Re: Critical e-mail problem.

Charlie or Eriq's books are good primers. I have both on my shelf. I
always learn something when I open either.

On Fri, 6 Apr 2007 20:36:01 -0700, jstover
<jstover@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Thanks for your valuable and cogent insights. As I'm sure you recognized,
I'm not formally trained in this discipline, and have pretty much picked it
up on my own, which always results in a lot of need-to-know information bits,
with large gaps in-between.

My switch to Win2K Server (from Win2K Pro) was a fluke, because a: It was
the only MS OS that would support RAID 1 when, after a HDD crash, I decided
that the business system needed fault tolerance, and b: business was so good
during the dot-com boom that I was thinking of taking on clerical employees
who could work from home. I picked up Win2K Server then for $999 with 5
CAL's and an MCSE Training Kit. From that point on, I was relegated to the
greater complexity (and longer learning curve) of the server world, and at
$299, the SBS2003 upgrade seemed like a bargain, but no training materials
were included.
"Lanwench [MVP - Exchange]" wrote:

jstover <jstover@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I run a SOHO international sales business, and rely almost solely on
e-mail for maintaining contact with my clients and customers. On
April 4, I upgraded from Win2K Server to WinSBS2003 on my desktop
workstation.

I know this may just be you, but note that a) workstation hardware isn't a
good idea for a server and b) you can no longer use your workstation
computer as a workstation. Leave it be to do its job as a server.

That seems fair enough.

I periodically connect 2 laptops and another desktop to
the internal network, but I never operated Win2K Server as a domain.
Since I am the only user of all of the computers, I have always
operated the network as a workgroup.

During the upgrade, I set up SBS as a domain, instead of leaving the
workstation as a stand-alone workgroup member;

That's your only option. SBS has to be a DC. Did you follow all the setup
wizards, and the To Do list?

I followed the setup wizards, and the To Do items that were applicable and
critical, planning to get back to the rest after the system was running again.

and then I set up one
of my POP3 e-mail accounts as an Exchange Server account.

Not sure what that means - ?

It's Newbie garble for how I set up my e-mail in E-mail and Internet
Connection Wizard. I now think I see where I made mistakes in my forwarding
and retrieval method selections. I could have also benefitted from more time
in the More Information pop-up windows.

After
updating the other computers from the SBS

How? Joining the domain using http://servername/connectcomputer ? (that's
the way to do it, after creating the computer accounts on the server

Yes, I got that right.

, I realized what a pain it
was going to be to keep up the domain maintenance,

Nah.

That sounds like the answer of an organized person.

but more
importantly, I found that I was only receiving mail from the Exchange
account on the other desktop, and only when I logged on to the domain
during startup, but not when I selected "Log on to This Computer."

After joining the domain using the wizard, which migrates the local user
profiles to the domain user profile, you should no longer use the local
login accounts. Disable them once you've tested everything.

Eureka! Thanks for that tip.

When I send mail on that account from Outlook-Exchange, it disappears
when I click on the Send button. It shows up in the Sent Items
folder, but there is no Outbox folder.

Are you using Outlook 2003, and using the Folder List view in the navigation
pane? Try that.

Yes, I am, but I have discovered the reason for the missing Outbox. I found
that I had inadvertently set up Send/Receive for Exchange mail to "Send
immediately when connected."

Test messages sent to the
problem address are flagged by my Internet domain host as "sent to an
address that does not exist."

By default, your Outlook profile will have Exchange as its default (and this
is a good thing - you ought to get rid of the POP accounts in Outlook
entirely)....and you'd set up Exchange to handle mail via the CEICW (even if
it's just your outbound mail). Did you run the CEICW?

Yes, but in an effort to be cautious with the new process, I only entered
one of my POP3 accounts, which I see now created a situation where I would
have to switch back and forth between Exchange and Outlook to retrieve all of
my e-mail. Death by timidity...

That terminal is running Win2KPro OS
and Outlook 2003 (upgraded from Outlook 2002 by SBS).

