Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with exchange

International Home Exchange Advice?

dougiedd — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:55:43 -0800

As part of a sabbatical leave, my wife and i are considering looking into a home exchange program. Can anyone recommend good programs or reviews of programs? This would be for international destinations, possibly Europe, possibly Asia. We would want something LT, perhaps 6 months to a year.

User stats on Exchange 2000?

starscream — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:50:12 -0800

Microsoft Exchange 2000 : is there a built in function or any 3rd party utility that would allow me to export a list of all mailboxes and would include info like User Logon Name and mailbox size? The company I work for was purchased by a megacorp and we'll be migrating all of our users from our Exchange server to theirs. While we have a 150mb limit, they impose a 100mb restriction on mailbox size. There are, of course, 'special' users that have anywhere from 200 to 500mb or more; therefore management is looking for a spreadsheet with basic statistics of our Exchange server users.

I'd love to be able to export some kind of list into csv (or anything else that I could open in Excel and work with) that details usernames, mailbox size/limit, and any other info that might be useful for pre migration planning. If there's any Exchange built-in function or a third party utility that could do this for me, I'd love to know about it!

Why do they still do open outcry?

bartleby — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:39:40 -0800

Why do they still do open outcry? It would seem that there is a more efficient way to accomplish complex trade transactions than shouting and hand signals.

Exchanging £s Sterling to Yen / Getting cash out in Japan

mairuzu — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:12:17 -0800

I'm going to Japan (from the UK) and want to arrange my cash for out there - I don't want to go down the traditional credit card route as they seem to sting you for allsorts of fees nowadays. 2 parts to this question: 1. Where would I get the better deal / exchange rate for changing my Sterling to Yen? In the UK before I go, or in Japan once I'm there? 2. (This one is very specific to a UK Bank) Does anyone know if a Nationwide Flex / current account Visa card will work in many cash machines in Japan? Any help gratefully received.

D1am0ndz r 4ever

ReiToei — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 05:23:18 -0800

Can anyone recommend somewhere good to buy an engagement ring in Toronto? O glorious hivemind. My beautiful fiancee and I are travelling from Ireland to Toronto in August for 7 days. With the euro being as strong as it is, we thought it might make sense to buy the engagement ring while we're there. Could anyone recommend a good jewelery shop in the city that might be worth visiting?

Microsoft Exchange Server for Epsilon Semi-Morons?

loquacious — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:39:04 -0800

How do I set up Microsoft Exchange (or Outlook) Server for a small office? I'm providing basic knuckle-dragger tech support for a small office, and one of the things they want to implement and that I want to provide eventually is an Exchange or Outlook server.

Where do I begin? What should I watch out for? What about security issues?

I will be using Server 2003 and a primarily XP client base.

What Non-Blackberry Phone Can Sync Subfolders?

nokry56 — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:41:38 -0800

Can you recommend a phone that will sync Exchange sub-folders? Getting a BES isn't an option. A phone on AT&T Wireless is preferred. I work for a small business as the IT support guy. The CFO wants to get a new phone to replace his 3 year old Treo. The one thing he wants his phone to do is sync Exchange sub-folders so that as emails come in he can file them.

We don't have the money for a BES so blackberries are out of the question. Do Windows Mobile phones sync sub-folders? Any other phones you can recommend?

Any central signature managment tools for MS Exchange?

bartleby — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:33:56 -0800

ExchangeFilter: any centralized signature/logo/disclaimer management tools you can recommend? I'd rather not go desk to desk to add a logo. OK, so I asked basically the same question two years ago; I ended up going from workstation to workstation adding a disclaimer to 40 people's signatures in Outlook. (There's a policy that no one is allowed to modify their own signature, so any changes have to be made by IT, which is me.) That involves travelling to 5 different sites, and I'd rather not do it again.

But there's a request in the air to add a logo or some other doodads to the company email signatures. Since my question was asked the first time, perhaps some advancements have been made.
Can this be done by:
1) a new Active Directory feature in Server 2008?
2) a new feature in Exchange 2007?
[we're running Server/Ex 2003 now]
3) if not, and this is still a 3rd-party-software solution, can you recommend any products? Exclaimer seems to come up a lot - any reviews?

Alternatives to Exchange?

keep it tight — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:40:45 -0800

Has anyone in the hive had experience with Kerio Mail Server?

Day of the Deleted Message part 17

nowonmai — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:37:58 -0800

I have a long-winded question about deleting zombie messages from Apple's mail.app. I am trying to get rid of some unwanted email on my Mac, and finding it surprisingly difficult.

