Is your network slightly out of sync time-wise? Do you have to manually keep correcting the time on your DCs? Maybe you should run these commands to fix this:
Firstly, find your PDC emulator by throwing up a command prompt and running the command: netdom /query fsmo
Now in a command prompt on the PDC emulator, run: w32tm /config /syncfromflags:manual /manualpeerlist:0.uk.pool.ntp.org,1.uk.pool.ntp.org /update /reliable:yes
Finally, we might as well force a sync: w32tm /resync in a command prompt will do this for you.
Now wait a few minutes and your whole network should update to the new (correct) time.
Time issues: resolved.
- James | July 2011
Update: remember to elevate the command prompt – otherwise this won’t work.
Outlook is a very good email client most of the time. Just occasionally though, it can be a bit frustrating. In the case of additional mailboxes, the frustration is all to do with where it stores sent items.
By default Outlook will put things you send in your sent items, even if you’re sending via an additional mailbox. This is fine some of the time, but other times it would be great if Outlook could put things I send in the correct sent items…
Continue reading →
Running a Windows 2003 SBS server is quite a bit different from any other 2003-based server set-ups. Most changes have a knock-on effect somewhere else, and if you break something important – you can bring down quite a few services in one swoop.
Assuming you’ve already patched Exchange to SP2, one of the next things to consider doing is to increase the soft-limit for the private Exchange store. This is set to 18GB by default (but will let you go up to about 19-20GB before dismounting), but can be increased to up to 75GB. I usually set it to around 50GB, as if it hits this limit you’ve got ample time to get people to archive a few emails.
Remember, if you hit this soft-limit – the mailbox store will automatically dismount and can’t be remounted until you make this change.
To set the limit, do the following:
Continue reading →
Did you accidently close Word without saving? Do you wish that you’d saved that file, or even pray that you could get it back?
Well luckily for you, Office 2010 keeps unsaved documents for a short while. To open/recover one of these documents, simply open the relevant program (Word or Excel are probably the most common) and head into the File menu. Click on the Recent side tab and choose the option to recover unsaved document (or workbook/presentation) at the bottom right. Then choose the unsaved item to recover.
Viola! It’s as easy as that.
Tune in next week for more IT blogging.
- James | January 2011
So I’m often asked what the best way to configure Outlook Anywhere is, NTLM or Basic authentication (in fact, you can configure both – but I don’t recommend that).
To be honest, I prefer NTLM authentication most of the time. NTLM doesn’t require users to enter a username/password to connect to Exchange (as they can pass-through with the OS credentials), and it never sends the password in clear text – which I also like (in fairness, as everything is handled over SSL this isn’t as bad as it sounds).
The one time I do use Basic is if my client wants to enter a password to use email, perhaps so that they feel more secure.
Whatever the reason, both are decent – but I’ll stick to NTLM for my deployments.
- James | January 2011
