates tracking page to see what is in this new version!
A blog post explaining the calculator (updated for this new version) is here. The download is here.
Comments welcome!
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written by admin on Jan 06, 2009
This is just a quick note that the regularly scheduled Exchange Server 2003 Intelligent Message Filter update that was set to be released on 1/7/2009 will not be happening. The next release for this update will be on 1/14/2009.
For those that might not know, this update is released on the first and third Wednesday of every month except for the month of December. December will see only a release during the first week of the month.
Thanks,
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written by admin on Jan 06, 2009
written by admin on Dec 31, 2008
Despite our attempts at documenting various break/fix scenarios, it can often be frustrating when trying to locate the information you need to resolve an issue as quickly as you would like. I decided to share this information in an attempt to help you resolve the majority of issues that can prevent your users from successfully logging on to Outlook Web Access. It won't resolve 100% of the issues and it's not intended to. It's also not intended as a "complete" with step-by-step instructions for each scenario. Rather, in most cases it will help you approach the issue logically and determine your best course of action and which resources to review to learn more about the scenario as well as how to fix your issue. In any event, it's a good resource to peruse before picking up the phone to speak with technical support.
The following should guide you through eliminating the most common root causes for this type of scenario. If nothing else, working through these steps should provide you with enough information such that you can minimize your time on the phone should you still find it necessary to call technical support.
Before you can effectively troubleshoot this issue you should know, or confirm, the following information:
1. If users are receiving an error, what is the exact wording of the error message and does it include an HTTP (IIS) status code that can help you isolate root cause?
2. If a call stack is provided when clicking Show Details, does the exception provide any clue that can help you isolate root cause?
3. Is everyone affected or only some users? For instance, does the issue affect only users connecting from outside the network or everyone regardless of their location? If only users connecting over the Internet are affected, then there's a high probability that Exchange is fine and the cause of the issue is related to a firewall, proxy server, or hardware device like an SSL Accelerator or load balancer. NOTE: Another good test to run if you suspect root cause might be your firewall or network is to try logging on to OWA from the console of the Client Access Server itself.
4. If only some users are affected, does the issue happen from multiple workstations using the same user account? This should help you determine if the issue is user specific or machine specific.
5. If you still have Exchange 2003 mailbox servers in your org, does the issue affect Exchange 2003 and/or Exchange 2007 users who try connecting through the Exchange 2007 CAS?
6. Is the server users connect to a standalone Client Access Server or is the Mailbox role also installed on the same machine?
7. How many Active Directory sites are there? If more than one, which site has the Internet-facing CAS server? Which site has the mailbox server where affected users are homed?
8. Is the CAS server in a perimeter network or DMZ?
9. Did it ever work? If yes, what changes have been made in the environment, i.e.
software updates, service packs, rollups, new hardware, firewall changes, etc?
Now that you have a clearer understanding of the issue and environment, let's eliminate the low hanging fruit.
1. If you're in a mixed environment with Exchange 2003 or 2000 and only users homed on Exchange 2003 are unable to log on, read the following with special attention to the Deployment Scenarios section:
Outlook Web Access and Exchange 2007, Exchange 2003, and Exchange 2000 Coexistence
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb885041.aspx
2. If Exchange 2003 users connecting through Exchange 2007 receive, "Page cannot be displayed", followed by, "Cannot find server or DNS error", and the CAS role is co-located with the Mailbox role, then you will need to deploy a standalone Client Access Server. This is also documented in the coexistence documentation above and is necessary if you intend on having Exchange 2003 users use OWA to connect to their mailbox across the Internet.
3. If Exchange 2007 is deployed across multiple Active Directory sites with an Internet-facing CAS server in one site and other CAS servers in "proxy" sites, read our Redirection and Proxy documentation. Briefly, when you configure your CAS servers for this scenario you must have an external URL entered for the /owa virtual directory in Exchange Management Console. Authentication will typically be either forms-based (FBA) or basic auth. However, the CAS servers in the proxy sites need to be configured quite differently. The InternalUrl for the /owa vdir in the console should be the internal FQDN of the server and the External URL should be blank, or null. Authentication for /owa MUST be set to Integrated Windows Authentication which means you cannot enable FBA on the CAS servers in the proxy sites. If this isn't set up correctly and users with mailboxes in the proxy site are unable to connect, then you should see an event ID 41 for source MSExchange OWA on the Internet-facing CAS.
4. Several different issues can cause a 440 Login Timeout error. If users are seeing this, read the following Knowledge Base article:
941201 Error message when you try to log on to Exchange 2007 by using Outlook Web Access: "440 Login Timeout"
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;941201
5. If users see "Service Unavailable" when they try to connect, it's possible you intentionally or inadvertently installed the 32-bit version of the.Net Framework. To resolve this issue, refer to the instructions for Asp.Net version 2, 64-bit, in the following Knowledge Base article:
894435 How to switch between the 32-bit versions of ASP.NET 1.1 and the 64-bit version of ASP.NET 2.0 on a 64-bit version of Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;894435
6. If users report seeing a blank page when connecting to OWA, this might be due to
a recent rollup being applied that didn't install correctly. For more information,
see kb 935490 which applies to all rollups and not just Rollup 2.
