Exchange and Outlook UPDATE--December 15, 2005

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Symantec
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Global Knowledge
http://www.globalknowledge.com/training/olm/go.asp?find=ExcDec&country=United+States

1. Commentary
- Do As I Say...

2. Peer to Peer
- Featured Thread: Migrating Exchange 5.5 to an Existing Windows 2000 Domain
- Outlook Tip: Printing the Manager's Name Field for a Contact

3. New and Improved
- Automatically Sync Private and Public Tasks

==== Sponsor: Symantec ====

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Editor's note: Share Your Exchange Discoveries and Get $100
Share your Exchange Server and Outlook discoveries, comments, or problems and solutions for use in the Exchange & Outlook Administrator print newsletter's Reader to Reader column. Email your contributions (500 words or less) to [email protected]. We edit submissions for style, grammar, and length. If we print your submission, you'll get $100.

==== 1. Commentary: Do As I Say... ====
by Paul Robichaux, Exchange Editor, [email protected] I'm blessed with three young sons. Anyone with young children knows that they have an unerring ability to sniff out any hint of parental hypocrisy. For that reason, I try to make sure that my words and actions reflect the principles I've tried to teach my children, and usually that practice follows over into my professional life.

Unfortunately, I got busted this week. No, I didn't break any of the Ten Commandments or download movies illegally. It was worse than that; I was rendered incommunicado in the middle of a public Webcast for MessageOne. I failed to follow one of the cardinal rules of high-availability design: Beware of single points of failure. That rule came back to bite me when I lost all Internet and phone connectivity in the middle of my presentation.

How did this happen? In a word, thrift. I get my Internet service from Buckeye CableSystem. Its service is inexpensive and fast, and the company is generally responsive to suggestions because it's locally owned and operated. About 6 months ago, the company started offering telephone service. I happily took advantage of the chance to drop SBC Communications for my business line. Things seemed to be working well, so last month I moved my residential line over to Buckeye as well. Right now, I'm saving about $70 per month compared with the cost of getting phone service from SBC.

You can probably figure out where this is going. When Buckeye had an equipment failure in my area, my Internet and phone service was knocked out at a crucial time. I was giving a presentation about improving the availability of messaging services, then I suddenly disappeared without so much as an event-log message.

Fortunately, two other principles of high-availability design helped me to avoid a total wipeout. The first principle is redundancy. Thanks to my cell phone and a Verizon Wireless data card in my laptop, I was able to call back in to the audio bridge and log back on to the presentation site in time to handle questions from the audience. This one instance more than made up for the $60 per month cost of the Verizon AirCard service. Although I had a brief interruption in connectivity, things would have been worse had I not already set up a redundant communications channel.

The second saving principle was cross-training. The Windows IT Pro Webcast staff was prepared, as was Bryan Rollins, vice president of product development at MessageOne and my co-presenter. They were able to smoothly take over, explain what had happened, and carry on with their part of the presentation. This minimized disruption to the attendees.

I learned two lessons from this experience. The first lesson is if you don't have a backup DSL circuit or other means of connecting to the Internet when primary connection fails, you should probably get one. The cost is likely minor compared with the potential benefits. Although I had a single point of failure in my communications system, I was able to recover from the failure and keep operating.

The second lesson I learned is to be sure that the people around you are able to carry on if something interrupts your usual operations. I'll have more to say about this topic next week. For now, I have to go call Buckeye and ask it to please keep up its services while I'm presenting.

