Author: Cody

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Hosted Exchange is not for the faint of heart!

While I generally loath exchange as a mail server and have successfully avoided it since Exchange 5.5 on NT4 I’ve been handed the Hosted Exchange build out project at my new job. Exchange 2003 is actually not as bad as I thought it would be, it has some decent features (OWA) and is well integrated into Active Directory (if you’re into that sort of thing). I’m not a fan of the Single Instance Message Store (a massive proprietary binary database that stores all the Exchange data). Having to restore a 30GB file on a standalone exchange server to recover a single mailbox does not sound like a lot of fun.

Hosted Exchange on the other hand is a completely different kettle of fish; it’s quite complex and largely undocumented which makes building a production Hosted Exchange environment almost impossible without 3rd party consultants ($$). I’ve also found that its quite buggy and very easy to break which makes me cringe when I think about supporting it. Plus with the closed source nature of Exchange and it’s Single Instance Message Store you really need to spend a lot of money to build a proper Exchange environment with redundancy and a good backup/disaster recovery plan.

Also, I’m quite shocked that Microsoft didn’t include a working, feature-rich user control panel with it. The customer is stuck either writing their own or shelling out big bucks for something from a 3rd party. The sample control panel that ships with exchange is pretty sad, from a user perspective the only options it provides are updating your AD information (name, department etc) and change your password (completely broken).

And lastly, when are they going to port outlook to the mac platform or build MAPI support into entourage?? The only people that can use the extra exchange functionality are running Windows XP SP2 and Outlook 2003. Anyone with anything different is out of luck! I could build a killer mail system that was completely redundant, screaming fast and able to support 5-10 times the amount of clients on the same hardware using open source software for FREE!

That’s my rant for now, hopefully my experience with hosted exchange will improve (or we hire someone else to wear that hat so I don’t have to care about it anymore).

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Free Recursive DNS for your pc or network

Yesterday I stumbled on a website that provides free recursive DNS. It seems to work quite well and is nice an fast. They even offer common spelling mistake auto-correction and phishing prevention. The website states they make a profit by offering targeted search results to end users when they enter an unresolvable domain name. Neat idea. I wish domain squatters did this instead, it allows them to not just get some typo’s that they think of but ALL typos.

Free caching DNS servers are a great idea, it allows people who don’t have decent DNS servers provided by their ISP’s to have reliable DNS. Also, those who run their own caching nameservers can use them as forwarders to reduce the strain on the root servers.

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CMD.exe on steriods!

Windows command console (cmd.exe) hasn’t changed much since it was first introduced in the original windows NT. When you use command shells on unix all day and try to work in cmd.exe it’s like going back in time 10 years! Basic things like tab completion (I know you can enable it in the registry), tabbed windows and a resizable window are sorely lacking. Sure there are some powerful things you can do on the windows command console but these are all separate programs and not really a part of the command console it self.

What windows needs is a good command console replacement, that’s where Console2 comes in. Console2 beta is a free replacement for cmd.exe. It’s still in beta but I’ve been using it for almost 2 months now without a problem. It makes the windows command line usable.

Of course, if you’re having a problem transitioning from UNIX to DOS and can’t stop doing ls when you should be doing dir then you need to get cygwin!

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The 51/4 Disk Sleeve Archive

Was your first computer from the 80’s? Was 360KB enough to store ten or more cool games? Do you remember when floppy disks were actually floppy? Then have I got the site for you!! The Wabash and Tandy sleeves brought back memories for me. Makes me want to bust out the Vtech Laser 128 and play a little Choplifter or BC’s Quest for Tires! Half my youth was spent waiting for and loading 51/4 inch disks.

Hard disks are for sissies, long live the floppy disk!!!

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CDMA Nokia 3568i programming codes

My last phone was a Nokia 3568i and while it was a solid little phone it was definitely time for an upgrade. When I went to give the phone to my wife to replace her aging Motorola V60 I tried to reset the phone so she would start fresh but was stopped by a ‘Lock code” that I didn’t have. The phone was supposed to ask for a 5 digit Security code after 3 successive failures to enter the lock code. Unfortunately it wasn’t prompting me for the security code. The following code let me enter the programming mode of the phone where I was able to clear it’s contents and reset it to the factory defaults.

*3001#12345# Programming for CDMA/TDMA (12345 is your security code if you haven’t changed the default)
*#837# lets you check your PRL and software version.
*#639# will allow you to manually program your phone with the MIN and SID.
*#7780# Will restore factory settings

These codes saved me a trip to the cellular dealer!