Exchanges; Migration Move; A New Job; Getting SMS Right

• By MCP Magazine Readers
• 01/01/2004

An Exchange Exchange
I wanted to comment on the Exchange 2003 issues in November’s “Call Me Certifiable” column, “It’s Still Not Done.” On the fourth point, regarding the new Outlook Web Access being “fat,” there’s a “lightweight” version of the OWA client. You have to enable and use the forms-based authentication version of the logon. Once this is enabled, you can select a Premium or Basic version that’s more lightweight. To turn on forms-based authentication, open the Exchange System Manager. Then, select the “Enable Forms Based Authentication” check box on the Settings tab of the “Protocols\ HTTP\Exchange virtual server” object (under the target server). The IIS Web Publishing service must be restarted in order to begin using the feature. Then, point your browser service to http://<server_name/exchange.

Is the Basic feature of forms-based authentication still too fat of an OWA client? Enable the Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) features of Exchange 2003 and try this on a dial-up! After installing and enabling OMA, point your browser to http://http://<server_name/oma. It doesn’t get anymore lightweight than that!
—Jason Hill, MCSE, MCSA, CISSP
Charlotte, North Carolina

Good catch, Jason! I didn’t know about the thinner OWA client when I wrote that column, but thanks to you—and the other sharp-eyed readers who pointed it out— I do now!
—Em C. Pea

Em C. Pea got it right about the security matter; I want to be able to turn it on and not have to research how to turn it off. Also, I had a 20-minute reboot on which I spent half a day trying to figure out what I did wrong to cause this.
—Gary Reininger, MCP, A+, Net+
Portland, Oregon

Once again, Auntie hit the nail right on the head and pegged the problem to the wall. Now, if only Microsoft could be convinced that there are things that need to be fixed, and we shouldn’t have to wait for Exchange 2006 for them! It’s too bad that thinking about fixing problems with the current product takes away from the time spent “improving” the next version of the product that it’ll want to sell us—adding all the bells and whistles that no one wants to listen to.
—Robert C. St. John, MCSE, MCSA, A+
Bellevue, Nebraska

Migration Move
November’s feature, “Major Migration,” was great—except for the part where the Microsoft consultant came in and told the Kentucky team that a single domain design would eat their shorts in replication. Either the school didn’t explain it correctly, or the consultant should get a job outside of Active Directory.

The school could have a one-domain design; the key is in the sites. This would, thus, control replication and they would have been fine.

AD in 2000 or 2003 can have a single-domain design. There are large companies doing this. I just wanted to set the record straight.
—Chris Johnson, MCSE, CNE
Charlotte, North Carolina

Thanks for the Job!
Here’s a story about how you guys and the local postman landed me a job. After 22 years as a senior field service engineer with Digital/Compaq/HP, I was laid off. I earned my MCP in 1992 and over the years, I’ve focused on Microsoft training and certification, acquiring my MCSE in 1998 and then upgrading to Windows 2000.

I sent my résumé to every job posting listed on every job boards and in the local paper. After a couple weeks of getting no phone calls, I started knocking on doors, which landed me a couple of interviews with companies that didn’t lead anywhere.

Then one day, my faithful MCP Magazine showed up in my mailbox and a funny thing happened: The postman stuck two in my mailbox. I looked at the person’s name so I could drop it off and noticed the company name on the address label. I decided to check out its Website and e-mailed my résumé to the company.

After a couple of days, I received an e-mail from the company and a subsequent interview. The best part is, I’m now doing everything I’ve always wanted to do. Before, I was a hardware engineer with certs that I rarely had the opportunity to put to practice. In my new job, I’ve already completed two Windows 2000/Exchange 2000 to Windows 2003/ Exchange 2003 migrations.

By the way, on my first day of work I returned the second magazine to its rightful owner.
—Stephen R. Mccloud, MCSE
New Orleans, Louisiana

Getting SMS Right
I just read Mark Wingard’s fantastic article from the November issue, “Take Inventory of SMS 2003.” Although I was aware of most of the points of SMS 2003, this article explained them distinctly and plainly so that even a manager could understand. I even forwarded my manager the story so he would better understand what I’ve been telling him about SMS 2003. As one who has been dealing with SMS since 2.0 SP1 (ugghh), I’m looking forward to deploying and taking advantages of SMS 2003. I think they finally got this one right.
—Nathan Robinson, MCP
Kansas City, Missouri

Locking the Barn Door
I usually read Em C. Pea’s column, “Call Me Certifiable,” in the bathroom.
However, October’s “Locking the Barn Door” hit home like no other. I agree 100 percent. We need the code fix before we deploy it. A programming certification won’t solve that, but it’ll surely help.
Thanks for the insight; I had no idea before I read your article.
—Rod Fournier, MCSE, MCSA, MCT
Huntsville, Alabama

Correction
Due to an editor’s error, the “Products You Love” article in the December 2003 issue contained an incorrect winner for the “Migrate Desktops From One Operating System to Another” category. The winner should have been PC Transplant Pro from Altiris. While Aelita’s Enterprise Migration Manager does a fine job migrating directory information from NT domains to AD or from AD to AD, it doesn’t expressly move PCs from one desktop operating system to another. Congratulations to Altiris and our apologies for the mistake.