Exchange Messaging Outlook
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Greetings! Welcome to Vol. 8, No. 4, 12 Jun 2003, of Exchange Messaging Outlook, a biweekly newsletter about Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook. Today's highlights:
Regular features:
Microsoft to take on viruses firsthand Microsoft this week announced its intent to acquire intellectual property and technology from Romanian antivirus firm GeCAD Software (http://www.gecad.ro), maker of the RAV AntiVirus tool. Microsoft said it plans to develop its own new antivirus solutions, but did not say whether they would be separate products or incorporated into the Windows operating system or servers such as Exchange. The announcement did affirm Microsoft's intent to "extend support for third-party antivirus vendors so they can provide customers with increasingly secure and comprehensive levels of virus protection." The RAV tool is actually a combined antivirus, antispam, and content-filtering engine, although the antispam technology currently only runs on UNIX and Linux versions. Rae Internet, the U.S. distributor for RAV AntiVirus, said in a statement (http://www.raeinternet.com/rav-msft-acquisition.pdf) that the biggest selling RAV product has been RAV for MailServers, whose group policy configuration features have made it popular with UNIX/Linux-based Internet service providers. However, RAE Internet believes Microsoft is acquiring the GeCAD technology for the antivirus/antispam engine and not to "make a statement to Linux users." News reports and an FAQ at the RAE Internet web site speculate that the RAV products will be discontinued after the acquisition. Microsoft declined to comment. The RAV product line includes an anti-virus scanner for Exchange 5.5 and 2000 (http://www.ravantivirus.com/pages/showproduct.php?p=77). Spam time wasters Yes, we all know that spam is a headache, with 94% of companies considering it to be a major problem, according to a report this week from the Radicati Group. The survey found, however, that 43% of firms do not have a formal anti-spam policy in place. Even when a company implements an anti-spam solution, the cure may not address the real issue -- that dealing with spam is a huge waste of any email user's time. Jim Louderback laid it on the line this week in his eWeek article (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1124005,00.asp), taking his employer, Ziff-Davis, to task for transforming him "from an irate spam deleter to a spam manager" who has to regularly check his web-based suspected spam folders. Jim's other complaints about challenge/response spam filters, false positives being deleted, and advertising messages in anti-spam tools are also right on target. Exchange 2003 release candidate available Exchange 2003 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) is available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/ti/rc1.asp. It carries a 120-day evaluation period. System requirements are listed at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/ti/sysreqs.asp. Microsoft says that you will be able to upgrade a server in place from RC1 to the final version of Exchange 2003. No date has been set yet for the final release of the next version of Exchange. Office 2003 beta refresh later this month In its Tech Ed announcement about Exchange 2003 RC1, Microsoft also revealed that the "refresh" for Office 2003 will be available for downloading later this month and will require Office 2003 Beta 2. Will the Beta 2 Refresh be sent automatically to everyone who got the Beta 2 kit? Apparently not, and with as many as 500,000 Beta 2 kits floating around, that's not at all surprising. If you want to test the Beta 2 Refresh but don't have Beta 2 yet, you should go ahead and order the Beta 2 kit from http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/orderbeta.asp now. Bugbear virus This issue's Updated Utilities section includes the latest comprehensive update for Internet Explorer. If you haven't kept up with IE patches, it might be time to update, given that the latest virus making the rounds, Bugbear, uses in some cases a known IE vulnerability. The MSKB article at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=329770 has more information on this virus and its prevention. |
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New Utilities |
AVAST! 4 PROFESSIONAL EDITION http://www.avast.com/i_idt_152.html Anti-virus tool protects Outlook messages and the file system. Receives virus signature updates automatically. AVAST32 GROUPWARE EDITION CLUEGLE SUMMARIES EXCHANGESERVERRECOVERY JUNKMAIL SCANNER PROLAW READY R2 REVOLUTIONARY RECOVERY TRACKING TASKS |
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Updated utilities |
ANTIGEN http://www.sybari.com/products/antigen_exchange.asp Version 7.5 of this anti-virus utility for Exchange includes enhanced HTML-format reports and an "outbreak manager" for dealing with virus outbreaks. BRIGHTMAIL ANTI-SPAM JUNE 2003 CUMULATIVE PATCH FOR INTERNET EXPLORER MAILFILER OUTLOOK PERMISSIONS ADD-IN PROFILE MAKER SYMANTEC MAIL SECURITY FOR EXCHANGE XIMIAN CONNECTOR |
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Other resources |
ADDING NOTES TO A SIGNATURE VCARD http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=25123 How to add a notes section after you create a vCard for use with an Outlook signature. HOW TO USE THE MDBVU32.EXE UTILITY TO MANUALLY REMOVE
REMINDERS IN MICROSOFT OUTLOOK READ ACCESS TO THE EVERYONE GROUP IS REMOVED AFTER YOU INSTALL
EXCHANGE 2000 SP3 New code samples at http://www.outlookcode.com:
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More Information |
ISSN 1523-7990 |
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Updated Jul 30 2006
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