Mac OSX 10.4, downloading email from a Microsoft exchange server by POP3 because that's what the IT guys said to do.

Once a week or so I get an email that's really intended for somebody else with the same name as me in the same organization. The emails have 300-odd addresses in the the "To:" line, including a dozen or so distribution lists, to one of which I must have been mistakenly added. I have no idea how to get myself off these lists, so that is unfortunately not the answer.

Anyway, Mail.app just stalls and has to be force-quit when trying to download these messages. I then log into webmail, delete the offending message, and everything's OK again.

Except there are a whole bunch of these messages on my computer now, and try as I might I can not delete them. They just respawn. If I move them to a folder, they respawn in my inbox and now I have more copies. I have tried the rebuild mailbox command. I have tried deleting .emlx files that contain these messages - this deletes the contents of the messages, but the headers seem to stay in the system somewhere, and now my inbox is full of disembodied headers.

Does anybody have any ideas what else I can do? Are there other files I can delete without borking up all the rest of my mail? (My saved mail from my boss and colleagues is important, and there's many megabytes of it). Can I edit some file somewhere by hand to remove database lines containing a certain string? Can I export and reimport my messages in a way that will allow me to strip out the dodgy ones? Is there some Voodoo trick that might help? I have googled extensively, but the universal answer seems to be "rebuild mailbox", which just doesn't help.

How does REM make money?

Ugh — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:00:31 -0800

What's the catch with Revolutionary Money Exchange? It is a lot like Paypal, only it appears to be free to send and receive money. Apparently they are even giving $25 to new account holders. So how do they make their money? Surely they aren't going to support the site with stop payment and paper statement fees? Should the fact that Steve Case is involved comfort or dissuade me?

Outlook/exchange - Pst problem

flipmiester99 — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 07:46:51 -0800

Outlook/Exchange Filter:: I have a user that has all his mail being delivered to a .pst file. How do i change it so that it keeps all the mail on the exchange server? Also, how do i get all his mail from the .pst file back on the server. He is using outlook 2007 and the exchange server is 2003.

I want to swap stuff

leigh1 — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 15:04:26 -0800

I would really really love to exchange souvenirs from all over the world. I would happily go and buy some local souvenirs and send them to you, if you send me yours. We could do that with money involved, or without, like an exchange. Do you know web page where I could hang with people that want the same?

Shared Outlook Categories firmwide = possible?

bartleby — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:03:18 -0800

Is there a way to share Outlook Categories / Master Category list across all users on an Exchange server? Company has several thousand Contacts in a shared Public folder (separate from each user's own default/personal Contacts) = "Company Contacts" on its Exchange server (using Outlook 2003 at their desks, Exchange/Server 2003 at the server).

There are several dozen Categories applied to these Contacts (which branch handles them, what type of services they provide, who manages the account, etc.).

As it is now, that list of Categories has to be re-built for each new user/workstation MANUALLY, as the Categories in Outlook seem to bind to the individual Outlook account.

To deal with this, we have simply centralized the addition & categorizaion of new Contacts to a few individuals in the firm, and maintained their Categories lists accordingly. Easy enough.

But there's a move on to spread that responsibility out to everyone - so everyone will need that list of categories so that they can properly categorize Contacts they add to that shared list.

Is there a way to share/deploy a Master Categories list firmwide, at one go? I really don't want to have to manually enter those Categories for each and every user profile.

Seems like there must be a way - everyone is using the same Exchange server, same version of Outlook 2003, etc - but I'm coming up empty.

How can I access the internal ICS file generated by Outlook when sending a meeting invitation?

lordaych — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 11:38:29 -0800

How can I access the internal ICS file generated by Outlook when sending a meeting invitation? I need to see the ICS attachment that is generated upon sending a meeting invitation (Outlook 2003, Exchange 2007). I know I can go into my own calendar and save an appointment as an ICS file, but I suspect there is a difference between the ICS file that is exported from my own calendar vs. the one that is sent when I invite other attendees.

I deal with ICS/iCAL files from time to time while working with BlackBerry devices. It's easy enough to create an ICS file that a BlackBerry will accept (and is quite neat that an entire month's worth of appointments can be embedded into a single ICS), but many of the problems and glitches we run into involve ICS files that are generated from Outlook, or ICS files that are generated from the BlackBerry itself and sent back to our Exchange server.

Unfortunately we don't use BlackBerry Enterprise Server so I am routinely hacking together solutions involving VCARD and ICS files.

