When building an email server we must always make sure we are not OPEN RELAYS. If you build a server that is an open relay you will soon discover that users not of you own are using your server to send an army of spam. You will also learn that your server is blacklisted, and depending on the damage and how long it has been compromised may need a new IP and Hostname, due to the original being on so many blacklists its not worth trying to get off all of them. [ad#Adsense-4] IPSWITCH has made an alternative to Microsoft popular Exchange server called Imail. The current version of Imail is version 11. To secure the IMAIL server you must first get into the SMTP server settings. 1. From the Imail console Click Services --> Select Imail SMTP [+]

Moving the Schema Master roles does not happen often but there are times when we need to do it. The Windows 2000/2003 server with Schema Master role, manages all updates and additions to the schema and then replicates those changes to other Domain controllers. Only the server with the Schema Master role can actually write to the Schema. Think of the Schema as a big dictionary, it tells Active Directory what every object means and what it does. [ad#Adsense-4] To move the Schema master follow the setups below. Part 1. First you will need to register the Schmmgmt.dll a) Click Start and then go to RUN b) Type regsvr32 schmmgmt.dll and click ok c) You should see a message that says [caption id="attachment_98" align="alignnone" width="291" caption="Message after successful registration Schmmgmt.dll"][/caption] Part 2 1.Click [+]

What is a SPF record? Well it is a DNS entry that is used to help combat SPAM and email spoofing. It does this by adding information to DNS about which servers are allowed to send email for that Domain. [ad#Adsense-4]A SPF record is a custom record call txt in windows DNS. There are many tools that can help you automatically create a SPF record. At the end of this article I will list a great one. [caption id="attachment_95" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="Configure SPF to combat SPAM"][/caption]The way SPF combats SPAM and domain Spoofing is when an email is sent from XYZ domain the receiving server or mail gateway (if configured to do SPF checking) does a SPF check. Once it [+]

When looking for a home router, keeping it easy is key. Like so many home based routers if you plug it in it will automatically work. But for some people who want to log into the router and change some setting such as setting up security on wireless or forwarding a port the management interface on the router is key. [ad#Adsense-4] The Belkin [caption id="attachment_91" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Belkin Wireless G Router"][/caption] G router's Interface is, lets say very ugly. Yes all the buttons are there, but unlike some other home routers the help and explanation of what a setting does is not very prominent or clear. [caption id="attachment_89" align="alignleft" width="1024" caption="Belkin Interface"][/caption] As [+]

Employee monitoring has been around for a long time, from video surveillance, to check in/out systems. With the digital era, these methods only go so far. Files can be stolen, people may be wasting time surfing the net or looking at inappropriate sites. [ad#Adsense-4]A level of monitoring on a employee is needed. Where I work now, we deployed a program call Spector 360 by Spectorsoft. The need arose as we suspected certain employees of stealing company assets such as confidential files etc. Of course we had no real proof, thus needed a solution to covertly collect data on the employee so we had proof and thus take legal action. I installed a demo of Spector 360 and was amazed at how much data it collected. It collected what sites where visited for [+]

Well Last year I was looking for a Nas appliance to store backups on, and I found the Netgear Ready Nas 1100. I have been using this appliance for about 1 year and I can say it is great. [ad#Adsense-4] The ready Nas comes in either bare bones where you add the drives or it comes in 1, 2, 3 , 4 Tera bye configurations. The drives that come with the Ready Nas are Segate. The Ready Nas was evaluated on 4 principle areas, ease of management, performance/Reliability and feature set. Ease of Management - The Nas is almost plug an play. Simply connect it to your network and it will get a DHCP address and then use the RAIDar utility that ships with it to do the initial configuration. Once that is complete you can fully manage [+]

From time to time we all may want to change the default Terminal services listening port from 3389 to something else. This works for Windows XP and Server 2003. It is very easy to do just follow the below instructions. [ad#Adsense-4] 1. Run Regedt32 and go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server\WinStations\RDP-Tcp 2. Find the "PortNumber" subkey (3389). Modify the port number in Hex and save the new value. After this is done To access this server from another machine using RDP make sure you type in the remote computers IP:portnumber E.G 192.168.1.23:50501 [+]

Like so many sys admins, there comes a time when your one little web server no longer cuts the mustard. The server is continuously being hammered by requests and it just can't keep up. Sure you can scale up and get a bigger beefier machine, but even it will one day fail from the load. Why not spread the load out between multiple servers. This way you can have less costly servers servicing requests and it also relieves single point of failure. If one web server were to DIE, the others will soldier on. So now that you got a brief lesson why how NLB Service can help you, here's the best part, It's FREE.  Microsoft has included this great clustering service for free, and it actually works. [ad#Adsense] I currently run 14 servers using NLB; 32 is the limit for NLB so keep [+]

Well I currently run two standalone Windows server 2003 DNS servers.  I needed a way to backup and restore all the settings if one off my DNS servers failed.  The servers are not Active Directory Integrated.  I found a script by Dean Wells.  It works wonderfully. The Script will be at the end of the post. [ad#Adsense] To backup use the EXPORT command.  See image below off the command. Now you are done, Keep the folder you exported all your DNS settings safe. To import jsut do the reverse, and use the command IMPORT and the folder your created. Here is the script you need.  Call it dnsdump.bat   :: DNSdump Version 2.0 - Dean Wells, MSEtechnology - July 2003 :: PURPOSE - Dumps local server's DNS service configuration and zone content. Once [+]

Ever had a situation, where a machine was put in front off you and you where told this program doesn't work?  Well You are in IT so you obviously have and if not you are still in school.  I had this happen to me when our CEO adobe acrobat was not working.  Well I thought I will just un-install the program and reinstall.  I soon found out Adobe would not uninstall and I could not install Acrobat until the old one was gone.  Now reinstalling his machine was out off the question so I googled and found this tool.  The Microsoft Window Installer Cleanup Utility.  It pretty much un-installs any MSI on your system.  Below is the link to where to get it and a nice description.  This tool has saved my life a few times. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290301[ad#Adsense] [+]