TECHNICAL BULLETIN: Windows XP NTLM Issues

Hi,

We are currently seeing an issue related to users on Windows XP and Outlook 2007/2010 accessing a mailbox on Exchange 2010 from multiple copies of Outlook. We have an open case with Microsoft regarding this issue. Microsoft has been able to reproduce this issue, and they have multiple teams investigating it. They have not released a public KB regarding this bug, and we do not have a hotfix for the issue from them yet. Microsoft has confirmed that this is not an issue for Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating systems and we have confirmed this with our own testing.

If you are using Outlook 2007/2010 on Windows XP to access the same mailbox from multiple locations and you are experiencing connectivity issues, please review the following Knowledge Base article for workarounds until we receive a fix from Microsoft. This issue will also occur if you are using a resource mailbox from multiple copies of XP.

http://controlpanel.msoutlookonline.net/support/kb/viewKBArticle.asp?id=2052

Davis Anson
Solution Consultant, Hosted Exchange
Venture Domain Hosting

Microsoft previews Exchange 2010 SP1

IDG News Service - In a blog entry posted Wednesday, Microsoft offered a glimpse of what will be in the first major update of Exchange Server 2010, due later this year.

Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) will bring a range of new features and capabilities to the back office mail server software, including improvements to the software's archiving functionality and to its Web client, according to the blog entry posted by Exchange developer Michael Atalla.

The update will allow users to set up an archive folder that could be located in a mailbox separate from the primary mailbox, which could better help administrators keep their main e-mail databases at manageable sizes.

The browser client, called Outlook Web Access (OWA), will get some significant new features with this release as well. The client may seem faster to end-users, thanks to its ability to "pre-fetch" messages and run multiple operations simultaneously, according to the blog post.

The OWA user interface has been reordered for greater readability as well. And, for the first time, OWA users can read and compose messages protected by Microsoft's information rights management (IRM) technology, a feature previously available only in the regular Outlook client.

The release will also bring enhancements in the administrative interfaces and searching capabilities. It will also roll up all the features and bug fixes since the first release of Exchange 2010.

Read More: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9174997/Microsoft_previews_Exchange_2010_SP1

A beta of SP1 will be made available in June, during the company'sTechEd conference.

Microsoft To Launch Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Within Weeks

Microsoft, the Redmond based software company, announced that the company has decided on a June release for the beta version of its Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1, which will include an enhanced user interface and better archiving options.

According to a blog post made on the company's official Exchange Team blog by team member Michael Atalla, the Exchange Server SP 1 will allow IT managers to have a more detailed hold on the email storage settings.

Microsoft, which is on the verge of launching its Pink social networking smartphone, has been facing intense competition from its rivals in enterprise communication software, including Mozilla and Google, which has even rolled out a Gmail syncing tool for MS Outlook.

Explaining some of the key functions that come with SP1 of Exchange Server 2010, Michael Atalla wrote on the blog that “We're excited to bring to you with SP1, including archiving and discovery enhancements, [OWA] Outlook Web App ... improvements, mobile user and management improvements.”

The company reported that the beta version of Exchange Server 2010 SP1 will come with enhanced archiving options which will allow users to sync their Personal Archive with a separate different mailbox database from their primary mailbox.

Read more: http://www.itproportal.com/network/news/article/2010/4/8/microsoft-launch-exchange-server-2010-sp1-within-weeks/

Press Release: Hosted Exchange 2010 - Time to outsource

Hosted Exchange 2010 offers some important opportunities in addition to the traditional benefits of hosting – low monthly cost, no administration, and better uptime.

The most important Exchange 2010 update: 100% data protection. It’s virtually impossible that your business-critical Exchange data can be lost even in the event of a catastrophe because our service keeps multiple secure copies of your data.

In the meantime, here’s a summary of the benefits:

1. Indestructible email: Our Hosted Exchange 2010 architecture guarantees 100% data protection.
2. More productive users: The new OWA 2010 provides support for a variety of browsers including Safari and Firefox. Features like conversation view and instant messaging are also built right into the browser.
3. Control, your way: Add users or mobile devices like Blackberries with a few clicks. Or contact us for support.
4. Less than six minutes of downtime per year: We guarantees less than six minutes of downtime per year. If you need support, feel free to contact us.

