It looks like the Monster Raving Looney Party are in crisis. Boney Maroney has announced that she will be stepping down as Deputy Leader.

If this happens I happen to know that it will for all intence and purpose mean the end to the only political part in the UK that has any sense of humour and the only one that has not lost touch with the common man.

Yes they may get thought of as the ‘joke party’ but they do a lot of good, I mean if they only take one vote from the two main parties then they have done their job in my eyes.

Pop over and show your support, and perhaps, with a little luck we can help show that we do still want them around.

I’ve got one Joost beta invite going spare. First come first serve, just leave a comment.

I finally decided to take the plunge and upgrade my Exchange 2003 server to Exchange 2007.

Now most people would think as it’s a Microsoft upgrade it would be a click, click, click job done. Unfortunately not.

The reason for this is that there is not a ‘real’ 32bit version of 2007, the 32bit version is for development use only, however it works just fine and will get me by until I get another X64 box to put that on.

I complicated tasks by having to move my Domain Controller at the same time as I wanted to separate the two roles out as they were on one server (that’s dying).

First things first, Let’s get another DC up and running and move all the roles over to it.

• Install Server 2003 R2 onto the fresh server and join the domain.
• Install DNS onto it (but don’t configure it just yet).
• Run Regedit and change HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management - SystemPages to a value of 0.
• DCPromo the new server in as a DC.
• Make the new server a Global Catalogue server.
• Move all the FSMO roles over onto the new server.
• Remove the Global Catalogue from the old server and DCPromo it out, there is a warning here though, make sure the roles, policies and objects have transferred to the new server before doing this step. If in doubt leave the server up and running. You are looking for an 1869 event in the Directory Service Log on the new server.

So we now have a nice shiny new Domain Controller on our LAN. Now it’s time to get the Exchange bit working.

• Install Server 2003 R2 onto the new Exchange server and join it to the domain.
• Install Exchange 2007 onto the server. I used the defaults and pointed the 2007 install to the 2003 server when it asked about connectors.
• After you have 2007 installed and up, move the mailboxes over onto the 2007 server. Now if your like me and never delete a mail this WILL take a long time. You do this by firing up the Exchange Management Console, opening the Recipient Configuration tree, selecting one or more mailboxes on the right, right click and select Move Mailbox, click through the wizard to complete the move.

Now we have the mailboxes on the right server we have to setup the messaging delivery options. First we need the sender configuration. Exchange 2007 is designed for larger environments than my house, so it’s designed to use a second (or more) server on the edge of the network to do this job, because of this we have to turn it on.

• First thing to do is enable the spam engine on this server, as by default it’s not turned on unless this is an edge server. Fire up the Exchange Management Console, change the directory to Program Files/Microsoft/Exchange Server/Scripts then run the Install-AntiSpamAgents.ps1 script. This will turn on all the anti spam stuff, you need to restart the service when it asks you to, do this from the services.msc application.
• Re launch the Exchange Management Console and open the Organisation Configuration, then Hub Transport, in the Actions Pane select New Send Connector.
• Put a name into the wizard name, then select Internet from the intended use.
• On the address space page, click new then type * and click next.
• On the network settings page make sure the Use Domain Name System to route mail automatically, then select the Use external DNS lookup settings.
• On the Server Source select the Exchange 2007 server for the Hub Transport server.
• If you want to use Powershell, try New-SendConnector -Name “Internet Connector” -Usage Internet -AddressSpaces “*” -SourceTransportServers “EXCHANGE2007SERVERNAME” -DNSRoutingEnabled:$true -UseExternalDNSServersEnabled:$true obviously change the name and servername.
• Now we need to configure the external DNS. Open the Server Configuration tree, then click the Hub Transport option, then right click the Hub Server on the right and select properties
• Goto the External DNS tab and select the Use these DNS server and put your ISP DNS servers in there, I would use 4.2.2.2 as well as it’s a good backup.

