IIS Hacks | Server Resources

Where’s POP3?

A few people have asked where to find the POP3 service in Windows 2008 for a simple mail server. The answer: nowhere.

While SMTP is alive and well in the Features section of the Windows 2008 Server Manager, POP3 has been removed from Windows 2008 altogether.

POP3 isn’t a very “good” method to retrieving mail and I know very few organizations that still utilize it. IMAP and Exchange connectors are far more feature-rich and useful especially in today’s multiple-device world. I do run a POP3 mail server for World’s Cutest Animals because it is quick, has minimal resource usage and is perfect for a mail server that only has a few mailboxes.

Before we all scream foul and ask Microsoft to add POP3 back into Windows 2008 SPx, I suggest you check out Hannes Preishuber’s POP3 connector for Windows 2008 x86 and x64.

http://weblogs.asp.net/hpreishuber/archive/2008/04/30/visendo-smtp-pop3-extender-for-windows-2008-server.aspx

Posted By Chris in Internet Information Server, Windows
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Ridata announced three new SSDs today (Ultra-S Plus Series) in 32GB, 64GB and 128GB models.

The new drives utilize the multi-level cell technology - resulting in lower cost, but also slower speed. The drives will have a nominal read speed of 128MB/s and a write speed of 80MB/s. The drives will retail for $170, $295 and $538 US respectively.

Although choosing these drives for speed is ultimately a poor decision due to the availability of inexpensive SATA/SAS RAID configurations, there is simply no denying the amazing access times - 0! ms. These SSDs are fantastic for IO performance. They are well suited for database servers that are small in size but handle above average volumes of requests.

http://www.ritekusa.com/pressrelease.asp?pressreleases_id=54

Posted By Chris in General, Hardware
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With the release of Windows Server 2008 and IIS 7, Microsoft has included PHP5 FASTCGI support. ISAPI is still faster in my opinion, and if used correctly, very stable. PHP uses a 32-bit DLL so it will not work with an x64 system. There are several ports of PHP to x64, but all have proved to be unstable. Below I will outline the steps to install PHP 32-bit on Windows 2008 x64 (and have it stable).

1. Install the PHP4 or PHP5 package (32-bit) in C:\PHP or wherever you like. Only use the Windows installer from php.net if you do not need any extensions. I would recommend downloading the PHP zip package. 
2. Open the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. 
3. Double-click “Handler Mappings” from the main IIS screen.
4. Click on “Add Script Map.”
5. Set up the handler mapping for c:\PHP\php5isapi.dll with extension *.php and check to allow the ISAPI extension and execution of scripts.
6. Double-click “ISAPI & CGI Restrictions” on the main IIS screen. Right-click on PHP and select “Edit Feature Settings” and check “Allow unspecified ISAPI modules.”  
7. Right-click on the Default Application Pool (or the one you want to use if more than one) and select “Advanced Settings.” 
8. Change the “Enable 32-bit Applications” to True. Click OK. This spawns the App Pool in 32-bit mode, so if you have other modules that need to be run in 64-bit mode, best to separate the website into two App Pools: one 32-bit and one 64-bit.
9. Restart the server.

Posted By Chris in General, Internet Information Server, PHP, Windows
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I’ll be honest…and I’m sure no one will believe me, but I have not snooped on anyone in my organization on purpose, but I have come across privileged information by accident. I do believe the 33% that said they snooped did not look at anything overly sensitive. I would hope 1/3 of IT staff are not that dishonest.

What would you do if one of your superiors asked to keep logs / screenshots of everything you did, so as to be sure you didn’t abuse your power?

How many IT admins have access to their superior’s confidential files and emails?

How many IT admins would hold their company ransom for a raise? threaten to quit? How many have hindered their company’s network when they quit or were fired?

Posted By Chris in General, Rants
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So you’ve forgotten your administrator password (or someone else’s!) and have physical access to the machine. The good news is you can recover the password or reset it a number of different ways. These crackers will decrypt the LM Hash (the method used to store passwords in Windows fewer than 15 characters) and the NT hash (stores case sensitivity and longer passwords).

Below are some common tools that work very well. I’ve ranked them in order of usefulness from my own perspective.

1. Ophcrack (http://ophcrack.sourceforge.net/)
   This tool can be downloaded to the hard drive in Windows or used as a Live CD to crack the LM and NT hashes on a Windows 2000/XP/Vista machine.
2. L0phtcrack / LC5 (http://sectools.org/tools2.html)
   This tool is fast and easy to use. You need administrator privileges to install and run it. Very useful if you have multiple users and have simply forgot the password to one of them.
3. John the Ripper (http://www.openwall.com/john)
   John the Ripper is available for UNIX (11), DOS, Win32, BeOS, and OpenVMS. Windows NT/2000/XP LM hashes and UNIX passwords are supported.
4. Offline NT Password & Registry Editor (http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/)
   This program resets the password of any user that has a local account. It works on Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista passwords by modifying the SAM file – not cracking the password hashes. You do not need to know any of the passwords on the system, but it will reset them (blank out). Comes in a bootable disk or CD.
5. Windows Password Recovery Service (http://www.loginrecovery.com/)
   This is an online service that decrypts the password hashes for you. You can download the disk image and boot the system which creates a dump-file of the hashes. You then upload the file to the website. The paid service is instant (10 minutes) and the free service takes 2-3 days.

Posted By Chris in Windows
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This will allow the Out of Office Assistant (OOF) to work when it is enabled from within the Options section of Outlook Web Access for Exchange 2003. The following is disabled by default.

1. Start the Exchange System Manager.
2. Click on Global Settings, and then “Internet Message Formats.”
3. In the right-hand pane, right-click and select Properties for “Internet message formats.”
4. Click on the Advanced tab, select “Allow out of Office Responses.” Below is a list of all the options available:

Allow out of office responses
Allow automatic replies
Allow automatic forward
Allow delivery reports
Allow non-delivery reports
Preserve sender’s display name on message

Posted By Chris in Exchange Server, Windows
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Here are the Dell MD1000 Direct Attached Storage Benchmarks I had promised earlier. The performance is not bad. I’m trying to squeeze some more MB/s out of the read performance. I’ve also included performance / disk. Looks as though 4x and 8x disks in RAID10 have the best performance per disk. All the disks are 73 GB Seagate 15K SAS.

Posted By Chris in Exchange Server, General, Hardware
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I’ve found there is neither rhyme nor reason for Outlook having difficulty connecting to Exchange over RPC. Many times the same configuration will result in errors or unpredictable behavior. It is frustrating to say the least. There is a decent work-around that alleviates most connection problems, especially the dreaded first attempted connection error. Below are the various errors that you may receive, and the fix.

1. Open the registry editor (at the run box type: regedit).
2. Locate or create the following key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\RPC
3. On the Edit menu, click New and DWORD value.
4. Type DefConnectOpts and press ENTER.
5. Right-click on DefConnectOpts and set the value to 0 if it isn’t already.
6. Exit the registry editor and Outlook should connect to the Exchange folders now.

Posted By Chris in Exchange Server, Windows
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