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Calibri – a new font from Windows Vista

I recently saw a new font installed on my “production” laptop (running Windows XP SP2) – Calibri. Calibri is a beautiful humanist sans serif typeface designed by Dutch designer Luc(as) De Groot, and one I started using immediately as the default in Word documents and email. My earlier attempts at using another font that seems […]

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Infoworld gives a thumbs up to Zenprise 1.0.3

Infoworld just reviewed Exchange monitoring & management tools. The following tools were reviewed: 1. Dys Analytics Email Control 5.0.22. Microsoft Exchange 2003 Management Pack for MOM3. Quest Spotlight on Exchange4. Zenprise 1.03 Zenprise 1.0.3 came out with flying colors. Zenprise doesn’t compete with monitoring & managmenet products like MOM and Quest SOE (in fact, it’s […]

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IMF Confusion – Store threshold rating text in UI

A major source of confusion regarding the Store threshold value used by Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) is the IMF UI itself. This is documented in Intelligent Message Filter release notes. Figure 1: The text for the Store SCL incorrectly states that messages with SCL greater than or equal to the Store threshold will be moved […]

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SCRIPT: Get Store GUIDs

Background: Exchange Server 2003 SP2 allows raising the Store size limit. If you’re using Exchange Server 2003 Standard Edition, the default is raised from 16 Gb to 18 Gb, and the maximum size of a Store has been raised to 75 Gb. To raise the Store size limit, you need to insert the Database Size […]

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SCRIPT: List Distribution Groups

I was able to modify this script I wrote a while back for general use. What it does: Lists mail-enabled groups in a domain including following attributes:– Group Name– Group type (Security/Distribution group)– Description (if the description field is populated)– Manager– Members What needs to be added…– If the group only receives from authorized senders […]

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Troubleshooting IMF: Important performance counter

Earlier today I saw some strange behavior with Intelligent Message Filter (IMF) v2. Incoming internet mail wasn’t getting scanned by IMF. Outlook did not show the SCL values for any message! That in itself wasn’t the strange part. I’m positive I have the right gateway and store thresholds, and I have IMF enabled on the […]

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SCRIPT: Reset Mailbox Limits

I had posted a script that reports all users with their mailbox storage limits set individually on the user account properties in my earlier post titled “SCRIPT: Show mailbox limits“. I have just added another script to that post that will reset those mailboxes (with storage limits set individually). Once the script resets storage limits […]

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Troubleshooting email problems costs companies over $1 million annually

Osterman Research recently conducted a study, sponsored by Zenprise, Inc. (my employer), that will be of interest to CIOs and messaging groups in corporate IT departments. The study, titled “Email Troubleshooting: The Cost and Impact to the Enterprise“, came up with some interesting findings. A brief snippet: – companies with greater than 5000 employees are […]

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Query-based Distribution Groups and Disabled Users

Another issue with Query-based Distribution Groups – when admins create these, typically using a GUI – there’s no obivious way of excluding disabled user accounts. Even if you enter the ldap filter manually using Custom Search, it’s easy to forget about excluding disabled users. End result: users sending mail to QBDGs complain about getting NDRs […]

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All Groups address list and Query-Based Distribution Groups

You create new Query-Based Distribution Groups but they don’t show up in the All Groups address list in Outlook clients – cached mode or not. QBDGs are not really groups, as far as Active Directory goes. They’re instantiated from a new class – msExchDynamicDistributionList. The default ldap filter for All Groups address list, stored in […]

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