Now that the Sender stuff is sorted, we need to be able to accept incoming mail, this too is usually the task on another server in the perimeter network. We need to set this up so we can receive mail from other people.

• Make your way to the Hub Transport options (see above), select the hub server, then below it select the default SMTP connector (it’s the one mapped to port 25), right click it then properties, select the Permission Group tab and select Anonymous Users, this will allow your SMTP server to accept unauthenticated connections, however that could lead to spammers using you as a relay, obviously not good.
• Click the Organization Configuration, then Hub Transport. Click the Accepted Domains tab, then select the New Accepted Domains action on the right. Put all the domains you want to receive mail for.

Test the install,  I would also recommend now installing the Forefront Exchange Security services (see the initial screen of the Exchange 2007 installer). I would also setup the users to allow Mobile access (if they are not already), do this by selecting the properties of the user and then the Mailbox Features tab.

All done, it’s worth noting there are a couple of things you may want to consider. The Certificate you used for SSL on the old server will need porting over and setting up on the IIS of the new box. You can manage the mobile device configuration and policy, to manage devices select a user, then the Manage Mobile Devices task.

Microsoft have a good amount of information on Exchange 2007 over at their site.

Bad news for the Windows Mobile Community. It seems that XDA-Developers.com have bumped into an issue where they are having to remove all the roms from their site.

Please could you sign this pettition.

iMate have announced their WM6 phones, and one of them is the long waited replacement for my Universal.

The thing that I like about the specs are that they can work as Windows SideShow devices. That’s great. They have also got MediaCenter functionality.

What does that mean? For a start they have the ability to be used as MCE remotes, now that’s handy. But the killer? They are Media Center Extenders meaning that over WiFi (support 802.11 b/g/e/i) or a 3G connection you can watch TV, recorded programs or listen to music.

The devices will use Windows Mobile 6 Professional, have 520Mhz Marvell Bulverde CPU’s, VGA (640×480) touch screens, 128Mb Ram, Bluetooth 2 (with EDR), 2MP Camera, XGA TV Out, and full speed USB 2.0 interface.

I can’t wait, and just as I was thinking about looking at a replacement for my MDA Vario Pro. I’ll wait for a UK operator to launch these first. iMate are launching in June, so it should be the middle of the year when the operators pick them up,

Yup someone over on the WordPress Planet dicovered how to turn on some advanced features in WordPress 2.1’s editor.

In IE press ALT-V and in Mozilla press ALT-SHIFT-V, hey presto, advanced editor, brilliant.

Well done to the Colts, and Peyton Manning in their victory over the Bears lead by Rex Grossman.

After a 92yrd return by the Bears after the first kickoff, the Colts struggled to find their flow. However after the first quarter Manning found his arm, and helped the Colts to a convincing win.

The Colts held the ball for the best part of 75% of the time, and should really have won the game by a larger margin.

My man of the game has got to be Domenic Rhodes, as after coming onto the field ran the ball for quality yardage on nearly every hand-off.

Personally I did not mind who won (49er supporter), but was glad that the game was as good as it was. Commiserations to the Bears Defence, as they played a blinding game, struggling a little, but with the amount of time they spent on the field it's a surprise that any of them where even standing at the end.

Peyton Manning has finally got the bear of his back, he has lead a team to a Super Bowl win. I like to think that the mighty Joe Montana is the best quarter back to play, but Manning has got to be getting close to the real best ever.

Well done to the Colts.

Oh and for those Brits that like the 'Great American sport'. It's coming to London, got see NFL London 2007 for tickets.

Yup, Mark has finaly given in and got himself off Live Spaces and onto a propper bloging platform, WordPress.

Pop over to "Captain Literal" and say hello. Oh and he's prommised to blog a little more often than he did when he was on spaces

And go watch TopGear on BBC2…. Clarkson, May and Hammond are back!

Mark has put together some great Sudoku scripts in PowerShell.

Pop over and read his post on it, it makes interesting reading, especialy if you like Powershell, and if you don't? Shame on you!