Since I retained the problem POP3 address in Outlook on all terminals
except one laptop, I am receiving some of the messages sent to it
during POP3 Outlook transactions, but not all. I don't find the
option of logging on to the domain during startup on the workstation
(server)

You must not log in as yourself on the server. It's a server now, not a
workstation.

OK, (must--have--courage).

or the laptop (running XP Pro and its previously-installed
Outlook 2003),

When you press CTRL+Alt+Del after joining the domain, you can press the
little button on the right (forget what it says right now) so the Log On To
field is displayed. But as mentioned, you ought to be logging into the
domain.

I indeed had great fun switching between those Log On To selections and
rebooting the other desktop system to retrieve e-mail from all my accounts.
The selection wasn't obvious on the server or laptop, but in my panic, I may
not have noticed whether or not the log on box was expanded.

so it's impossible to convert all addresses to
Exchange,

Not sure what you mean - if you'd joined the domain with the wizard, it
would have converted your mail profile along with your Windows profile - but
even now, you can certainly extract your contacts from there and put them in
your mailbox contacts folder.

Sorry, that was Newbie-speak again. I meant "...convert all mail
accounts...," but I now see the conceptual flaw in this statement. Mail
account migration to Exchange appears to be an all-or-nothing proposition, if
it is to result in a usable solution.

and I'm more comfortable with POP3 for now.

You probably ought to do some reading up on this - Exchange is a much better
option for most people. Even if you choose to keep your POP accounts, you
ought to get them out of Outlook entirely. SBS comes with a POP connector
which will help you transition to SMTP delivery, but if you don't want to go
that route (or don't have your own internet domain for mail) look into
POPBeamer as an option.

Aha, so I can use the POP3 mailboxes in Exchange Server (Outlook Web
Access?), but it's not the most elegant solution? I have been confused that
I cannot find an application window for Exchange Server. The closest I've
come is the Outlook application window where I find the messages for the
single Exchange mail account I set up in the CEIW. When I try to edit that
account in Tools>E-mail Accounts, the only account listed is Microsoft
Exchange Server, so would it be correct to consider this application window
an Outlook-Exchange window? In other words, does Exchange interact with the
terminal user through an Outlook application window, or is there another
Exchange application interface window that I have not yet discovered?

I have also
found that almost all of my incoming e-mail messages have disappeared
from our domain host's e-mail server, even though I have all of the
POP3 accounts set to remain on it for 31 days if not deleted from
Outlook.

Well, they're somewhere, but given the confusion of your setup above, it's
hard to say where they went.

You can say that again.


I suspect that I set up the Exchange e-mail account incorrectly,

Probably.

but
I have not been able to determine how to undo it, and I need to
uncomplicate my communications until I have studied the process
further.

My questions are:

1. How do I put e-mail management back the way it was (i.e., all POP3
Outlook, and no Exchange Server accounts)?

Create new Outlook profiles for each user account and don't put Exchange in
there at all.

2. Is it possible to remove the domain and operate all terminals
(including the one running SBS) as workgroup members?

Not unless you get rid of SBS entirely, no.

3. If it is possible, what happens to my files and applications when I
remove the domain?

It isn't possible, but if you want to revert to your previous setup, back
up your files first & restore them once you've reformatted your server &
reinstalled your workstation OS. Oh, and you'll want to disjoin your
workstations from the domain first.

I suggest you do some reading on SBS - it's a nice little product if you set
it up right, but you need to understand what it does. Heck, it may not be
for you. Frankly, I would rather gnaw off my right hand than go back to POP
mail--ever--but to each his own.

Ouch! That sounds like a serious commitment. Thanks for sticking with this
ramble (and remaining lucid) to the end. You definitely helped steer me in
the right direction. I had already decided that I needed a good written
manual on the OS, and I'm leaning toward Microsoft Windows Small Business
Server 2003 R2 Administrator's Companion, by Charlie Russel and Sharon
Crawford. Do you know this one, and if so, what do you think of it?
.