Exchange Messaging Outlook
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Greetings! Welcome to Vol. 9, No. 2, 30 April 2004, of Exchange
Messaging Outlook, a biweekly newsletter about Microsoft Exchange
and Microsoft Outlook.
Today's highlights:
Regular features:
NEW EXCHANGE SERVER PATCHESMicrosoft Exchange 2000 post-SP3 UpdatesExchange 2000 post-SP3 rollup patch was released last week. This rollup contains a long of patches and includes all hotfixes released since Exchange 2000 SP3, including the fixes for the following problems:
For more information about all of the fixes contained in this rollup, see http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=836488. You can download this patch at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=43f5cdf6-d1e6-4476-b5f2-e17371236c3c. Note that it does not contain the March 2003 Exchange 2000 Server post-Service Pack 3 rollup for ADC explained in http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=815452. Microsoft Exchange 2003 post-RTM Store UpdateMicrosoft also released a patch for Exchange 2003. This patch resolves problems that were found in the Exchange 2003 since its release. Some of the many fixes included in the Exchange 2003 post-RTM Store Update are:
Information about the patch can be found at http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=838236, or you can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8bdaf1df-fec1-447f-9677-2204599a71f8. DOWNLOAD AOL E-MAIL WITH OUTLOOK Since the release of Outlook 97, many AOL users wanted to know how to configure Outlook to read AOL e-mail. The answer was always "You can't, AOL uses a proprietary e-mail system". Now they can do it--using an IMAP account to access AOL's mail server. All versions of Outlook can be used, except Outlook 98 or 2000 in Corporate/workgroup mode, since they don't support IMAP accounts. AOL requires SMTP authentication, using the same username and password used for collecting incoming e-mail, and uses port 587 for their SMTP server. While the immediate reaction from many people was "leave it to AOL to use non-standard ports", it's a smart move in my opinion and I hope other service providers start doing it. AOL users will be able to send e-mail using the AOL SMTP server regardless of how they connect to the SMTP server, as many ISPs now require anyone connected to their network to send email through the ISPs SMTP. For more information, the server names to use when configuring an AOL account in Outlook, and a link to AOL's online Open Mail Access Help topic, see http://www.slipstick.com/addins/services/online.htm#aol THE CASE OF THE MISSING E-MAIL A common query often posed to Outlook and Exchange support groups is "My e-mail is disappearing." There are several causes for this phenomenon, from views or rules on the client, to an improperly configured Exchange account, or an anti-spam and content manager scanning and removing messages. When the user complains the mail disappears as soon as they’ve read it, it’s because they’re using a read-only view. The default Outlook setting for the preview or reading pane is Mark as read after 5 seconds and when the view refreshes the message is hidden. It's less of a problem with Outlook 2003 because the view isn't refreshed until you leave a folder and return or press F5. When an Exchange server user complains they see the message arrive in the Inbox and it immediately disappears, they have a *.pst configured as the default delivery location. With the *.pst set as the default delivery location, the messages are moved out of the mailbox and into the *.pst as they arrive in Outlook. Verify the profile is using the Exchange mailbox as the message store in Tools, E-mail accounts, View or change exist e-mail accounts, not a personal message store. (In Outlook 97/98/2000, look for account properties using the Tools, Services dialog.) If the delivery location is correct and they don't have a profile set up on another computer getting their e-mail, or aren't using an Exchange mailbox, check the rules in Tools, Rules Wizard. Disable all of the rules and re-enable them one at a time, verifying they work as expected. Both Exchange and POP3 accounts can have errant rules moving messages to another folder. While rules are less likely to cause a message to disappear right before your eyes, rules are responsible when a user sees or hears the new mail notification alert but discovers there isn't new mail in the Inbox. If the email server uses a content control or anti-spam scanner and mail you’re expecting doesn’t arrive, check for quarantined messages. In most cases the messages are quarantined before they make it to Outlook, but some scanners can be run offline, i.e., after the mail is in your Inbox. While the junk e-mail feature in Outlook 2003 doesn't have a “run offline” feature, the Junk e-mail filter scans all the e-mail in all Exchange mailbox folders when you create a new cached mode message store, moving suspected junk e-mail to the Junk E-mail folder. AutoArchive can be the cause when older e-mail is missing. Verify your autoarchive settings in Tools, Options, Other, AutoArchive and search your hard drive for archive.pst. Open the archive.pst using File, Open, Outlook data store to browse your archived messages.
At one time, a long, long time ago, this statement was somewhat true as Outlook was a favorite target of many virus writers. Can you blame the virus writers? Outlook is the most used email client and any exploit or virus that was targeted to the programmability of Outlook had millions of users to spread it. However, it's no longer true and hasn't been since the release of the E-mail security patch dated June 2000. In fact, updated versions of Outlook are as safe as or safer than any e-mail client available. Because the current crop of viruses are spread many different ways and don't need Outlook's (or Outlook Express's) address book, e-mail viruses would not disappear if everyone switched to other e-mail programs.
