Using the Microsoft Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer

So, when things are seemingly broken with Exchange connectivity from the Internet, where do we turn?

The Microsoft Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer:

• Microsoft Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer

There is, however, a very important security caveat when it comes to some of the connectivity tests:

Do you see it?

Yes, there is a requirement for a domain username and password!

So, when it comes to testing certain types of connectivity to Exchange, we need to set up a temporary username and password and once we are done delete that account.

Other than that _small_ caveat, the tool is very helpful! ;)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

SBS - Reusing a user profile - Exchange and SharePoint changes needed

In some cases, a client wants a new employee to take over the old employee's profile.

One way to do this is to create the new user and migrate the old user's email settings, a PST export, and data to the new network based profile. In many cases, where the profile is task/position independent this works fine.

Sometimes, the employee's position and their network profile is position dependent. When a client goes through a change in employees and wants the new employee to take over the existing position profile, the shift is pretty simple to do.

We make the necessary changes to the user's profile in the User Management console on the SBS server:

• User name
• Name properties
• Email addresses
• Exchange x400 setting (E-mail Addresses tab)
• Alias (Exchange General tab)

Once we have completed the changes and the user logs in, there are a couple of other changes that need to be made where the previous employee's name would still be reflected:

1. The Exchange mailbox name that shows in Outlook
2. The user's name that comes up on the SharePoint CompanyWeb site.

To change the user name that appears behind "Mailbox - User Name" in Outlook we need only run through the setup steps via the Mail icon in the Control Panel and choose the new user name on that user's machine. Outlook should not be running when we run through the process.

In Windows Vista x64 versions the icon can be found here:

View 32-bit Control Panel Items

The following screen shot is what one would see on XP and in this particular case, a 32bit install of Windows Vista:

Windows Vista Mail Icon

A step by step as per a Vista/Office 2007 install:

1. Double click the Mail icon
2. Click the E-mail Accounts button
3. Double click the user's email Exchange profile
4. Change the User Name field to the new user's name
5. Click Check Name
• The new user name should become verified. It will then appear underlined.
6. Click Next and Finish.

Start Outlook and one should now see "Mailbox - New User" the correct name.

Send an email from the account to one of your test email accounts to verify that Exchange is properly tagging the email with the new user's name as well.

The above process is very similar for Outlook 2003 on Windows XP Professional.

To change the name that appears on any SharePoint Companyweb content:

1. Open the CompanyWeb page while logged in as the new user
2. Click on Site Settings near the top of the page.
3. Click "Update my information" under Manage My Information" near the bottom
4. Edit User Information
5. Change the "Display Name" to reflect the new user's name.
6. Save and Close

All posted content on the CompanyWeb site will now reflect the new user's name for all posted content via the original existing user profile.

One thing to let the new user know about: When all of the necessary name changes and profile shifts have happened, the local profile directory on the computer will not reflect their own name ... at least until that machine is replaced and they log into the new machine for the first time.

UPDATE 2008-05-16: Added the x400 change (thanks Tim) and the Exchange Alias change. Note that users with Exchange in Cached mode will not see the Alias change right away.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SBS - Setting the Add User Template's User Quota Limit

Out of the box, SBS gives every user a 1GB data limit on network shares which includes My Documents redirected ones. The exception to this rule is the domain admin account that has unlimited storage available to it.

Default User Quota

Once we have the second phase of the SBS setup finished, we will go in and modify the Quota limits for the templates before adding users in the To Do list.

This way we are not fielding a call from a user wondering why they cannot move data in their system.

Remember, the Quota also includes their redirected My Documents content!

In most cases, we have a minimum of 300GB of redundant storage for even the smallest organization, so we tend to move the basic user Quota based on the type of organization we are dealing with.

To do that, click the "Quota Entries" button for the drive that has the company shares and user's My Documents redirected to.

User Quota Management

Note the three entries for the default SBS User Templates.

Double click on the Template's entry and make the appropriate changes:

Template Quota Changed

Do this for the default templates plus any custom templates that you may have created.

This process makes the changing of a user's quota a very quick one. Now, all one does is run the "Change User Permissions" Wizard from Users Management and reapply the now quota adjusted template to that user.

If one has five or ten users nearing the limit, running the Change User Permissions Wizard is a lot quicker than manually making the changes in the Quota Management Console!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.

SBS and moving Data folders.

On one particular SBS server, I have a need to free up the system partition. We have installed an additional pair of drives in a RAID 1 array to provide a dedicated data storage partition.

After a bit of searching, I came up with: Moving Data Folders for Windows Small Business Server 2003.

A Word document provides all of the necessary steps to move any of the SBS required folders and data such as the User's shared folder.

A complete list of data folders or files that can be moved:

• Users Shared Folders
• SharePoint Databases.
• Monitoring Database.
• Exchange Databases and Log Files.
• Sent Faxes Folder.
• ClientApps Shared Folder.

Of course, test the methodology within your virtualized SBS environment first!

A direct download of the document can be found here: SBS_MoveDataFolders.doc (.DOC)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

SBS - Windows Server 2003 Access-based Enumeration

When there is a need to have folders in the general company share hidden from users with no permission to access them, we use Windows Server 2003 Access-based Enumeration.


This tool installs onto the server, and uses the Security ACL permissions to determine who is allowed to see the folder listed in their Windows Explorer or command line directory listing.


When installing the tool, one has the choice to enable enumeration on all shares, or choose to enable it on individual shares later on. I always choose the manual option.


Once installed, you will find a new tab in your folder properties window.




Once clicked on, you are presented with the option to enable enumeration on the folder.

Once enabled, only those users that have permission to access the folder will see it in their Explorer. This goes for folders listed in the Network Neigbourhood/My Network Places listings on the server.

The documentation can be found here on Microsoft's site.

The actual download can be found here. Note the different downloads for different processor architectures.

Happy SBSing!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists