Howto: Allow Mailbox Access on Exchange 2007

Given our company structure I frequently have to allow User A to read or send as User B. This task is simple enough with the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) but does require two separate commands.

The first command here allows full access to the mailbox:
Add-MailboxPermission "FirstName LastName" -User "UserName" -AccessRights FullAccess
The FrirstName LastName is the mailbox that you are adding permissions to. The Username is the user that will have the permissions that you are adding.

The second command you will need to run is only necessary if you need to send email as that user.
Add-ADPermission -Identity "FirstName LastName" -User "UserName" -ExtendedRights Send-As
Once again the FirstName LastName should be the mailbox that you are adding permissions to and the UserName is the user that will have the permissions you are adding.

Based on how often I have to do this I really need to write a quick little application that will allow me to add these permissions with ease instead of having to type out the commands every time. I will keep you updated if I do.

*You have to have Exchange Organization Administrator role privileges on the Exchange server to make these changes.

Look How Easy Setup Is for Microsoft Exchange 2007

For anyone trying to setup Microsoft Exchange 2007 or thinking about it, or just curious about it. This is a good read for the first timers and even the veterans System Administrators among us.

Unlocking the GPS on a BlackJack II

I recently purchased a BlackJack II from AT&T for personal use. One of the things I liked about it aside from the ability to get email and such on the road is the GPS embedded in it. I was saddened to find out that by default the GPS only worked with Telenav. I don't want to pay for even more services so I went out on the great old World Wide Web and found MoDaCo Smart phone GPS Activator. It's a handy little program that replaces the default GPS driver with a driver that allows any program (say Google Maps Mobile or Live Search.) to use the GPS unit via COM4.

There are a few ways to get this program on to your phone.
1) Direct via the phones browser. (http://modaco.com/gpsactivatorbj2)
2) Installing via a CAB file on the Handset (http://content.modaco.net/MoDaCo.SmartphoneGPSActivator.COM4.CAB)
3) Or installing it via a PC. (http://content.modaco.net/Setup.MoDaCo.SmartphoneGPSActivator.COM4.EXE)

I tried the first option on my phone, but it didn't work correctly, so I had to go with option number two. I downloaded the CAB file to my desktop and dropped it into my phone via the USB cable that came with.

To install via the CAB file once its on the phone go to Start, Applications, File Explorer, Then go to the folder where you put the CAB file and click on it to install the file.

Tarpitting IISFTP Service

If you have been running an FTP server on the internet for any amount of time at some point you have noticed hundreds or even thousands of errors in your System Event log with an Event ID of 100. In an attempt to stop these run the following command from the command prompt, but if you change the location of the script file put in the correct path for this to work.

eventtriggers /create /TR "Reset FTP Service" /TK C:\scripts\ResetFTP.bat /L System /EID 100 /SO MSFTPSVC /RU "system"

The batch file is very simple, I created mine in a folder I have on my drive called "Scripts" and named it ResetFTP.bat. The contents of the script are below.

net stop msftpsvc
ping -n 10 127.0.0.1
net start msftpsvc

Thats it! The script will run when someone enters the wrong username and password for a FTP session. It will effectively stop the server for 10 seconds (10 pings to localhost) and then restart the FTP service. On a side note it only works on Microsoft Windows 2003 Server (Windows XP) and later. Also does not work on Microsoft Windows 2000 Server as there is no "Eventtriggers" program native to Windows 2000.

Releasing queued messages from eTrust SCM (Secure Content Manager)

Today I had an issue with Microsoft Exchange 2007 adding my CA eTrust SCM gateway to it's IP Block List. This caused all inbound emails to be delayed and dropped into Dead mail.

The recovery is pretty simple if you know what you are doing.

First you have to rename all of the .bad files to .inb. To do this simply open up a command window, change directories to (by default) c:\Program Files\eTrust SCM\Workspace\SMTP\Deadmail. Then "rename *.bad *.inb" without the quotes. Now that you have renamed all of the bad files you have to release them from the deadmail queue. To do so run the program "C:\Program Files\CA\eTrust SCM\bin\queues.exe"

Here you need to check the box next to "dead mail" and enter in the IP address of the SMTP server to forward the mail to and the port. Then click on the button. It might take some time to send all of the email through depending on server load and number of stuck emails.

On a side note while it eTrust SCM works on a x64 platform, offically its not supported or recommended.

uCertify Test Engine Review

To be totally up front I was asked to do this review by the company uCertify.com, but I won't let that affect my opinion of the product offered.

The download and installation of the product was straight forward. They even offer you a chance to do some practice tests for free to test out the software. The test itself is inexpensive coming in at $49.99 for a single user. Not bad in my opinion. So far I have only gone through the 15 question diagnostic test once, but the questions where challenging none the less.

I will be using this practice test for my 70-284 exam to truely test it out and to be honest I think it will work. I have to go through all of the exams first and then start using the "Adaptive Test" to really hone in on areas I have trouble in. Also the custom test allows you to pick areas of the exam that you are really struggeling with so you can "turn your weakness into stenght".

Follow Up: Failed to access IIS metabase.

As a quick followup post, if you need to do this procedure on a x64 system run this command instead: "%windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regiis.exe -i"