Alexander’s Blog

Are you getting the following error on your Windows Server 2003? If so, your event viewer is probably displaying this error every 5 minutes.

Event ID: 1054
Source: Userenv
Type: Error
Description: Windows cannot obtain the domain controller name for your computer network. (The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted). Group Policy processing aborted.

Microsoft’s KB article 324174 addresses this issue. This behavior may occur if the address for the configured preferred DNS server on the client is invalid or unreachable. This error may also cause the client computer to take a long time to logon. To resolve this issue, correct the DNS address in the TCP/IP properties.

NOTE: If you are getting this error in Windows XP, then check out this KB article 298656.

To configure Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3) in Exchange Server 2007 you need to take several steps on the server as well as the client. This article details steps that are required to configure POP3 service.

Server-Side Configuration
The POP3 service is not started by default in Exchange Server 2007. You need to first configure the POP3 service and make sure that the user is allowed to use POP3 service.

1. Configure POP3 Service
You can use the Services snap-in (services.msc) or the Exchange Management Shell (EMS) to set POP3 service to start automatically. If you are using the EMS then you can run the following two commands to set the service to start automatically and then start the service.
Set-service msExchangePOP3 -startuptype automatic
Start-service -service msExchangePOP3

2. Enable POP3 Access
You configure POP3 on your server by using the Exchange Management Console (EMC).
a) Expand Server Configuration in EMC and then click Client Access.
b) In the work pane on the right-hand side, click the POP3 and IMAP4 tab. If you don’t have this tab then you have not installed Exchange Server 2007 SP1.
c) Double-click POP3 and then configure the options.
d) Click Apply and then click OK.
e) Restart the POP3 service after you make any changes to the configuration.

You can enable or disable POP3 access for individual users by using the Exchange Management Console (EMC), as described below.
a) Expand Recipient Configuration in EMC and then click Mailbox.
b) In the work pane on the right-hand side, double-click the user and click the Mailbox Features tab.
c) Click POP3 and then click Enable.
d) Click Apply and then click OK.
e) Restart the POP3 service after you make any changes to the configuration.

If you want to use EMS, then use the following command to enable the user. Make sure you are using the command in EMS and not at the Command Prompt.
Set-CASMailbox -Identity CAS01 -PopEnabled $true

You can get more information about the Set-CASMailbox cmdlet here. The Set-CASMailbox cmdlet sets client access-related attributes for Exchange ActiveSync, Outlook Web Access, POP3, and IMAP4 for a specified user.

For example, to enable POP3 for user billg@microsoft.com use the following command in EMS:
Set-CASMailbox -identity BillG@microsoft.com -POPEnabled:$true

If you want to enable the change password user interface and also enable POP3, use the following command in EMS for user BillG@microsoft.com:
Set-CASMailbox -identity BillG@microsoft -OWATasksEnabled:$true -POPEnabled:$true

To see all the users that have POP3 enabled use the following command in EMS:
Get-CASMailbox | Select Name,PopEnabled

In addition to the changes mentioned above, you also need to make sure that your Exchange Server is configured for proper authentication. The default selection is SecureLogin, which is the most secure option and it’s best not to change that option. The two additional options are PlainTextLogin and PlainTextAuthentication. TO chagne the default selection, use the set-popsettings –logintype followed by the option you want. For example, to change the default setting of SecureLogin to PlainTextLogin use the following command.

set-popsettings –logintype PlainTextLogin

The PlainTextLogin option allows passwords to be transmitted over the network in plain text and allows connection to the standard (non TLS) port used for POP3, which is 110.

The PlainTextAuthentication options also allows connection to the standard port but it also requires the use of secured passwords. This is configured on the client by selecting the option Secure Password Authentication.

NOTE: Restart the POP3 service after you make any changes to the configuration.

Client-Side Configuration
If you are using SecureLogin, which is the default option, then the server requires secure SSL/TLS connections. For POP3, when using SSL use port 995 for inbound connections and 587 for the outbound connections. In EMC, go to Server Configuration, Hub Transport and double-click the ClientServerName in the work pane on the Receive Connectors tab. Click on the Network tab and you will notice that the port listed is 587. Yes, that’s not a typo.

Rather than using the default port 25 for SMTP communications used between servers, Exchange 2007 uses port 587 which is the standard port for SMTP mail received from the clients . If you double-click the DefaultServerName, you will notice that port listed is 25. I am pointing this out because if you are using Outlook Express 6 or earlier as a client, it can only negotiate explicit TLS over port 25 and therefore you can’t use port 587. A simple solution in that case is to take advantage of the Default receive connector which uses SMTP port 25. In other words, use the following ports when you configure the e-mail clients.

Outlook Express 6 or Earlier

Incoming Mail (POP3): Port 995
Outgoing Mail (SMTP): Port 25

All Other Clients

Incoming Mail (POP3): Port 995
Outgoing Mail (SMTP): Port 587

By the way, everything in this article also applies to IMAP4. The only exception is that when you use SSL, IMAP uses port 993 for incoming mail, instead of 995.

If you haven’t seen this funny video from Microsoft, check this out. There are appearances from several famous people including Matthew Mcconaughey, U2’s Bono, Senator Hillary Clinton, Senator Barack Obama, Former V.P. Al Gore, comedian Jon Stewart, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and others.

I am not a programmer but I do know that, just like any other profession, there are good programmers and there are bad programmers. Writing software must not be an easy task or else multi-billion dollar companies like Microsoft would have written a browser that is secure, reliable and bug-free and Apple wouldn’t have to deal with 69 security holes in Mac OS X in less than 3 months. I just read an article about what’s wrong with the software written today. Perhaps the software developers are in a better position than me to to comment on the author’s take on this subject.

Here are a few excerpts from an article written by Shayne Nelson called What’s wrong with 90% of software written today?:

In the early seventies, industry studies revealed that eighty-five percent of all software development efforts went into just one area: maintenance. You can put that figure another way: programmers spend six to seven times as much fixing and modifying software as they do designing and building it.

Since most programmers instinctively (and justifiably) hate maintenance, that means that we are looking at a profession where the practitioners spend most of their day doing something they dislike. What a sad observation, and what a sad profession.

Things are always changing in a company, and therefore the company’s software is going to require changes, lots of them. This is inevitable. The question remains: why does the average company have to spend six-sevenths of its effort and programming manpower and time on fixing stuff rather than building it?

Asking that key question makes the issue (and the right answer) far more obvious. The answer is, BAD ORIGINAL DESIGN.

That’s right. Most software on earth is written with virtually no features incorporated to make debugging and maintenance much easier.

You can read the entire article here.

If you are working in a virtual PC environment, like most of us trainers do, you may have run into situations where you can’t afford to install Exchange Server for various reasons but would like to have the ability to test e-mail functionality. For example, you may be working with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 to configure alerts or you have installed a Web server and want to receive e-mail messages without installing a full-blown messaging server. Using the built-in POP3 service in Windows Server 2003 is a perfect solution.

Here’s a nice step-by-step tutorial from Sharee English on her blog on how to setup POP3 Service on Windows Server 2003 How to configure POP3 to test email settings in MOSS without Exchange Server.