iSwear My iOS 5 Battery Life Is Much Shorter

Tuesday, October 18, 2011 by Jim Rhodes

There are reports that some users who have upgraded to iOS 5 are experiencing major battery-life issues. It appears that it is affecting iPhone and iPad users more so than those who have an iPod Touch. There are some new features that have been added to iOS that may cause higher power consumption. With these additions shorter battery life is to be expected, but not at the accelerated levels that are being seen on some devices. There is no "official word" as to the cause at this point, but fingers have been pointed at e-mail, location services, and iCloud, as potential culprits. Here are are a few suggestions to address this problem if you encounter it on your device.

Step 1

Make sure all your apps are up to date. Go to the App Store on your device and select Updates. The number of available updates should be displayed, and you may wish to connect to Wi-fi for these updates to avoid data overages. Once all of your updates have been applied, restart your device by holding the Home and Lock buttons until you see the Apple logo. Monitor your battery usage to see if this resolves the issue.

Step 2

Try toggling these settings individually to determine if they may be causing your battery to drain faster than normal. You can also turn this all off and toggle back on individually if you prefer.

Disable Diagnostic & Usage Reports:
Tap on “Settings” > General > About > Diagnostic & Usage > Don’t Send

Disable Time Zone Adjustment:
Tap on “Settings” > “Location Services” > ‘System Services’ > Setting Time Zone to OFF

Disable Ping:
Settings > General > Restrictions > Enable Restrictions > Ping > OFF

Reset Network Settings:
Tap on “Settings” > Reset > Reset Network Settings

Disable Bluetooth:
Settings > General > Bluetooth > “OFF”

Disable Notifications & Apps in Notification Center:
Settings > Notifications > Turn OFF for anything you don’t need

Disable iCloud:
Settings > General > iCloud > Turn everything to OFF

Disable Location Services:
Settings > Location Services > Disable selectively for services you don’t use

Delete eMail Accounts, Reset Network Settings, Re-add eMail Accounts:
To do this, follow these steps:
1. Delete your email accounts by going to “Settings” > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Account Name > Delete Account.
2. Now Reset Network Settings in “Settings > Reset > Reset Network Settings
3. Reboot the iOS device.
4. Re-add email accounts back in “Settings” > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account

Step 3
As a last resort, it has been suggested that restoring the device via iTunes might resolve the issue. Make sure you have performed a complete backup of your device before proceeding.

These simple steps should get the batteries in your iOS device back on track.

Jim Rhodes is a Mobility Solutions Engineer for AppRiver, a leading hosted Exchange and e-mail security provider.

Create an AppRiver Login Page For Your Domain

Wednesday, September 28, 2011 by Shane Rice

Many of our customers have asked for an easy-to-remember AppRiver login page within own domain. Of course there are several solutions available, but we felt that none of these provided the experience our customers expect. So, we created our own.

Here are the steps to take in the Customer Portal that will allow you to create a login page on your own domain.

1. Log in to the Customer Portal

Once you reach the Admin area of the CP, select the Portal tab and navigate to the Tools area as highlighted in the image. If you use Hosted Exchange from AppRiver you may direct users to Outlook Web Access from the drop down menu as indicated. Customers using email encryption, spam and virus protection, and web protection will only be able to direct users to the Customer Portal.

Now click the Generate Code button.

3. Copy and Paste to your website

The HTML code will appear to the right. Select all of the HTML, and copy this information and paste this code into a new HTML page on your website. You can use any URL you like, but something like http://yourdomain.com/mail or http://yourdomain.com/appriver would be easy for your users to remember.

Test your new page by entering the complete URL in your browser. You should see a login window similar to the one at the beginning of this post.

Try it out and let us know what you think in the comments.

Microsoft Releases update for Office 2011 for mac - Removes Export from Apple Mail

Thursday, September 22, 2011 by David Petree

Microsoft released an update for Office 2011 for Mac yesterday, and a feature that has been removed may impact some users looking to import data from Apple Mail. In the past, we have had some AppRiver Hosted Exchange customers that wanted to import there mail into Outlook 2011 from Apple Mail. This has worked in the past but since the Release of OSX Lion, there have been a few issues.

Previously, you would open Outlook and go to Tools, then select Import. When that window opened you selected "Information from Another Application."

Then you would select Apple Mail.

After you update Outlook 2011 today, this option is gone. You cannot import directly from Apple Mail.

Here's a screen capture showing the new import options:

There is no easy way to export mail from Apple Mail now that this option has been removed. If you are an AppRiver Hosted Exchange customer, or looking to migrate to AppRiver, please contact our Hosting Support department and they can help you export your mail.