Not in a million years. Outlook was developed by the Office program group as a Personal Information Manager (PIM) and e-mail program and positioned as the Exchange client to replace Schedule+ and the original Exchange client. Outlook Express was developed by the Internet Explorer group to provide simple mail and news handling for Windows users. The feature sets in each program are targeted to the expected the user base: Outlook is a business e-mail client while Outlook Express is for home users. As a result, Outlook does some things better than OE, like calendaring, contacts, mail merge, and tasks; while OE has inline image display and newsgroups and is less complicated to use. See http://www.slipstick.com/outlook/olexpr.htm and http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=257824 for more information on the differences between Outlook and Outlook Express.
This is somewhat true, but with the right configurations you can remove much of the HTML used for round-tripping documents and send cleaner, smaller HTML messages. Open the Tools, Options dialog from either Word or an open message form if you are using Word as the editor. At the bottom of the General tab is an E-mail options button and its General tab lets you choose the HTML filtering level for your e-mail. The default is Medium, however, unless you send highly formatted HTML messages, the High setting is best. Using the Outlook editor doesn't add a lot of excess HTML tags, so it doesn't need a filter.
Outlook's Go, news menu loads Outlook Express in news-only mode, it is not an Outlook component. Exchange server accounts may have public newsgroups in Exchange public folders and there are currently three add-ins available to pull NNTP posts into Outlook, but Outlook does not offer native support for newsgroups. Don't believe the title bar when it says "Outlook Newsreader"; it's just OE in disguise. Look for links to the NNTP add-ins at http://www.slipstick.com/emo/2004/up040415.htm#NEWS
Once again, five years ago this was true, especially with Outlook 98. The preview pane is safe to use in Outlook 2000/2002/2003. It's less safe in Outlook 98, but as long as you have all of the latest Windows and Internet Explorer patches, go ahead and use it. See http://www.slipstick.com/emo/2004/up040204.htm#preview for more details.
Like this other myths, this has a root in reality. Word 97 was a
horrible e-mail editor, it was slow, buggy, and caused a lot of
problems. This was in part because it used email.dot as the template
for e-mail, not normal.dot. By Office XP, email.dot was gone and
Word was more than just a usable e-mail editor, it was good and
users could compose e-mail using the same word processing features
they used when composing documents.
Not without a lot of help from the user. Attachments will not open (or run) automatically when you view a message in the preview or reading pane, or when you open a message. With Outlook's Attachment blocking, executables can’t be opened or saved by default. Someone can write code or add-ins to open attachments, but that’s something the user has to install—if a virus installs code to do this the computer was compromised long before Outlook downloaded the e-mail. |
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New Utilities |
CONTACTREE http://www.contactree.com/ ContacTree is a contact organizer add-in for Microsoft Outlook. Available in versions for personal and enterprise use, ContacTree provides very simple new intuitive input forms with extensive auto-complete functions. By splitting contact data into linked levels of Contact, Contact’s Manger, Organization and Location, it also becomes easy to develop and maintain records over time. ContacTree also automatically generates organization charts of a contact’s company for easy searching and navigation. CONTINUITY@WORK VERSION 4.0 IHATESPAM FOR EXCHANGE MESSAGESAVE POTOLOOK PLUGIN PSTCOMPACT PSTCOMPACTOR SHIPRUSH SYNCHRONICA SYNCML SYNCHRONIZATION SERVER |
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Updated utilities |
4TEAM ONLINE http://online.4team.biz Subscription-based web service for team collaboration. Can be used just on the Web or use the Outlook Import-Export feature to synch your personal Outlook data with your Online project 4Team for Outlook. Some of the new features include notification of new or updated appointments or tasks, the ability to review your free/busy time while working with the current project Calendar, monitor the current time line in Day view of Calendar just like in MS Outlook, adjust the Date and Time format in the Account Settings section and improvement in the upload of files as documents and attachments. CONCEPT MANAGER FOR POWER TOOLS OUTLOOK CLEANER SHAREOUTLOOK TABTAG |
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Other resources |
EXCHANGE 2000 POST-SERVICE PACK 3 (SP3) ROLLUP PATCH 6556.4 http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=43f5cdf6-d1e6-4476-b5f2-e17371236c3c Exchange 2000 Post-Service Pack 3 (SP3) Rollup Patch 6556.4. The rollup resolves problems that were found in Exchange 2000 since the release of Exchange 2000 SP3. Exchange 2000 hotfixes for a particular component are cumulative and contain all the earlier hotfixes for that component. Requires Exchange 2000 SP3. EXCHANGE 2003 STORE PATCH 6980.72 EXCHANGE FAQ TROUBLESHOOTING EXCHANGE SERVER 2003 PERFORMANCE |
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More Information |
ISSN 1523-7990 |
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Updated Jul 30 2006
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