Over the past week, I got a new server to host Microsoft Exchange which is a powerful email server from Microsoft.  Before you go all crazy on Microsoft (I know I typically do), Exchange is one of the few excellent products they make.  I am actually very hard pressed to find anything that compares to it that is open source and can easily run on Linux which 99% of  my hosting business up until now has ran off from.  Man, I never thought that I would say that

So the first logical question is, why move your email to exchange?  As you know, I’ve had 1and1 mailxchange now for quite some time.  I really wanted a solution that would sync my calendar, contacts, tasks, files, and email to every device I use on a daily basis.  Mailxchange was that solution but there are many problems. First the web client is very slow,  sure its flashy, but it takes 5 minutes to load on my connection (that is fairly fast).  I don’t have the time to wait on this client to load.  The next problem is it needs custom software to connect to Outlook and Mobile Devices, I’m not into installing “connectors” to software when it has functionality built in with other products.  Perhaps one of my biggest problems is the level of support I’ve gotten from 1and1.  My mail has gone down on a few occasions and I’ve been unable to easily send a support ticket in asking what is wrong.  I’m not even sure if 1and1 backs up my email and I have no method of backup, so I’m kind of stuck if they go down or don’t back up the server.  Its kind of scary actually since I save all of my email.

So about 2 weeks ago, I started talking to a few friends.  I know that I get a free msdn copy of Microsoft Exchange 2003 and Server 2003 from my University.  I figured if I could find a few friends who were interested in small mailboxes on exchange, I could cover the cost for the hardware to host my copies of this software.  I figured that I could host 4 people and handle a server that costs $25 a month from 3dgwebhosting which I’ve had in the past and they run excellent hosting on Windows server 2003.  They cover the license cost, so I’d only be covering exchange.  The downfall was I would only have 10GB to work with which isn’t a lot for email and backups.  Because of this, I looked for alternate hosting.  I decided that if I could find xen hosting, xen would support Windows.

About this time when I was looking, I knew that http://fsckvps.com who is a child company of vaserv in England hosted xen vps machines.  I went to that site to look up their support email and found out about the horrible hypervm owner hanging and they were down.  Anxious to get this hosting off the ground, I began looking at alternate places for hosting.  Shortly after, I found good reviews on other blogs of a new hosting company called Elite Data Hosting.  I contacted them about a 10mbps plan to host exchange on and they got an account for me on a xen vps using my server key.  I’m basically paying $15 a month for ~325MB of ram and 30GB of hard disk space.  The server is a high end server and I have had no complaints.  They even took the time to install Windows for me from my disk!

Elite Data Hosting is good news for me because I now can have my 2 guaranteed friends and myself have a guaranteed 5GB of space for files / mailboxes a piece.  It will also be very easy to automate backups of these mailboxes.  We all split the $5 a month cost for the server so I’m basically paying what I would be paying 1and1 but I control my backups and have a better piece of mind.

So now I started the daunting task of setting up the Exchange server. Normally with Microsoft products, it takes about 5 seconds and about 10 clicks of the next button to install software and another 3 minutes to say configure this software to do this.  By that point, everything normally works flawlessly (except for the occasional crashes of Microsoft Windows).  On linux, there is always a lot of configuration, but linux always works without the crashes and instability.  Perhaps this is the way to tell what is good and bad???

To get back to Exchange, I must say, this is the hardest piece of software I have ever had to install on both Linux and Windows.  Part of the reason is the way Exchange relies on existing Server 2003 infustructure to improve itself.  I’m not so sure if I’d rely on a Windows Server operating system, but I really have no choice with Exchange.  Exchange requires Active Directory among other server features to run correctly and the prerequisite list is a nightmare to get through in less than 5 hours if you ask me.  I started with a clean server a week from last Tuesday and didn’t get Exchange running until about Monday and I had 8 hours a day into it at the very least.  I will take part of the blame for not knowing what I was doing past Active Directory configuration, but Exchange was no day at the beach to figure out.  I also had a lot of errors that I spent hours reading about to find simple fixes.  Finally after all of the struggle, I got exchange fully working to the point where I wanted it about 2 days ago. During my struggle, I posted a lot about my solutions on Admin Reference which is my site where I post solutions to all of my problems.  I picture it as another *free* experts exchange but more tutorial based than question based.  Maybe some day it will do a little of both   That is my goal anyways!

One side note that I should add is, when I first loaded Outlook Web Access, I got a crappy looking interface.  I found out quickly that Exchange only supports Internet Explorer in its premium interface (the one that looks nice and loads quick).  Sadly, this is the only reason why I have opened Internet Explorer, and I have found that Firefox can open an IE tab, so I’ve began using that.  I will also likely find a solution when I migrate completely to Linux (my next upcoming project).