Hosted Exchange 2010: What’s New

Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 helps you achieve new levels of reliability and performance by delivering features that simplify your administration, protect your communications, and delight your users by meeting their demands for greater business mobility. With new deployment and storage options, enhanced inbox management capabilities, and e-mail archiving built-in, Exchange Server 2010 helps you lower costs and enhance business outcomes.

Exchange Server 2010 includes a host of new features customers will benefit from, including new integrated e-mail archive and discovery functionality, new user features to battle inbox overload, voice mail management enhancements, and improvements that simplify administration.

For businesses, highlights include:

• New integrated archiving and discovery capabilities.

• New unified mailbox resilience model that provides high availability, disaster recovery, and back up capabilities.

• Ability to easily delegate administration to specialized users, such the help desk or a compliance officer.

• Comprehensive information protection capabilities—from e-mail moderation to automatic e-mail encryption.

• The choice to run Exchange on-premises, as a service hosted by Microsoft or as a hybrid of both.

For users, highlights include:

• A consistent inbox, calendaring, and contacts experience across the PC, browser and phone.

• Integrated conversation view bringing together information across all folders, inbox and sent and deleted items.

• Ability to remove (or "mute") themselves from irrelevant conversations with the click of a button.

• Text preview of voice mail messages in the inbox.

• New Call Answering Rules to easily create customized voice mail rules, such as call transfer options.

• Mail Tips to notify users about potential mistakes before they send e-mail.

Top Reasons to Try Microsoft Exchange Server 2010

• Reduced deployment cost

  Exchange Server 2010 helps you reduce costs by addressing common infrastructure requirements such as backup, e-mail archiving, mobile e-mail access, and voice mail with no need for third-party tools.

• Simplified high availability and disaster recovery

  Exchange Server 2010 introduces a simplified approach to high availability and disaster recovery to help you achieve new levels of reliability and reduce the complexity of delivering business continuity.

• Easier administration and decreased dependence on the help desk

  Exchange Server 2010 provides new self-service capabilities to help users perform common tasks without calling the help desk.

• Greater mobility and flexible access

  Exchange Server 2010 offers an enhanced universal inbox experience, which provides your users with access to all of their business communications from a single location.

• Decreased inbox overload and increased productivity

  Exchange Server 2010 adds new productivity features which help your users organize and prioritize the communications in their inboxes efficiently.

• Transformed voice mail

  With Exchange Server 2010, users can receive their voice mail messages in their inbox with text preview.

• Simplified compliance

  Exchange Server 2010 delivers new integrated archiving functionality to help simplify compliance and discovery.

• Safeguards for sensitive information

  With centrally managed and enforced information protection and control capabilities, Exchange Server 2010 makes it easy to encrypt, control, and moderate your company's communications.

• Reduced risk of malware and spam

  Exchange Server 2010 actively helps protect your communications through built-in defenses against junk e-mail and support for an array of third party security products.

Exchange:Our Exchange Environment

Venture Domain Hosting has invested millions of dollars in creating the most reliable and cutting-edge Exchange environment in the industry. With multiple world-class datacenters, an incredibly robust platform and a state-of-the-art network infrastructure you can be sure that your email will be fully accessible whenever and wherever you need it.

DATACENTER

Our tier 4 datacenters guarantee an industry leading 99.999% uptime or higher.

NETWORK

Venture Domain Hosting's network is architected for automatic failover, with our three datacenters linked in a metroLAN ring.

INFRASTRUCTURE

Venture Domain Hosting's infrastructure is built with names you can rely on, including Cisco, EMC and Dell.

Why Hosted Exchange?

Microsoft Outlook-Exchange is the best corporate email software, but it is expensive to buy and run. Venture Domain Hosting's 'hosted Exchange' gives you all its benefits - without the high cost:

COSTS OF HOSTED EXCHANGE

Cost is the major reason why hosted Exchange is rapidly growing in popularity.

Upfront costs are several thousand dollars for even the most basic setup, putting in-house Exchange beyond the reach of smaller businesses.

Ongoing costs for in-house Exchange are also high. Either companies need to hire IT staff or pay consultants to fix each problem, adding thousands more dollars in annual costs.

