I'm moving this blog to http://www.msmvps.com/ehlo/.

I think that the msmvps.com site is more appropriate for technical content than Spaces. So, don't forget to update your feed reader ;-)

Since the beggining of the month I'm an MVP in Windows Server System - Exchange Server.

If you want to know more about the MVP Program, you can check it here. You can also check my profile.

There are great Exchange documentation sources on the internet. The Microsoft Exchange Team is probably the most active team in producing good technical documents. Also there are other dedicated sites who publish regular articles.

But there's nothing like the smell of paper and a fat Exchange book looks good on any shelf. Unfortunately the price of books is not as cheap as it should be (at least for me, who lives in a country with one of the smallest buying power in Europe).

So, if I can't buy the real thing, I'll have to find alternative sources. Most of the authors of Exchange books offer sample chapters of their work. I decided to gather all the sample chapters available publicly. I call it Poor Man's Library:

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Distilled, Scott Schnoll
Exchange Server 2003 Tips and Tricks

• Special Edition Using Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, Patricia Cardoza
Managing Outlook Folders in Office 2003

• Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 24seven, Jim McBee; Barry Gerber
Chapter 4: Understanding Exchange 2003 Data Storage

• CYA Securing Exchange Server 2003 & Outlook Web Access, Henrik Walther, Patrick Santry
Chapter 5 Securing the Outlook Web Access Server

• Mastering™ Microsoft® Exchange Server 2003 ,Barry Gerber
Chapter 4: Exchange Server 2003 Architecture

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Delta Guide, David McAmis, Don Jones
Chapter 8 "Security"

• Learning Exchange Server 2003, William Boswell
Migrating from Legacy Exchange
Chapter 5, “Managing Recipients and Distribution Lists”

• Anti-Spam Tool Kit, Paul Wolfe  Charlie Scott  Mike Erwi
Chapter 11, Anti-Spam Servers for Windows
Chapter 5, "Blocking spammers with DNS blacklists"

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Tony Redmond
Chapter 8, "Performance and clusters"

• The Administrator Shortcut Guide to Email Protection, Paul Robichaux
Chapter 3, "Server-Side Antivirus Protection"

• Mission-Critical Microsoft Exchange 2003, Jerry Cochran
Chapter 5, "Protecting and Recovering Exchange data"

• MCSA/MCSE Implementing and Managing Exchange Server 2003 Exam Cram 2, Orin Thomas, Will Schmied and Ed Tittel
Chapter 6, “Managing, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting the Exchange Organization”

• The Definitive Guide to E-Mail Management and Security, Kevin Beaver
Chapter 6, “Managing e-mail effectively”

• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 Unleashed, Rand Morimoto
Chapter 15 "Migrating from Exchange v5.5 to Exchange Server 2003"

• Secure Messaging with Microsoft Exchange 2003, Paul Robichaux
Chapter 13 "Securing Outlook" 

• Monitoring and Managing Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, Mike Daugherty
Chapter 9, "Backup and recovery operations"

• The Definitive Guide to Windows 2000 and Exchange 2000 Security, Archie Reed, Darren Mar-Elia, and Sean Daily
Chapter 8 "Managing Exchange 2000 Post-Migration Tasks"

• Secure Messaging with Microsoft® Exchange Server 2000, Paul Robichaux
Chapter 4: Threats and Risk Assessment

• Microsoft® Exchange 2000 Server Resource Kit, Microsoft Corporation
Chapter 6 Deployment Strategies

• Configuring Exchange Server 2000, Liz Mason
Chapter 1 What’s New in Exchange 2000

• Microsoft Exchange Server in a Nutshell, Mitch Tulloch
Chapter 2 Architecture and Operation

If you know any other sample chapters, please let me know.

(Or fun with the Pocket PC Emulator).

Pocket PC emulation should be a simple thing, right? That's what I thought!

According to a post at You Had Me At EHLO, to install a Pocket PC emulator, this is what you'll need:

1. Install ActiveSync 3.7 (meanwhile version 3.8 was released)
2. Install Pocket PC SDK 2003
3. Install Pocket PC SDK 2003 Emulator Images
4. Install Visual Studio .NET 2003 (!)

I had to do some tests with Exchange ActiveSync, so instead of installing all that stuff on my machine, I asked for a virtual one (Virtual Server 2005). At the end of the long installation process, when I tried to run the emulator for the first time, I got the message on the picture.

"You just had to try, didn't you?". You have to laugh.

The reason for this beahviour is that, somehow, the Pocket PC Emulator and the Virtual Machine software share some code. Fortunately there's a solution: Visual Studio .NET 2005 Beta 1. After installing the new version I was finally able to mess around with the emulator.

I was reading Eileen Brown's WebLog when I realized that I really don't know how to apply Exchange service packs and hotfixes. Damn! All these years of working experience should have teached me more.

There's a not so new KB article, Q328839, that has the right procedures, so be sure that you follow them religiously. Your Exchange data is definitely something you don't want to mess around.