Archives February 2006

Free second chance to pass Microsoft Exams! (Officially Expired)

Have you ever taken a Microsoft Exam, and failed and feh, now you need to spend more money to take it! Now with this. You can take it, and if you fail you get a free second chance to take it! If you go to the site listed at the bottom, it’ll register you for this or that and give you a coupon code to use when you register at Prometric or Vue. Now you can register to get the information… or not, and just use the Codes. This expires by June 30th, so if I had to take any random tests (Which I do) I’ll be doing it in this time frame!

Those Coupon codes are:

MCP Exams: 24FREE
Microsoft Dynamic Exams: MBS2S

http://www.prometric.com
http://www.vue.com
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/offers/2ndchance/
~ Christopher Kusek

PS. If you’re going to be taking any Microsoft Exams (Or cisco, or whatever) Let me know, and perhaps I can help. I take and study for exams all the time, and find them considerably easy so I can break through the barriers of prevention. Let me know, and I just may be able to point you in the right direction to help guarantee your success!

IMPORTANT: These codes can be used if/when you fail an exam, you must CALL Prometric and give them the “24FREE” Code, and they will schedule your re-take free of charge. The number for Prometric is 800.755.EXAM (3926)

On of the Greatest Misconceptions of Exchange Licensing in regards to Outlook.

I talk to a lot of people at times during Exchange migrations, previous versions to more current versions. And one of the greatest misconceptions there has been, people thinking that the Outlook Client is dependant on their Office CAL’s.

Well, it does not.

So, here I am to set things straight once and for all (Or until licensing changes)
The Exchange Server 2003 user CAL is required for each user gaining access to the server and entitles access rights to both editions of Exchange Server. Each Exchange Server 2003 CAL also includes Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 or Microsoft Entourage 2004 for Mac and permits access from Microsoft Office Outlook Web Access, Outlook Mobile Access, Exchange ActiveSync, or any standard Internet-messaging client.

Pricing and Licensing for Enterprise Organizations (For Exchange)
http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/howtobuy/enterprise.mspx

~ Christopher Kusek

Why am I unable to deliver mail consistently to AOL/Hotmail/Yahoo/etc (and other SMTP, PTR, EDNS woes)

This inability is due to some email domains adoption of the RDNS (Reverse DNS) checking. The belief is, if you have a valid reverse DNs (Read: Valid = Any reverse DNS entry usually), then you are a “Valid Domain” to handle email from. Until the actual adoption of validated authentication which may come in the future, for the time being you can work around this inability to mail by having a valid PTR!

How this works is, the machine which will actually connect to the Internet and send email needs to have a valid PTR assigned to its IP address.
Below are steps detailed how to check that.

First, let’s discover the MX record for your domain, and the PTR record for your sending email server.

(Using Nslookup, we’ll check the details for hotmail.com)

We’re launching nslookup and looking at the details of the domain hotmail.com
C:\> nslookup
Default Server: vnsc-bak.sys.gtei.net
Address: 4.2.2.2

>set type=mxSetting the type to MX will show us the Mail Exchanger records for the domain
>hotmail.comEnter a domain here, and it will display our Mail Exchangers
Server: vnsc-bak.sys.gtei.net
Address: 4.2.2.2
Non-authoritative answer:
hotmail.com MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = mx4.hotmail.com
hotmail.com MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = mx1.hotmail.com
hotmail.com MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = mx2.hotmail.com
hotmail.com MX preference = 5, mail exchanger = mx3.hotmail.com
>

Now that we know the MX entries for inbound, we’ll check if they have a valid PTR

> set type=aThis will allow us to see the IP address assigned to the MX entries
> mx1.hotmail.com

Server: vnsc-bak.sys.gtei.net
Address: 4.2.2.2

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: mx1.hotmail.com
Addresses: 64.4.50.50, 65.54.244.8, 65.54.244.136, 65.54.245.8

> set type=ptrNow we’ll check if they have a valid PTR
> 64.4.50.50The IP Address of the Mail Exchanger is specified here

Server: vnsc-bak.sys.gtei.net
Address: 4.2.2.2

Non-authoritative answer:
50.50.4.64.in-addr.arpa name = mail.hotmail.com
50.50.4.64.in-addr.arpa name = mc1-reserved.bay6.hotmail.com

So, according to this, they have a valid record
If you received something similar to
*** vnsc-bak.sys.gtei.net can’t find 1.1.1.1.in-addr.arpa.: Non-existent domain
Then you do not have a valid PTR setup

If you’ve followed these steps and checked the PTR for the inbound mail receiver, now you should check the outbound.
Sometimes Inbound does not match the Outbound, so visit the following site from your mail server and you can check your IP address.