	In-house Exchange	Hosted Exchange from Venture Domain Hosting
Servers	All items must be purchased. Total cost for a small installation = Thousands of dollars	All items included as standard. Total cost for a small installation = $32.00/month for each user
Storage
Backup
Software licenses
Email security (anti-virus, anti-spam)
IT staff time for deployment
IT staff time for maintenance
Quality physical environment and cooling, uninterruptible power

RELIABILITY OF HOSTED EXCHANGE

Having email and collaboration that always works is now essential to doing business - and downtime is unacceptable.

In-house Exchange servers - usually in a basement or closet not designed for sensitive IT equipment - cannot match the reliability of hosted Outlook/Exchange.

Hosted Outlook/Exchange companies like Venture Domain Hosting manage servers in large purpose-built datacenters with backup power, air conditioning and Internet connections. Below are the main threats to your email system:

	In-house Exchange	Hosted Exchange from Venture Domain Hosting
Servers	One server - all email depends on this.	Cluster of servers - if one stops working, the others take over
Data storage	One or two hard disk drives - all email depends on these	Large cluster of drives which automatically share workload if one fails
Backup	Manual - sometimes slips due to time pressures	Automatic and frequent
Email security (anti-virus, anti-spam)	Updates not always made frequently enough	Continuous 24x7 updates
Data connection	Single data line to the Internet	Multiple connections, direct to Internet backbone
Physical environment	Low-quality environment, power, air conditioning systems	Tier-4 datacenter (as used by Google and Yahoo!)

FEATURES OF HOSTED EXCHANGE

Exchange is great because you can expand it with add-on features. However, this is difficult in practice with an in-house system, as each feature needs to be installed from scratch.

With hosted Exchange, all features are already installed and ready to 'turn on' if you wish to use them. Below are features you may wish to add:

	In-house Exchange	Hosted Exchange from Venture Domain Hosting
Wireless email Get your email and data on devices like a BlackBerry or Treo	Purchase separate (expensive) servers and software licenses, install them manually	Add instantly through online control panel
Archiving Create a backup of your emails for compliance or security purposes	Either a time-intensive in-house effort or another external service to manage	Add instantly
Extra disk space Expand storage with your business	Purchase and install additional disk drives	Add instantly
Advanced anti-spam Sophisticated blocking of spam to keep employees productive	Additional costs for software and maintenance	Add instantly
Anti-virus Reduce the risk of damage to your files and IT infrastructure	Additional costs for software and maintenance	Included as standard
Fax via Email Let employees receive faxes anywhere they go, right in their email inbox	Separate service to manage or self-deploy	Add instantly

Exchange: What is Microsoft Exchange

Microsoft Exchange email is far superior to the basic email still used by some businesses.

OUTLOOK EXCHANGE VS. BASIC EMAIL

Smaller businesses typically start with POP email - the basic, no-frills email that has been common since the 1980s.

POP email is cheap, but offers none of Outlook-Exchange's advanced functionality, like calendars, task lists, file-sharing or contacts.

POP email is stored on your local PC, instead of on a central email server, so if you use different devices - like a desktop PC and a BlackBerry® - you will not see emails which came through to a different device.

Some businesses use an older product called Lotus Notes. This works more like Microsoft Exchange, but is lacking in ease-of-use and is not compatible with Microsoft Outlook.

FEATURES OF MICROSOFT EXCHANGE

Microsoft Outlook-Exchange is popular due to its user-friendliness and its advanced features, which boost productivity:

• Up-to-date: Exchange stores everything centrally, so you always see the latest version of your email, files, calendar and contacts.
• Mobile access: Exchange is the software that powers email for handhelds like the latest BlackBerry®, Treo or Windows Mobile devices. It also offers sophisticated Web mail, so you will always be synced with your team.
• Shared calendars: Lets employees see colleagues' availability to schedule or rearrange meetings, book conference rooms, and plan projects.
• Shared task lists: Allows 'to do' lists to be created and assigned, then shared with team members. Managers can check off items as they are completed.
• Shared contacts: Company or shared address books means your customers' contact details will never be lost or misplaced.

Microsoft Outlook-Exchange lets employees share information and work together productively, in a way that is otherwise impossible.