SuppressStateChanges value for Exch2010 Prep

I ran MS Exchange Pre-Deployment Analyzer (ExPDA) on my Windows 7, and got this warning message below.

Googled and found the the solution below,

1. Open Registry Editor.
2. Locate HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\RESvc\Parameters.
3. Right-click Parameters and select New | DWORD value. Name the new DWORD value SuppressStateChanges.
4. Double-click SuppressStateChanges.
5. In the Value data field, enter 1.
6. Close Registry Editor and then restart the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) service, the Microsoft Exchange Routing Engine service, and the Microsoft Exchange MTA Stacks services for the change to take effect. (Thanks for this good article.)

Configure MX record on 1and1.com and GoDaddy.com

Once I got my Exchange 2010 set up in my lab, the next exciting thing would be sending/receiving emails testing from the external domains. The outgoing email was pretty straight forward to set up once the 'send connector' was configured and it worked right away.

 

I was not sure about the incoming emails and MX records setup at the first place because the domain name of my lab is an internal domain name only. I decided to use two of my personal domains to be the accepted domains in Exchange and messed around the MX record/DNS settings.

 

My first personal domain is hosted by GoDaddy and the other one is hosted by 1and1.com.

 

GoDaddy
The MX record setup with GoDaddy was a breeze. Here are the steps I've taken:

1. Log in GoDaddy account


2. Click "My Account" on navigation bar.


3. Click "Domains/Domain Manager" on the left


4. Click the proper domain name


5. Click 'Launch' under DNS Manager.


6. Create a new A (Host) record, 'mail' and pointed it to my Exchange server. Leave everything else untouched.
   


7. Create a MX record with the name, 'mail.<my_personal_domian1>.info' and give it the first priority order, 0. Lease the default MX record intact.
   


8. Save it.


9. It took no time before I was successfully receive my first test email from outside to the email address, xxx@<my_personal_domain1>.info.

 

1and1.com
My experience setting up MX record with 1and1 was not as good as GoDaddy because it costed me one support email to make it works.

1. First I needed to create a sub domain for my email server as the MX record. I named it 'mail.<my_personal_domain2>.net'. (This is the part I got help from 1and1.com).
   


2. Modified the A-Record for my sub domain to point it to my Exchange server.
   


3. Then I went back to the DNS setting for the top-level domain name and added the sub domain name as the first MX record.
   


4. Then I was able to receive the test email to xxx@<my_personal_domain2>.net shortly.

Upgrade Firmware on Dell PowerConnect 6248 Switch

The PWR light turns RED on my 'brand new' Dell PowerConnect 6248 switch as soon as plugged into the 'brand new' Dell RPS-600 power supply. However, PC6248 itself powers on ok without error without connected to RPS-600.

 

Called Dell support and they saying it's a known issue will exchange my RPS-600. They also asked me to upgrade the firmware to the latest one and I document it here.

(If it's a new switch, make sure to assign the management login:
DellSW1 (config)# username admin password 3C2cpk2H level 15)

1. I first downloaded the tftp program from here and latest firmware, both provided by Dell engineer.


2. Unzipped the 3.2.1.3 firmware to the folder "PC62xx_3213" to my desktop


3. The tftp installer failed to install so I downloaded the zip file and run the executable file from my desktop directly. The IP of my Win7 desktop is 10.5.100.123.

1. I 'putty' into the PC6248 switch (10.5.100.234) and issued the copy command as below,

1. And I could see the progress in the tftp app,

1. I saw the "File contents are valid" message very quick, then 5 minutes later, the transfer is completed with the message, "File transfer operation completed successfully." Console was locked before it's completed.

1. "Show ver" to check the new firmware. Done!

Write to startup: copy running-config startup-config
Reboot switch: reload

530 5.7.1 Client was not authenticated - Exchange 2010

I finally got the MX record to publish for one of my two test external domains. Then I tried to send a test email, but got rejected with the error, "530 5.7.1 Client was not authenticated". Fortunately, it didn't take long to find the fix.

1. Go to Exchange Management Console


2. Go to Server configuration, hub transport server and default receive connector's properties


3. Click on last tab “permission Groups” and tick a check mark into “Anonymous users” click apply and ok.

Thanks for this article, http://smtp25.blogspot.com/2009/04/530-571-client-was-not-authenticated.html.