Microsoft Exchange Best Practices Tool

by | Jul 14, 2006 | Blog, Computer Tips, Microsoft Windows

ExchangeIf you use Microsoft Exchange for your email you should take some time to run the Exchange Best Practices Tool. I ran it on our Exchange server and luckily didn’t find any major flaws in our configuration, but the tool did point out several things that we could be doing differently.

One thing that we didn’t have configured was the Exchange Intelligent Message Filter which we were not utilizing. I recently found out about this filter because of a Microsoft Exchange class I am taking. Any added tools to combat and reduce the amount of spam entering our organization is certainly welcome. This best practice tool told me I didn’t have it enabled and how to turn it on. Just since turning it on I’ve already seen a handful of emails it has blocked that were truly spam and hadn’t been stopped by our third party spam filter Open Relay Filter by Vamsoft (which does do a great job of stopping most spam.)

The tool also pointed out several services that were running on my exchange box that were un-necessary. I was a bit nervous when I went to run it thinking I’d find a bunch of big bad things we had with our Exchange. The tool is available for download for free and is a great tool in securing and maintaining the health of Exchange email systems.

Photography Podcasts

by | Jul 14, 2006 | Blog, Websites

PodcastsI’ve recently started listening to more Podcasts and have really come to enjoy a couple in particular. I mostly listen to those that are tech related and have found several photography related podcasts as well. iTunes tends to be on my list of irritating software but for subscribing to and getting podcasts onto my iPod it works well. (Brandon, no comments from you either!)

Nikonians.com has a podcast page where they have several different podcasts on a variety of topics. The Image Doctors, found on the Nikonians website is a great podcast that covers many different aspects of photography. In a couple of episodes I’ve listened to Jason and Rick have been reviewing different software packages for digital photography workflow and raw file conversion. They have great podcast voices and their interaction together works well.

Tips from the Top Floor is another great podcast by Chris Marquart.

…a short and sweet with non-techy tips that you can put to use immediately. Covers everything from image composition to post processing. No matter if you use a digital point-and-shoot or an expensive digital SLR. Tips for the beginner as well as the professional photographer.

Another interesting podcast comes from the American Photo section on Popular Photography’s website. Host Jay DeFoore interviews different photographers about their work.

If you are into tech related topics 2 podcasts I recommend are This Week In Tech and Engadget.  If you are familiar with This Week In Tech you might still go check out their site as it’s had a good overhaul done on it and it looks sharp.