935490 Description of Update Rollup 2 for Exchange 2007
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;935490
I hope this helps! As I mentioned earlier, this won't help you resolve every single OWA logon issue. But it's a good place to start and some of the procedures may lead to solutions that aren't documented here.
written by admin on Dec 30, 2008
Mike, one of our readers, sent us the link of a funny story how an out of office reply got printed on a bi-lingual traffic sign. Thought that it was pretty funny:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7702913.stm
That got me thinking of some of funny OOF messages that I have seen over time. After performing a quick search, I ran into few places that had a few funny OOF replies written up and posted. Some randomly picked examples here, here and here.
Did you want to share some of the funny OOF replies that you saw or wrote up yourself? Creativity of some people is really amazing when it gets to those!
(And, by the way - in case you do not yet know how come that "Out Of Office" came to be abbreviated as "OOF" - you might want to read this.)
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written by admin on Dec 30, 2008
written by admin on Dec 18, 2008
We noticed the following in the Wikipedia article about ESE:
Well, here's your citation for you - and we added a few names:
Developers who have contributed towards the success of JET Blue include Cheen Liao, Stephen Hecht, Matthew Bellew, Ian Jose, Edward "Eddie" Gilbert, Kenneth Kin Lum, Balasubramanian Sriram, Jonathan Liem, Andrew Goodsell, Laurion Burchall, Andrei Marinescu, Adam Foxman, Ivan Trindev, Spencer Low and Brett Shirley.
- KC
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written by admin on Dec 18, 2008
written by :: Microsoft Outlook Forum :: on Dec 17, 2008
After 2 betas I’m glad to announce the release of the Microsoft Outlook Connector 12.1 – the add-in that puts your Windows Live Hotmail data in Outlook. Outlook Connector 12.1 provides a great synchronization experience with e-mail, contacts, and the free Windows Live Calendar service. Download it now!
As part of the 12.1 release, we have also made improvements to the e-mail and contacts synchronization that make this version of the connector faster and more robust. Thank you to everyone who contacted us and gave us feedback and suggestions during the beta period of the release.
What is Windows Live Calendar and how does it interface with Outlook?
For those who are new to the Windows Live Calendar, it features a fast and functional Ajax user interface that provides a rich experience on the web (visit http://calendar.live.com and check it out for yourself). It also supports some great new features that make the experience in Outlook even better. For example, you can have multiple calendars on Windows Live Calendar and each of them will synchronize to Outlook with the Outlook Connector 12.1. Windows Live Calendar supports calendar sharing as well. Shared calendars to which you have access will also synchronize with Outlook.
If you are a user of the Outlook Connector 12.0 it is worth noting that the Outlook Connector 12.0 and the Outlook Connector 12.1 synchronize calendar data against two separate calendaring services.
After installing Outlook Connector 12.1, it will upload your appointments and meetings to your new Windows Live Calendar. At that point the Outlook Connector will no longer synchronize with the MSN Calendar service.
In order to make sure that all of your calendar items on the MSN Calendar service are correctly migrated to the Windows Live Calendar, you should follow these steps:
It is important to note that if you access your Calendar through your web browser, you will be presented the option to choose whether to keep your original calendar or go to Widows Live Calendar:
You should choose the correct version of the Outlook Connector depending on the Calendar you are using.
How do I get the Outlook Connector 12.1?
There are two easy ways you can install the Outlook Connector 12.1.
Outlook Connector 12.1 brings a new level of reliability and stability when viewing and using your Windows Live Hotmail and Windows Live Calendar in Microsoft Outlook. Download it and start using it today!
Alessio Roic
Outlook Program Manager
written by admin on Dec 16, 2008
I got a lot of great feedback for the recent post I wrote about the Microsoft Certified Master Program, and not unsurprisingly there were some comments posted about the price.
Given the state of the world's economy, and knowing that costs for things like training are often one of the first things that get cut, we have listened to the feedback given, sharpened our pencils and have decided to offer a discount to fill the remaining seats we have in March (March 16th to April 4th) and May (May 4th to May 23rd). In uncertain economic times, having unrivalled skills won't do anyone any harm in the job market and if you read the comments following my last post, you will see no one there doubts this training is worth it.
So I'm posting the announcement below here first; the MCM Web site will go live with this announcement later this week, as it is likely the successful candidate in the Program is reading this blog. So if you want to do this, go sign up. Really, go sign up now. Half the seats in March are already filled. I want to fill the class, so I hope you take advantage of this offer.
Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) program now offers 30% limited time discount to get trained and certified! (Offer Expires on February 14th!)
Today, Microsoft provides additional support to its customers and partners by offering a limited time 30% discount (US$5,550) for the Microsoft Certified Master programs allowing to you to save on your training investment.
If you're a seasoned IT professional focused on the Microsoft platform, it's time to differentiate yourself from your peers while bringing further IT efficiency to your organization. The Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) advanced training and certification programs have opened their classroom doors for candidates from around the world in Redmond, Washington, United States. The classes are designed for IT professionals with approximately 10 years of experience in the industry and focus on one of the following core Microsoft Server technologies: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 - Directory, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, and Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007.
A recent survey of program graduates reported increased productivity and billable rates for some certified individuals.
Apply now, and upon acceptance provide payment by February 14th, 2009, to save US$5,550 on the Microsoft Certified Master program of your choice (30% discount)!
Note: training classes in beta have a 50% discount which cannot be combined with this offer.
-- Greg Taylor