So now that Exchange works, what was so difficult? Most of my difficulty was from I never managed an exchange server in the past, and I couldn’t find any decent documentation on how to do it. That is why I posted a lot to Admin Reference unlike I normally would.  My biggest issue was the domain errors which were caused by firewalls and figuring out how to get Outlook Web Access and Outlook Mobile Access working with SSL encryption.  I also was not prepared to spend money on an SSL certificate (required by exchange) and provide antivirus / spam scanning to the server.  I was under the impression that spam/virus protection was built in, but it isn’t, and the freeware gfi version is no longer free.  I figured out how to migrate linux spamassassin to the server and that is adequate for spam protection

One last question that I should cover is why didn’t I go with Exchange 2007?  I will admit that Exchange 2007 is very nice software, but there are a few problems:

• My first issue would be, Exchange 2007 is really bloated.  If you compare the 2003 to 2007 installation disks, the 2003 install disk is about 300MB, the 2007 version is closer to 1.7GB.  That is a huge difference, one that I’m not willing to upgrade for.
• My next issue is due to the bloat, I would need a much powerful server.  I could upgrade to the 600MB RAM server plan with a 50GB hard disk or so for 30 dollars a month, but then I would have to start hosting more mailboxes than I’d want to to cover the costs, and I’m not really into that idea.  I might upgrade for 2003 if people are interested and it won’t take too many server resources or hurt my rigged spam fighting solution, but that is a decision that I’d rather not make now since it works perfectly as is!
• My final issue is, newer software normally sucks.  I always wait for at least Service Pack 1 (2 if possible) until I start using a product mainstream.  Exchange 2003 is at SP2 while Exchange 2007 is at SP1.  With other Microsoft software, I’ve found that when I compare a fresh install of Server 2003 to Server 2008: Microsoft Server 2003 with a GUI (Graphical User Interface or your windows desktop) uses 400MB on a new install, while the Microsoft Server 2008 Core Edition (no desktop, strictly command line to reduce bloat) uses 800MB on a new install with nothing configured.  This is a huge jump and I have a feeling that Exchange 2003-2007 will be very similar (the requirements for 2003 is 256MB of ram, 2007: 2GB of ram).  BIG DIFFERENCE, huh!

All in all, I figure I am paying about $200 bucks total for my new email solution, but my friends really do help cut the cost down to where I can happily afford it.  I still have 1 slot open but have a feeling that will be closed before long.  For a private email server, I consider it an excellent learning experience, and a good way to get some good content on Admin Reference! Hopefully you got some helpful tips out of this.

One final note:  I’d like to put a plug out there to any other system admins.  If you are like me, you are always running into new problems that don’t have easy solutions.  Why not take a few minutes when you find the answer and post it to Admin Reference?  Maybe someday you will look back on it (I know I have) and say thats how to fix it!  Someday when it gets a little more material, I plan on integrating the forum into a wiki that is easily searachable for solutions to problems.

Instead of talking about what this router is capable of, I’m simply going to link you to Jordan’s blog for all the details and his experience.  Jordan convinced me to pick up this wireless router for my verizon wireless connection.  I was hesistant at first due to the price, but after finding an excellent deal on ebay, I decided to pick one up with 2nd day air for 200 bucks on the nose.

I was not let down when it arrived.  Out of the box, I connected my phone and computer and it immediately picked up my vx8000 model phone’s data connection and connected my network to it.

As for the failover capabilities of this router, I tested this with a super high speed connection that the University at Buffalo provides (100mbps, true LAN connection with 100Mbps speed tests).  I disconnected my phone and immediately my router started using the UB wired connection and although I changed ips, my aol instant messenger and other messengers switched immediately to the wired ub connection with no real issues.  My browsing and sessions were NOT altered in any way (I had my email open and it continued to work over the failover).

I am aware of the dynamic dns capabilities of this router, and hope to test them more fully when I get home, however I’m sure that they will work flawlessly.  I wish that dnsexit was supported, however I will likely try dyndns and like thier service.

Overall, I’d highly recommend this router to anyone who has a wireless phone with a data connection, it is just simply impressive!

