I ran into an interesting problem this weekend.  I noticed that a lot of email was being returned as non-deliverable from my Exchange 2010 server.  Many domains, specifically AOL and some of the major ISPs require that the domains they communicate have mail servers with reverse zone lookups, meaning that their name “mail.domain.com” for example, resolves to a specific IP.  Well, my MX record does reverse resolve to the correct IP, however that IP wasn’t the IP address that my server was communicating from. read more...

I noticed tonight that my domain controller’s clock had creeped ahead by about 15 minutes.  Inconsistent time, especially time that differs between servers, clients, and a domain controller can throw applications like Exchange, who depend upon Active Directory for information, for a loop. 

In Windows 2008 R2 (and Windows 7), the /setsntp and /querysntp switches of NET TIME are deprecated.  W32TM.exe provides similar functionality that NET TIME provided when it came to configuring domain controllers as a primary time source. read more...

This week I was in Las Vegas for the Exchange Connections Conference.  Traveling usually isn’t too much of a hindrance anymore of the availability of a wireless Internet connection just about everywhere you go.  The only downfall is that most public places, particularly hotels, tend to provide Internet access but block non-HTTP traffic in a lot of cases.  For VPN users, this can be a problem and prevent you from accessing the resources that would normal require you to be connected directly to your corporate network. read more...