In the past, I could send an invite to say, Yahoo Mail or perhaps even GMail and would be able to open the "meeting.ics" attachment. Now this does not work; GMail seamlessly handles the ICS file rather than letting me muck around with it. Yahoo and Hotmail happily devour it and leave no indication it ever existed.

Perhaps I just need to be made aware of some advanced options I'm not seeing in those webmail products; it'd be nice if there was a webmail site out there that let you really dig into the raw MIME-encoded guts of your email for purposes like this.

Are there such things as Interstate Property Exchanges?

Dub — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 23:40:11 -0800

Are there any agencies to help people exchange properties / relocate in the US (i.e. from one state to another)? Do large organizations HR help their employees? Is it something the Government does to help out? I have a relative on the East Coast of the US (near Boston) and he's retired, owns his own property and would like to move somewhere much warmer and drier (He considered Arizona and a few other states - right now, I can't recall which ones, though!).

Like many others, he's been stuck-in-a-rut for months - having a tough time getting his house sold, before having to look for something else.

So, with house prices and mortgages being what they are at the moment, I wondered if any property exchange agencies exist, or do large organizations help employees by matching people up in different states?

The idea being that if both parties accept the locations, and the properties, then only the difference in property values has to be considered (ignoring legal costs etc.) - and might be more convenient for both parties.

- e.g. is it worth speaking to {insert large organization-name} who may be relocating staff from Arizona to Mass.

I thought I'd ask here, in case anyone had some ideas / comments / suggested websites, etc.

Disclosure:BTW, I'm asking this question by proxy, for a relative in the US (I'll send him a link to this post) - I'm in the UK , so I'm not versed in US law/systems - I may be suggesting something which is not possible/sensible in the US - in which case, please let me/us know {oh, and I've been up all night and it's 0630 here, so I might not be too coherent - please excuse any obvious omissions/errors}
Thanks

Alternatively, anyone know a REALLY good flower shop in Philly?

datacenter refugee — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:41:19 -0800

I borked my SO's exchange account. Help me unbork it before work tomorrow. My girlfriend is staff at a local school which uses exchange. This school's exchange server has a webmail interface (the official OWA exchange piece). I attempted to configure her [home PC's] outlook 2003 instance to connect to this exchange server using the OWA URL. Outlook cried that it couldn't connect to the exchange server, but I canceled past the failure messages and told it to use proxy exchange access.

Bad idea. Her messages downloaded, but to her local mail store. Now her exchange account on the server is EMPTY save for new messages. This is bad. Assuming I can (with her help) ninja onto her school's wireless network by daybreak and connect to the exchange server the legitimate way, how do I get those messages back onto the server?

Will my company support corporate email on the iPhone?

mullacc — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:55:36 -0800

Please help me figure out if my IT department will support corporate email on the iPhone. I asked IT already, but I don't understand their response. This is likely my fault for asking an ill-formed question. Can someone translate this for me? Here is the exchange:

Q: "...do we support Exchange Activesync for mobile email on non-Blackberry devices (like the Samsung Blackjack)? I ask because Apple announced yesterday that the iPhone will be supporting Activesync in June and I’m wondering if CompanyX employees will have their iPhones supported."

A: "We do not support the IMAP mail protocol at CompanyX, so ActiveSync will not work. Currently, our infrastructure only supports Blackberry Enterprise Server or Good Mobile Messaging for mobile devices."

My understanding of this stuff is pretty much limited to this slide shown during the Apple press conference yesterday. That slide gave me some hope that the iPhone would plug right into our infrastructure the way Windows Mobile devices do.

The part that really confuses me is the reference to IMAP--do we need an IMAP server to run Activesync? This blog post, for example, makes me think that is not the case.

I'm not trying to fight IT over this issue, I'm just trying to understand their explanation.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be...or something

cabingirl — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:39:55 -0800

I'm feeling guilty about a personal monetary transaction I made with my boss, that ended up being way in my favor by accident (miscalculation on my part). He said he was fine with it at the time, should I try to make amends anyway or just leave it? My boss just returned from Europe with a wallet full of Euros he doesn't need. I am headed to Europe next week and offered to buy the Euros from him with dollars, thinking I'd save a little on the currently-abysmal exchange rate. However, when he asked how much they were worth, I gave him the wrong number (about $20 less than the actual amount). Of course, this colored the negotiation, and I discovered later that I got the Euros for about $1.20 rather than the $1.50 or so they are currently worth.

He doesn't know about the error, but was fine with the cash I gave him. Still, I feel guilty and don't want it to be an issue in the future so I was considering giving him a little more cash just to even things out. Should I make amends? Does the fact that it's my boss change the situation?