From your outbound mail server (The Mail server itself or an SMTP scanning/relayer) visit the following website:
www.pkguild.com/ip (There is also a link off the main site here – “Click here for your IP Address”)

And your results should look like this:

C:\>nslookup
Default Server: vnsc-bak.sys.gtei.net
Address: 4.2.2.2

> set type=mx
> pkguild.com
Server: vnsc-bak.sys.gtei.net
Address: 4.2.2.2

Non-authoritative answer:
pkguild.com MX preference = 0, mail exchanger = pkguild.com

pkguild.com internet address = 70.103.189.81
> set type=ptr
> 70.103.189.81
Server: vnsc-bak.sys.gtei.net
Address: 4.2.2.2

Non-authoritative answer:
81.189.103.70.in-addr.arpa name = box81.bluehost.com
>

At this point, with a valid PTR – You can check to see if you can send mail by hand to these domains.

C:\> telnet mx1.hotmail.com

220 bay0-mc5-f9.bay0.hotmail.com. Mon, 6 Feb 2006 09:35:02 -0800
helo peters.com
Enter helo domain.com where domain.com is the site you claim to be from
250 bay0-mc5-f9.bay0.hotmail.com (3.1.0.18) Hello [216.130.119.48]
mail from: <Christopher.Kusek@Pkguild.com>
Enter mail from: <user@domain.com> this will dictate who it comes from.
250 Christopher.Kusek@Pkguild.com.Sender OK
rcpt to: <christopher.kusek@hotmail.com>
Enter rcpt to: <user@hotmail.com> this will be the recipient of the message.
250 christopher.kusek@hotmail.com
data
Enter data – this allows you to start putting input of content in the message.
Test test mc test
Enter some kind of data.
.
Put a . and it commits the email and sends it.
354 Start mail input; end with .
250 <BAY0-MC5-F9gDznmG3d00498dc8@bay0-mc5-f9.bay0.hotmail.com> Queued mail for delivery
A simplified test of it which can be pasted into a telnet window are like this.
(After you have initiated your telnet)
helo domain.com
mail from:
user@domain.com
rcpt to: user@domainIamConnectedto.com
data
test
.

Often times, you may also encounter an issue where Exchange is unable to deliver mail to some domains or reports errors on your server. This can happen when you have EDNS enabled on Windows 2003 DNS servers (Enabled by default)
To disable EDNS, you must first install the dnscmd.exe command-line tool from the Windows 2003 CD-ROM’s Support Tools. (\Support\i386\Suptools.msi)
From a command prompt type

dnscmd /config /enableednsprobes 0

This will then disable EDNS (You may need to restart the DNS Services on the 2003 DNS Server for it to take effect)


An external DNS query may cause an error message in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828731/en-us

DNS query responses do not travel through a firewall in Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828263/en-us

Some DNS Name Queries Are Unsuccessful After You Upgrade Your DNS Server to Windows Server 2003
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/832223/en-us

Exchange 5.5 Migrations and ADC Generated user accounts linking to the wrong user

Have you ever run into the following: You’ve loaded up the ADC in order to sync your AD accounts with your Exchange 5.5 Accounts. You’ve done all the footwork ahead of time to ensure that you have no user accounts which own more than one mailbox; and if you do, they’ve had NtdsNoMatch put into Custom Attribute 10.

You run the ADC tool which does checking for you as well to ensure that everything is on the up and up and all is cool. No duplicates found, you’re ready to sync.

It sync’s up all of your user accounts, and generates the regular disabled user accounts for the users with NtdsNoMatch set, but wait, it’s generated a few extra accounts as well. Apparently it does not take into account, mailboxes which have accounts which reside in trusted domains.

Now what are you going to do? Your user who has a valid AD account in your domain is not matched up with 5.5 Mailbox – This will cause quite a damper in your ability to migrate that users mailbox. What can you do in this circumstance?

To handle this is actually rather simple once you know the procedure.

First, go into the ADC – Disable “Deletion” and turn the schedule from “Always” to “Never”.

Secondly, delete the newly created Exchange account (The UserID should have a name like ADC-RandomCharactersAndNumbers)

Thirdly, go into the account in Exchange 5.5 and ensure it is setup to point to your AD account, ie: if it was FOREIGNDOMAIN\USERNAME make sure it is now ADDOMAIN\USERNAME. After this is done, open up the Exchange 5.5 admin in Raw mode (admin.exe /r) Open up the mailbox in question in raw properties mode – File – Raw Properties, go to ADC-Global-Names and delete the attributes contained for ADC-Global-Names.

And lastly, go back into the ADC and change the schedule from “Never” back to “Always”.

Shortly after replication occurs, the account will display itself correctly in AD with having the Exchange tabs as the account is now linked into it.

The below MS Articles addresses details on this procedure.

How to correct mismatched accounts after Active Directory Connector replication in Exchange 2000 Server
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/256862/EN-US/

XADM: How to Remove the ADC Global Names Attribute from Exchange 5.5 Server Recipients
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319474/en-us

XADM: ADC Creates Duplicate Accounts in Exchange Server 5.5 and Active Directory
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/288578/en-us

XADM: Duplicate Object Created When Replicating Objects from Exchange Server 5.5 to Windows 2000 Active Directory
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/274480/EN-US/
~ Christopher Kusek

Losing Weight, Keeping it off, and having it work.

