Exchange 2007 transport rules

Transport rules are a new thing for Exchange, in it's latest incarnation (Exchange 2007), and it allows for some pretty interesting configuration and behaviour when a mail is in transit. If you're familiar with earlier versions of Exchange it's probably best to compare them to Event Sinks, only that they're much more friendly.

If you don't know what that means then a more apt description would be simple to create rules, that allow you to do anything from append text to the bottom of an email, to apply filters on messages between both internal and external users. If you use the GUI think of an Outlook rules style interface that generates rules which are actioned at the server.

This allows you to do all sorts of cool things. For example even if you don't have an Edge Transport server you can block incoming emails from certain recipients. You can prevent two internal users from mailing each other if a message contains certain strings. You can append a disclaimer to all outgoing emails.

If this has tickled your fancy there are 2 ways you can check it out;

  1. Via the GUI:
    1. Under the Organization Configuration node select Hub Transport.
    2. Go to the Transport Rules Tab.
    3. Right click and select New Transport Rule.
    4. Follow the wizard - it's as simple as creating a rule in Outlook!
  2. Via the Powershell:
    1. Open Powershell, ensuring you're using the Exchange context (Exchange Powershell).
    2. The command you're after is New-TransportRule. Check out the linked MSDN docs for a total overview of each argument and a few examples.

The cool thing about transport rules is that you can have a bit of fun with them, as things like bounce messages are completely configurable. So if you're wondering why you're receiving weird error messages, from an Exchange server, you might have a new potential answer.

#5.7.1 smtp;550 5.7.1: Computer says no...

Much ado about nothing

A lot has been said about the new iPhone, so I'd like to pick up on something that I'd not seen anyone make any significant note, or fuss, about.

It would appear that OSX Server gets ZFS support in Snow Leopard (10.6). Many, many moons ago I used OSX server briefly and wasn't that enthralled, but maybe I'll take another poke with this addition. If you're not aware of ZFS, it's basically the dogs bollocks in file systems, at present.

EVE: Where's the love?

It's no secret I'm a bit of a SciFi nut, thanks to my mother. For this reason I'd enjoyed playing EVE: Online, in the past. For reasons of health, and sanity, I've limited my play time over recent years. Over a month ago my 2 months worth of game time ran out and I didn't renew. Whilst EVE had been updated visually I felt that very little had really changed in the universe. Ok, so things like Can art were banned and scheduled for automated clean up (the poor EVE gate) and several new ship types for corp players, but very little for the privateer. Many gank points remained, Jove was inaccessible, the economy was rather high, and the lag points still existed (although I very much understand the technical challenges behind this, based on their infrastructure).

I had thought that maybe I was being unreasonable, but despite this I felt that something needed to change in the universe. To me it seemed stagnant. Maybe some sort of huge cataclysmic event to help shake things up.

It seems that CCP were aware that many people felt the same, so imagine my joy at coming across the feature site for the latest update; EVE: the Empyrean Age.

Before seeing this I wasn't planning on touching EVE for some time, but maybe I will again, once the Empyrean Age has been going for a few weeks. Funnily enough I do actually already have the accompanying novel on pre-order, although I wasn't aware that it was linked to a story line in-game as well.

Importance of a good pass phrase policy, and a lesson in humility

This early evening I made a mistake. It was a user mistake. I'm ashamed to admit it, but in my defence it's been a long day and I've been driving and doing stuff for my older relatives, so I'm feeling a bit beat.

Basically what I did was type in a passphrase, into what I thought was a particular application, but actually I had a different one selected. This selected application was adium, and the window selected was to one of my mates. This sort of mistake can happen to anyone; not just users, but admins as well. As much as I trust the mate in question, I can't take the risk, especially since it was over a public network.

This actively demonstrates the importance of having distinct passwords for each application and service, and just why each service should have a set of distinct rules for the complexity of a password. I follow this rule ridiculously - many of my passwords are randomly generated, whereas the one in question was not (and I'd been meaning to change it for quite some time - so this had done me a favour). Immediately it was changed and I was safe, although feeling very, very, very, very, very stupid.

So, whilst it maybe convenient to use the same account details, it's not a very wise idea at all. This will be one story I'll use in the future to explain why a good password policy is important to our customers and clients, at work. After all, users will love an idiot moment from one of their [mostly] infallable admins, and it's unlikely that they'll forget it (however, at the end of the day, we're all human).

However, this kind of leads me on to a little rant. Why on earth, in this day and age, do some services still email your password, if you use the "I've forgottten it" facility? This means one of two things;

  1. They store it in plain text
  2. They store it in reversable encryption (i.e. not a hash)

I would've thought that people would've learnt by now. Apparently not.

So here I am, publically admitting that I'm a dick, but proving the point and success behind a good passphrase policy (you don't have to be a company to have a policy). Now, if you'll excuse me but this paranoid, obsessive, control freak is going to obsess and tripe check each account! Again. And again. And again. Argh.

Removing permanent marker from a whiteboard

Some of you may know this one, but it's something I wasn't aware of. Works well.

  1. Get the board you want the stuff off.
  2. Get a dry erase marker (yes, we will make marks to take marks) and a dry eraser.
  3. Draw over what you want to erase (make sure you draw slowly to fill it in better).
  4. Erase.
  5. Done!

Thanks LifeHacker!