I have a XV6700 Mobile Phone with a Modified ROM image of Windows Mobile 6.1 along with a Verizon plan consisting of little talk time and primarily data.  I use my phone mainly for email, next to remotely controlling lights in various locations I reside (including but not limited to my college dorm room).  I rarely use it to talk / text, and that is the primary reason why you get a faster email response from me than you would ever get by calling me.  I feel weird holding a Windows computer to my face and talking to it, so I generally ignore phone calls

Anyways, The number one useful application on my phone is called Meeting Mute.  It is shareware, meaning you have to pay 8 dollars for it.  You can get it from: http://www.pocketconcepts.com/MeetingMute.html This was written for pocket pc 2003 and I had to adknowledge that there is a bug in this program when ran on Windows Mobile 5 and 6, which is the category mute functions don’t work because Microsoft changed the database backend for categories.  I really like this application because it monitors my live calendar, then mutes my phone if I’m supposedly in an appointment.  Being a college student, this application mutes my phone while I’m in class, and I never have to fear being embarrased by having my phone ring during class.  I’ve never had that happen (mostly because I don’t give my number out freely), however just incase, its useful to have!

The next application I couldn’t live without is called 1&1 Sync, which is an addon to 1and1.com’s MailXChange email service.  This is a Microsoft Exchange – like mail software that is open source.  This syncs my smartphone’s contacts, files, calendar, email, tasks, and texts (if I want) to my online email inbox, and it auto syncs every 5 minutes to keep my email up to date on my phone.  With this, I have eliminated the need for internet browser based email like gmail, atmail mobile, hotmail mobile, etc.  It has also eliminated the need for me to sync my phone to my comptuer manually since it automatically happens with the pc’s software to do the same sync with outlook 2007/2003.  One small missing feature is a bookmark sync, which I am still looking at implementing sometime in the near future!  I seriously recommend this service from 1and1 because it works so flawlessly, and this software for my phone is great!

The next application that i use is free!  Its pocket putty.  Pocket putty is a mobile based ssh client from http://www.pocketputty.net/.  This software helps me do server administration from my phone when my laptop is not convient to pull out and use.  I can easily login to my servers and look at top and kill processes / restart services from my phone quickly and easily.  Since it supports ssh keys, I have keys auto configured so I don’t end up struggling to type in complex passwords that I can never remember.  I would recommend pocket putty to anyone who is a linux system admin (or windows admin with an ssh server running with powershell).

Next up is mundu’s IM client.  I use trillian on my pc, however on my phone, there is nothing else that is closer to trillian other than Mundu.  You can get Mundu for 20 bucks from http://mundu.com/ I use it for IM while I’m in the car and don’t feel like getting on a laptop, and don’t need to be on long.  For example, I often use mundu for sending messages to other admins with quick messages that I may not remember for later.

Next up is a great program called tcpmp.  It is a free media player.  My main use of it is for shoutcast streams.  I often play the 977 shoutcast streams from shoutcast’s main website.  This is a great player with a lot of options, including a built in equalizer for when you have good quality headphones and want a better sound from them.

Blackme is the next logical program.  This free program will disable your entire phone except for the power button (sort of like a lock).  With this program, you can easily start a media stream then black your phone and save battery power while continuing to listen to music.  Its great for long term listening to music while walking, running, jogging, etc.  Please note that I do not run or jog, I simply walk   Yes, I’m a bit lazy lol.

MyMobiler is another great free application.  With this application, you can use your pocket pc or smartphone directly from your desktop.  It will show you your pocket pc’s screen on your desktop computer and with that, you can easily install applications / use your phone without touching it.  I use it often to project it onto a screen to show other people features on my phone.  I also use it to take screenshots of my phone for friends asking what I have on my phone.

I do use skype mobile on my phone.  It is a free program that enables skype on your phone.  The nice part about skype mobile is that I can use my unlimited skype account to make world wide calls for free with my data connection instead of paying for minutes which cost a lot more.  This program has ok sound quality, however it is a great addon for a phone if it can handle it.

Pocket opera is great for those who don’t like pocket IE that comes with the mobile phone.  It gives IPhone like functionality of a browser with a little speed sacrifice.  It is a great program for when I want to view a full website very small then double tap the screen to zoom into the site.  As I said, it is a bit slow, and it does cost to get this great browser!

Finally, the last program that I’m going to mention is a free IRC client for your phone called ZSIRC.  Although I’ve only used this program once (an administration emergency on an IRC server that I manage was my reason), I like it.  If I took the time to use my bluetooth full size foldup keyboard, I would be able to easily use this application anywhere to replace trillian as my IRC client.  This free program connects you to an irc server and lets you communicate with others in the room you join.

Thats all the applications that I use on my phone aside from Pocket Internet Explorer and Pocket Windows Media Player which come with the phone.  Comments on other programs might be useful to others

Thanks for reading as always