Recently a series ran on SkyOne entitled “Paul McKenna will make you thin”. For those of you who do not know Paul McKenna, he’s a world (or atleast UK Renowned Hypnotist). This 4 episode series was what could be characterized as the largest social experiment in weight loss to date. Though unlike the Atkins diet or similar crazy fads, it is not about loss, it is about gain. It is about doing what you want, eating whatever you’d like, and still losing weight.

It started with a breakdown of “4 Golden Rules” which if followed will lead to weight loss.

#1 – Eat when you’re hungry.

Don’t starve yourself. If you’re hungry? Eat. When you don’t eat, your body goes into starvation mode which tells it to slow down your metabolism (slowing calorie burning) and it also begins to store your fat. These are all typical signs of things which occur during a famine. Thus starving yourself when you’re hungry is a sure way to gain weight, and not lose it; but more importantly, gain fat which you want to lose.

#2 – Eat what you want. (Not what you think you should eat).

All those fad diets out there have one restriction or another, “Oh, you can eat a steak but you can’t touch a roll”, “Don’t eat any sugar, it’ll be the death of you”. What makes this terrible is the most certain way to get someone to do something is to tell them not to, or that they cannot. Eating what you want doesn’t give you any guilt, only freedom. You want to eat a cake? go for it. Eat whatever you like, whenever you’re hungry.

#3 – Eat Consciously – Enjoy each mouthful.

This will be the hardest thing you’ll ever have done. Take the foods you’re interested in, the foods you want to eat, the ones you love and eat them; Just slowly. Not so slowly in that you feel like you’re being bound in any way, but as you take a forkful of food and stick it in your mouth: Put your fork down. With your fork down, really taste your food, this is not a contest. You eat food to nourish your body and enjoy yourself, so take that time to truly enjoy yourself. While you take the time to actually enjoy your food you may find that you enjoy actually tastes better, and some other foods may equally not taste so much better.

#4 – Stop when you think you are full.

If you’ve followed step three, during that time you’ve really been able to listen to your body and how you feel. In the past I imagine you’d get to a meal and start chowing it down as fast as you can as if it were your last meal or you had never seen food before, and before you know it you’re stuffed, overstuffed. If you begin to eat consciously you may become aware that you are full before you know it, and when you reach that point : STOP! Your body is well aware of how it operates, it maintains your everday body functions including the digestion of the foods you enjoy, take the time to listen to what it is telling you because it’s well aware of what is going on.

Now that you’ve found a way to eat, which if you adapt will in itself help things out and work, you should start losing weight immediately, right? Well, almost.

Next on the agenda is a way to handle cravings. Sure eat what you want, but what if all you want is chocolate? pies, cakes, chocolate bars. While that’s something you know you consciously want, you’d be ignoring what sort of things your body wants, and eating chocolate 100% of the time may not be the best. But you love chocolate, or coffee, or greasy fried foods which you know are bringing about ultimately bad results for you – What can you possibly do?!

Paul introduced a technique developed by Dr. Roger Callahan called TFT – Thought Field Therapy.

This technique involves the tapping of pressure points on your body while you concentrate on the food which you happen to crave. The procedure can be performed as follows: (Perform the following a few times over several minutes)

#1 – (Close your eyes) and Focus on your food (or any craving in general) that you happen to have.

#2 – Take two fingers (index/middle) of either hand, tap above either eye about 10 times.

#3 – Now tap under your eye

#4 – Now tap under the collarbone

#5 – Be sure to keep thinking about the craving, and now tap under your armpit.

#6 – With your other hand in front of you, tap the back of it between the knuckles of your ring and little finger.

#7 – Open your eyes, and then close them. Keep tapping, open your eyes, look down to the right and then to the left. Keep tapping, roll your eyes 360 degrees clockwise and then 360 degrees counterclockwise. Keep thinking about the food, and keep tapping.

Now open your eyes and think about your craving. Is it just as strong as it was before? If you followed the steps properly your craving should have decreased. I personally did this for a craving I had for pickles. The level of ‘craving’ I had for pickles was the mere thought of pickles would cause my tongue to salivate. (Quite a conditioned response). Now when I think about pickles, it’s just “eh”. So I can guarantee it does work successfully, as can I imagine the hundreds of thousands of others whom have done it as well.

That is all for now. For more details on the techniques mentioned and detailed methods for them. Visit the following links. If you follow the steps inscribed, I guarantee you’ll feel better and become thinner.

http://www.skyone.co.uk/mckenna/
The four golden rules to losing weight
http://www.skyone.co.uk/mckenna/goldenrules/default.htm

Tapping explained.
http://www.skyone.co.uk/mckenna/tapping/

~ Christopher Kusek