Sole's Blog

Archive for the ‘Tips & Tricks’ Category

The easiest way (I love easy!) to order and install an SSL certificate on Exchange 2007, is to order a SAN (Subject Alternative Name) certificate with AutoCSR meaning you dont have to create a CSR but instead get a certificate backup file (PKCS#12, P12. PFX). You also save time with the SAN because you only use one certificate for all services and can move services from one domain to another in the certificate with no problems.

Make sure you get a SAN certificate including the full domain name(s) you use to access Outlook Web Access, Outlook Anywhere, Autodiscover and any internal servernames using the certificate (usually free).

The Certificate you order should contain something like this:

• mail.sole.dk and/or owa.sole.dk – for Outlook Web Access
• autodiscover.sole.dk and any other e-mail domain you use with Autodiscover/OA.
• MYSERVER01 and MyServer01.domain.local - and any other internal servername that will be using the certificate

Personally I setup servers to respond only to OWA and ActiveSync on the mail./owa. domain, and use all other services like Outlook Anywhere, etc. on the autodiscover. address, this way I can use Forms Based Authentication/Basic with my OWA/ActiveSync website, and NTLM with my other services. You can see more information about this from my previous blogs here. Some people argue for and against having internal server names in the certificate, but I figure if they are free anyways, and might help why not add them – and if security is so much an issue that internal server names must not be revealed, you have other much bigger problems anyway.

Now some simple commands to manipulate Exchange 2007 SSL certificates. (Stolen from the danish Exchange 2007 guide on FairSSL, I co-authored the manual) Read the rest of this entry »

 When using Microsoft Remote Assistance to help users in a company (why not it’s free), it can be helpfull to have a shortcut to Offer Remote Assistance somewhere handy. But for some reason the only way to find Remote Assistance is by going thru Help in Windows XP. You can however make a small shortcut your self, simply by creating a shortcut and pasting the following link in it. In Vista you can even install a gadget with the Offer Remote Assistance form in it.

Remote Assistance might not be the easiest thing to get working, but once it works it is a nice support tool to have and the best part of it is its free, it comes preinstalled in your clients, so why not use it? Even if you have something else running it is still a free tool to use just in case. Read the rest of this entry »