Exchange and Outlook UPDATE, Outlook Edition—brought to you by Exchange & Outlook Administrator, the print newsletter with practical advice, how-to articles, tips, and techniques to help you do your job today.
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(below COMMENTARY)
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December 17, 2002—In this issue:
1. COMMENTARY
- Outlook Year in Review—2002
2. ANNOUNCEMENTS
- Planning on Getting Certified? Make Sure to Pick up Our New Ebook!
- New! News, Tips, and More to Keep Your Network Humming
3. HOT RELEASE (ADVERTISEMENT)
- EAS: Simplify Migration to Exchange 2000
4. RESOURCE
- Tip: Handling .PST and .OST Files' 2GB Limit
5. NEW AND IMPROVED
- Divert Spam to a Junk Folder
6. CONTACT US
- See this section for a list of ways to contact us.
1. COMMENTARY
(contributed by Sue Mosher, News Editor, [email protected])
With just a couple of weeks left in 2002, we can look back at the year for Outlook. Two trends stand out: increased recognition of Outlook as the premier email client by many mail server vendors besides Microsoft, and spam surpassing viruses as the top email problem. As usual, Microsoft also issued various patches for Outlook throughout the year.
Based on figures from Microsoft for the number of Exchange seats and Microsoft Office applications sold, I estimate the potential number of Outlook users at about 180 million, but I've seen estimates as high as 200 million. Roughly half that number use something other than Exchange as their mail server. Because Outlook 2002 has no sharing features other than the ability to exchange meeting requests, view free/busy information, and assign tasks, a huge opportunity exists to connect those users. No wonder companies such as Oracle and Samsung are going after the Outlook market with email servers they hope can offer a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than Exchange while providing calendar sharing and other collaboration features in addition to mail.
In June, Oracle purchased Steltor and folded that company's Outlook-integrated calendar server into Oracle Collaboration Suite, which uses database storage for email. Samsung continued its development of Samsung Contact, which is based on the OpenMail code acquired from Hewlett-Packard (HP) and supports Outlook collaboration features with a custom Messaging API (MAPI) provider.
Bynari developed a MAPI provider, InsightConnector, that lets an IMAP mailbox store not just mail but Outlook appointment, contact, and other items. Several companies have bundled InsightConnector with their email servers: for Linux, the SCO Group in its SCO Office Mail Server (formerly Volution Messaging Server— http://www.sco.com/products/volutionmsg ) and BackWatcher ( http://www.backwatcher.com ) in its forthcoming XChanger product, and for Windows, Alt-N Technologies in MDaemon ( http://www.altn.com ). In a similar effort to provide full support for Outlook items in an IMAP mailbox, Stalker Software developed a MAPI component for its CommuniGate Pro mail server ( http://www.stalker.com/communigate ). BILL Workgroup Server from Neuberger & Hughes ( http://www.billworkgroup.org/billworkgroup/home ) is another Linux-based effort that takes a slightly different approach by using a separate workgroup server for sharing Outlook items.
Microsoft delivered several patches for the most recent versions of Outlook in 2002. However, significant bugs that required additional fixes marred both Office XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Office 2000 Service Pack 3 (SP3). A patch for Outlook 2000 SP3 is due this week to relieve a timing problem related to reminders that can spike CPU usage to 100 percent on systems configured in Internet Mail Only mode.
Perhaps the most important Outlook patch of the year was an update for Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) that blocked content in <iframe> tags in HTML-format messages. Previously, attackers could use <iframe> tags (as they did in the widespread Klez virus) to run Web pages and files containing potentially malicious code. After you apply the update, <iframe> tags don't work in the Restricted Sites zone, the security zone that Outlook uses for email messages. Other IE updates throughout the year closed loopholes in HTML mail messages. Microsoft released the latest cumulative update earlier this month.
Because of stronger protection against HTML mail vulnerabilities and because more organizations and individuals were blocking potentially dangerous file attachments, viruses found Outlook less of a target in 2002. The year's toughest viruses carried their own SMTP mail engine so that they could transmit copies of themselves without triggering Outlook security prompts. They also switched from harvesting addresses from Outlook address books to gleaning them from Web pages and other files on infected users' systems.
Just as email-borne viruses came largely under control in Outlook, spam became a growing problem. Spammers increasingly turned from bulk mail to individually addressed messages that are harder to identify as spam. Spammers also added tricks in the content of HTML messages to fool spam-detection engines. More than a dozen antispam tools are now available specifically for Outlook, and many more serve general email clients, including Outlook.
As the year ends, we're still waiting for the release of Microsoft Customer Relationship Management (CRM), software whose sales module has significant Outlook integration. As we look ahead to 2003, we already know that one big event will be the midyear release of Outlook 11 with its new mail management features and cached connection to Exchange server. Who knows what the rest of the year will bring? Enjoy your holidays!
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2. ANNOUNCEMENTS
(brought to you by Windows & .NET Magazine and its partners)
"The Insider's Guide to IT Certification" eBook is hot off the presses and contains everything you need to know to help you save time and money while preparing for certification exams from Microsoft, Cisco Systems, and CompTIA and have a successful career in IT. Get your copy of the Insider's Guide today!
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Networking UPDATE brings you the how-to tips and news you need to implement and maintain a rock-solid networking infrastructure. We'll explore interoperability solutions, hardware (including servers, routers, and switches), network architecture, network management, network security, installation technology, network training, and WAN disaster recovery. Subscribe (at no cost!) at
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3. HOT RELEASE (ADVERTISEMENT)
The move to Exchange 2000 is inevitable. However, changing corporate email is one of the most disruptive and risky ventures any organization can undertake. Free White Paper: Incorporating Archiving into your Exchange 2000 Migration Strategy
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4. RESOURCE
(contributed by Sue Mosher, [email protected])
Q: I have some users whose archive.pst files now exceed the 2GB limit for Outlook personal folder store (.pst) files. Users can't archive any more items, and they can no longer access their existing archives. How can I fix this problem?
A: As you know, the .pst file that Outlook uses for storage on the local PC has a 2GB limit. The same limit applies to offline folder stores (.ost files). When the file exceeds that size, you can no longer use it in Outlook.
You can recover at least some of the data by using the PST2GB tool provided by Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS) and described in the article "OL: Oversized PST and OST Crop Tool" ( http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=296088 ) to remove part of the file. The utility deletes several megabytes of data, and the deleted data isn't recoverable, but you can usually restore the remaining data.
To help prevent this problem, Microsoft Office 2000 Service Release 1/1a (SR1/1a) updates Outlook 2000 so that you receive a warning message when a .pst or .ost file is approaching 2GB. A hotfix is available for Outlook 98. The Microsoft article "OL98: Limitation of 2 Gigabytes for Offline Folders and Personal Folders" ( http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=252336 ) provides more information about the problem and the fix. Outlook 2002 automatically stops delivery before the file gets too large. However, it doesn't provide a warning message unless you've applied Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 1 (SP1).
See the Exchange & Outlook Administrator Web site for more great tips from Sue Mosher.
http://www.exchangeadmin.com
5. NEW AND IMPROVED
(contributed by Carolyn Mader, [email protected])
Deersoft released SpamAssassin Enterprise 2003 1.1.1, software for Exchange Server 2000 that diverts spam to a Junk Mail folder on the desktop or server. SpamAssassin Enterprise's spam filters test the sender, header, content, consistency, and timing of each message to determine which messages are spam. Administrators can exempt selected users from SpamAssassin, and administrators and users can add addresses to a white list of trusted senders. For pricing, contact Deersoft at 650-345-0610.
http://www.deersoft.com
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