How to defragment Exchange databases

This KB gives a short explanation of Exchange server online and offline database defragmentation and then focuses on offline defragmentation by using ESEUTIL utility.
328804 - How to defragment Exchange databases

New Feature: Email Posts to Friends

Blogger has added a new feature to its blogging service letting people email posts to their friends.

Further information on this new feature Here

HTTP Header Monitoring Add-ins for IE and Firefox

IEHttpHeaders is a free add-in that shows Sent and Received HTTP Headers traffic in IE within an Explorer bar. There is also an alternative for Firefox and Mozilla users called "Live HTTP Headers" that shows the same stuff!

Get Informed by Gmail Notifier

Finally we have it! Now Gmail users can be notified about new mails arrived at their Gmail mailbox by Gmail Notifier sitting in system tray.

Download it from Here:
Gmail Notifier
To learn how Gmail can be configured as the default mail application and how audibe new mail notifications can be set check the FAQ section.

Top tips for Outlook 2003

This topic is a digest of all features every Outlook 2003 user needs to know and great tips to make living easier with outlook 2003. Covers email, calendar, contact, keyboard shortcuts, customization, notes and task tips. Worth reading it even for Outlook gurus!
Microsoft Office Assistance: Top tips for Outlook

Prevent unsolicited commercial e-mail in Exchange 2000 Server

This KB article explains how Exchange Server 2000 can be protected against being relayed for unsolicited commercial email messages by preventing relaying, configuring IP address restrictions, implement authentication, set message limits, using reverse DNS lookup and configuring SMTP connectors.
319356 - How to prevent unsolicited commercial e-mail in Exchange 2000 Server

Exchange Support Tool: ExchDump

Download details: Exchange Support Tool: ExchDump: "ExchDump is a command line utility that gathers Exchange configuration information from various sources used in troubleshooting support issues. The utility DOES NOT make any registry changes or modifications to the operating system. The configuration information is written to one of two different output files."

W32/Rbot-EN : Worm and Backdoor

Back in my post on Monday, August 02 I explained how I was dealing with an issue brought about by a file named "Ethernet32m.exe" sitting in registry causing serious network problems by removing server hidden share folders. Today I could finally find a report on this saying it is a Worm and Backdoor that helps a remote user access the infected system through IRC:
Sophos virus analysis: W32/Rbot-EN

What Is Dialer Trojan?

Summer Brings Mosquito-Borne Malware (Part 3 of 3): "A dialer Trojan is malware coded to secretly dial phone numbers, leaving the infected victim with a large phone bill. There are two reasons why someone might code and spread a dialer Trojan. The first reason is destructive, perhaps as tool of revenge. The second reason is for financial gain."

Exchange Server Badmail Deletion and Reporting

When it comes to disk space Microsoft Exchange talks as a beast eating up space which in many cases brings trouble to exchange admins. When Microsoft Exchange's drive becomes full it will unmount mailbox stores to protect against any data lost and alerting the system administrator. In many cases it is not the Exchange database that fills up the drive but it might be the Badmail folder or Transaction Logs that are wasting space. So, with some considerations in mind when implementing Exchange server, Backup strategy and some regular monitoring especially on badmail folder downtimes can be avoided with disk full errors. Going into the details will make it a long talk but for just dealing with Microsoft Exchange Badmail folder there are some scripts available which helps Exchange Server administrators to monitor the size of badmail folder regularly or even purge them automatically. Follow the link for details and downloading badmailreport and deletebadmail scripts:
MS Exchange Blog : Dealing with Badmail

Download: Thinking like a hacker

Thinking like a hacker - TechRepublic: "Find out how hackers break into networks and systems and compromise software applications. By knowing more about hackers' methodology, you can beat them at their own game."

Why is Exchange Store.exe so RAM hungry?

Why is Exchange Store.exe so RAM hungry?: "It is absolutely normal for Store.exe to grab as much RAM on the server as it can possibly get - as long as Store thinks it needs it to optimize performance. Store was written to do so."

Is "Ethernet32m.exe" a Trojan Horse or what?

Around two weeks ago I received a call from a customer complaining their server is not able to send and receive emails, Workstations are experiencing problems accessing network resources, Internet connection is overloaded and obscure "Net Send" application pop-up from an unknown source apparently from outside.
Looking into the problem showed that something malicious is running in the background on the server which removes the server hidden share folders (This is why users reported "The network name can not be found")and consumes the whole internet bandwidth by sending traffic to a range of IP addresses (the kind of traffic didn't bother me as I was supposed the fix the problem ASAP). Finally after examining the registry content (like HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run)we could find out a file named "ethernet32m.exe" is loaded by server startup and is running as a service. No reports on the web for ethernet32m.exe to be a malicious file nor we could find any resource saying this is a system file. So we carefully made backup of System State data, switched to safe mode, removed WINDY\SYSTEM32\ethernet32m.exe, searched registry for any ethernet32m.exe entry and removed them all and back to normal operation mode again... It was gone!
I am still curious to know what exactly it was and how it could reach the server while the server console was locked! The Anti Virus solution recorded many Netsky, MyDoom and Beagle on client machines which all were quarantined but no logs on the server.

Exchange Server 2003 Technical Reference Guide

This guide is for Exchange Server experts who require detailed information about the architecture and interaction among core components of Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.

Download details: Exchange Server 2003 Technical Reference Guide

Gmail stopped working on Firefox!

For two days I had the same problem and thought it was a Gmail issue but after clearing out Firefox cache now I have my Gmail back in firefox.
David Ely: Gmail and Firefox for Windows Problem