==== Sponsor: Global Knowledge ====

Understanding regulatory compliance can be a daunting task. Learn security best practices that you can implement to help your company become compliant with these regulations. Download the Global Knowledge White Paper, Simple Steps to Help Make your Exchange Infrastructure Compliant

http://www.globalknowledge.com/training/olm/go.asp?find=ExcDec&country=United+States

==== Events and Resources ====
(A complete Web and live events directory brought to you by Windows IT Pro: http://www.windowsitpro.com/events )

SQL Server 2005: Up & Running Roadshows Coming to Europe!
SQL Server experts will present real-world information about administration, development, and business intelligence to help you put SQL Server 2005 into practice and learn how to use its new capabilities. Includes a 1-year PASS membership and subscription to SQL Server Magazine. Register now for London and Stockholm, Sweden, at http://www.windowsitpro.com/roadshows/sqlservereurope/index.cfm?code=1214emailannc

Upgrade to Analysis Services 2005
Get the tips and tricks you'll need to upgrade to Analysis Services 2005, including possible upgrade and migration scenarios, preplanning steps, and tips on running the new Analysis Services migration wizard. Plus, you'll discover what steps are required after the migration process is complete and explore some of the new features of Analysis Services 2005.
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/seminars/analysisservices/?partnerref=1214emailannc

Are You Really Prepared for Disaster Recovery?
Join industry guru Liam Colvin in this free Web seminar and get the tips you need to validate your disaster-recovery data. You'll learn whether your backup and restore data is worth staking your career on, what type of geo-clustering is right for you, which response to use in crisis situations, and more!
http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/seminars/disasterrecovery/?partnerref=1214emailannc

Scripting and Code Don't Have to Be Boring
Subscribe today to Scripting Central and get a down-and-dirty technical, yet lighthearted, look at scripts. You'll also get tools and tips for writing scripts for a variety of Windows applications, such as Exchange and SQL Server. Sign up today!
http://www.windowsitpro.com/email

Do You Know What "High Availability" Really Means?
Learn what high availability really means and the different strategies that you can use to improve your email systems' availability and resiliency. Download this free guide now and get prepared to choose the appropriate solutions to protect your messaging data at the lowest cost and with the highest reliability.
http://www.windowsitpro.com/essential/index.cfm?code=1214emailannc

==== Featured White Paper ====

Ensure Data Protection and High Availability for Microsoft Exchange
Having a mission-critical, data protection solution that is cost-effective, hardware-independent, and scalable is something every IT manager should consider. In this free white paper, get all you need to know about ensuring data protection and high availability for Exchange. This is one paper you can't afford to miss! Get your copy today at http://www.windowsitpro.com/go/whitepapers/nsi/exchange?code=1214emailannc

~~~~ Hot Spot ~~~~

Microsoft Exchange agentless reporting tool
With more than 130 canned reports, PROMODAG Reports analyzes the traffic patterns and the emails content and more… Administrators: Use detailed reports to optimize the system configuration; Managers: Get a summary view of the messaging system!
http://www.promodag.com/ad/WinIT/15122005.aspx

==== 2. Peer to Peer ====

Featured Thread: Migrating Exchange 5.5 to an Existing Windows 2000 Domain
A forum reader has a question about a problem that occurred while migrating Exchange Server 5.5 to an existing Windows 2000 domain. Join the discussion at http://forums.windowsitpro.com/web/forum/messageview.aspx?catid=40&threadid=45047&enterthread=y . Outlook Tip: Printing the Manager's Name Field for a Contact
by Sue Mosher, [email protected]

Q: I want to print an entry from my Contacts folder, but the Manager's Name field doesn't print even though it's in the current view. How can I print this information?

Find the answer (and links to more great tips) at http://www.windowsitpro.com/microsoftexchangeoutlook/article/articleid/46936/46936.html .

==== Announcements ==== (from Windows IT Pro and its partners)

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Exchange & Outlook Administrator Newsletter--Holiday Special
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==== 3. New and Improved ====

Automatically Sync Private and Public Tasks
Advantage International announced Add2Exchange for Tasks, a server-based software solution for automatic synchronization of private and public Outlook task folders. This release is for Outlook and Exchange Server users who want to collaborate tasks and sync their public tasks to their private tasks, or vice versa. The product also lets you sync public and private tasks to Outlook on PDAs, smart phones, Research In Motion's (RIM's) BlackBerry handheld devices, and Outlook Web Access (OWA). Add2Exchange for Tasks is one of three modules that Add2Exchange offers and is licensed separately. Pricing for Add2Exchange for Tasks starts at $395. For more information, contact Advantage International at 813-977-5739.
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