Yes, yes, I know that I shouldn't have even gotten into a money situation with my boss in the first place but he offered, and it seemed like a good idea at the time...

converting dollars to cheese!

mustcatchmooseandsquirrel — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 09:13:32 -0800

I'm going to Europe for at least a year in September. When should I convert my dollars to euros? I know that if I were planning on staying in the US, converting money to different currencies would not be the best course of action. But what about in my specific situation?

I will probably be in France from at least September-June (longer if possible). There, I will only be making ~750 euros/month after taxes so I will want to use money that I have saved for this trip to supplement that. But! I'm worried that something awful will happen in the next six months and my US savings will be worth a more meager sum than they already are. (Am I on the wrong track here? Will the economic stimulus package fix everything?)

Would it be totally foolish to transfer my dollars to euros now? If so, when should I do it instead? (and how?)

How popular is my newsletter?

bda1972 — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:34:23 -0800

Exchange 2003 SP2: Is there any way to tell how many users read a particular email or opened an attachment in that email? My boss sends out a monthly newsletter (as an attachment) to our entire organization of about 800 users. He asked me to find out how many staffers actually read the email or open the attachment. I told him I don't think it's possible, at least not without a third-party tool. Even if you could, the read count wouldn't be accurate because a lot of users would click on and off the email (marking it as read) before deleting it without actually reading it. Either way, I thought I'd ask the hive mind for confirmation before reporting back to him with a final answer.

I doubt it matters but we use a mix of Outlook 2003 and 2007 on Windows XP SP2.

Possible to implement user photos in MS Outlook/Exchange?

psmealey — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 14:14:03 -0800

Is it possible to create a tab/form in the Microsoft Outlook properties window where you can post a user's picture? Just doing some research for my company, the guys in IT say it's not possible, but I could have sworn that I had seen it done at another company. The idea is that when you get a mail from someone, you double-click their name, the properties box pups up and you get to click to their picture. Is this something that can be done with whatever SDK is available with Microsoft Outlook 2003 (v11... not sure what version of Exchange we're running), or am I just better building something on the intranet that does the same thing?

Where to go for five months and a final breath of freedom?

Dasein — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:26:33 -0800

I'm thinking about going on an exchange program, and am not sure how I should rank my choices. Should I spend January to June in Brisbane, Australia or Amsterdam? I'm in my second year of law school, and applying this week for an exchange program for next year. I would be gone from January-June, 2009.

If I were able to do the exchange in the fall term, I would choose Amsterdam; the choice is more complicated because the weather would be so much better in Australia than Holland at that time of year. And while I love Amsterdam, I've never been to Australia and would love to visit that part of the world. But I think it's undeniable that Brisbane is not the centre of culture that Amsterdam is, and I do love the vibe of Europe.

What are the pros and cons of going to Brisbane in their summer over Amsterdam in their winter? In both places, the terms don't start until February, so I could spend a month bumming around between Christmas and the start of classes.

Please help me with synchronising cleanly

dance — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 03:34:21 -0800

Mail.app + Nokia e61 + gApps IMAP I would love to get my already fairly nifty Mail situation properly synchronised. At the moment, Google Apps handles my email for me and I access it via POP with Mail.app. It is also forwarded to MailForExchange where I am able to sychronise it with my Nokia e61. If I'm out, therefore, I can access and reply to emails. When I get back, though, my sent items in Mail do not reflect mails sent from the phone because gApps had nothing to do with that. In addition, emails read on the e61 are still unread in Mail.app.

What I would love to do is begin using IMAP with gApps but without disturbing the current archive of email I have in Mail.app and begin accessing my email on my phone by that method also.

How can I do this? Do I have to drag my folders into the IMAP folders? This is Mail 3, by the way.

How can I get full functionality out of MMC?

odinsdream — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:42:13 -0800

Help me better use MMC (Microsoft Management Console) for server maintenance tasks. I manage several servers. Each server has a bunch of stuff available under Administrative Tools. I can open these locally on each machine to maintain the various items, or, I can use one machine and add these snap-ins to one master MMC.

This is what I currently do. I have the Active Directory snap-in for our domain, I have several DHCP snap-ins, and a couple Event Viewers.

However, with the Active Directory snap-in, I cannot access some property pages on the master console that I would be able to access if I were directly working on the server.

For instance, I cannot see a user's Dial-In tab on my master console, but I can see it if I use the same area on the domain controller. Likewise, I don't have any of the user's Exchange tabs on the master console, but these are available if I'm working directly on the Exchange server.

What accounts for these differences, and how can I reconcile them?