Setting Out of Office from Apple Mail app

Wednesday, September 14, 2011 by David Petree

One of my jobs i do here at AppRiver is to provide solutions for customer on our Exchange Hosting Solution. Over the last few months, i have seen a lot of request come in asking how to set Out of Office from Apple's Mail App. The setting for this is not out in the open so you have to do some digging to find it. I hope this blog will help ease your pain a bit and allow you to set your Out of Office reply from your OWA mailbox in Exchange.

To access this feature in Apple's Mail app, right click on any sub-folder and choose "Get Account Info." A window will pop up that looks like the one below. Make sure to select your AppRiver Hosted Exchange account from the Account dropdown. Then click on the Out Of Office tab. If you have ever put in an Out of Office message in the past it will be displayed here. You can adjust and set your Out of Office from Apple Mail from within this tab.

Using Apple Mail with Hosted Exchange from AppRiver

Friday, August 19, 2011 by David Petree

With the release of OSX Lion from Apple last month, there are some great new features in the Mail app that will make your experience with Hosted Exchange from AppRiver more enjoyable. Here are a few Apple Mail features that I think make the upgrade worthwhile.

1. Conversation View

In Snow Leopard, Apple introduced "Organized by Thread". This was a feature that grouped messages with the same subject line in to groups within your mailbox. This was a popular addition to Apple Mail, but sometimes you have different conversations with the same subject line. In Lion Apple has taken this view a step further. You now have all the messages grouped together into a conversation view. Another cool element of this update is that Apple Mail doesn't display the header info, or entire email string, of each message by default. With this feature enabled you only see each individual email and not every reply from a long series of replies. Here's a quick look at the conversation view when using Hosted Exchange from AppRiver.

Conversation view is wonderful to keep track of those incoming messages, but what about all of the emails you sent in that conversation? In the past you would have to navigate to your sent folder to track down those messages you were trying to find, or hit Spotlight in Mail. You know you sent something, but you had to find it. Now in Mail on Lion just go to "Mail > Preferences>Viewing, and check the box that says "Include related messages" as indicated in this screenshot:

This will now put any related message in each email chain, from any folder, in-line in your inbox. You can view the whole conversation, and keep track of it all right from your inbox. Notice in the mail screenshot above, you can see the message I sent has a "Sent" notification in the top right hand side of the message.

2. Enhanced Search

The search feature in Mail is fast. It uses Lion's Spotlight index feature to make the searching smarter. As you start typing, it starts giving you suggestions based on the content, subject, senders, recipients, dates and even attachment names.

3. Mail Layout

Widemail was one of the top plugins people used with the Mac Mail client prior to Lion. Letterbox was another one. These two plugins moved Mail's preview pane to the right of the message list. This feature is now built into Mail on Lion. If you want to go back to the classic view, you also have an option for that in Mail Preferences under the Viewing tab.

These are my 3 favorite new features from Mail when using OSX Lion.

Manage Your Internal Contact Info With AppRiver

Monday, August 1, 2011 by Shane Rice

In our Customer Portal we're always adding new features. One of the things we'd like to do more of in our blog is highlight these features and today I wanted to share one that many AppRiver customers may not be aware exists.

If you use our secure Hosted Exchange for your email you can easily manage contact information for your domain's Global Address List (GAL) and Offline Address Book (OAB). If you want to learn about the GAL or OAB check out this glossary of terms we use here at AppRiver.

First, login to our Customer Portal. Select the "Portal" tab. Depending on your access to the CP your user interface could be a bit different. We'll start with the User view, and I'll cover the Admin view another post later this week.

User View

For most users under the Portal tab menu you will see a menu option for My Profile. Click the link for My Profile and you can edit your contact info using the Details pane. The information displayed here will be available to everyone on your email domain, so keep that in mind when entering information here. Once you are finished editing your contact information in details, click Update User Details to save your changes.

You can also update your password under My Profile, just click on Password as indicated by the blue arrow in the image.

I know I've already covered updating your contact details, but I wanted to mention that as a user you can also manage your Held Spam (or Mail) Report from the Email pane. Click on this option and you can select the formatting and frequency of the updates you receive from AppRiver about mail being held in your spam quarantine.

That's all you need to know to update your contact info in our Customer Portal. If you have any questions, or issues with completing this update, let us know in the comments.

What is Spam: Definition and Perceptions [Infographic]

Friday, July 29, 2011 by Shane Rice

There's never been any doubt at AppRiver, we know businesses don't want spam hitting their inboxes. This graphic shows the results from a survey of email users when they were asked for their thoughts on spam.

One of the things that jumped out to me was that only 4% of email users in this survey have ever forwarded email to report it as spam. Anytime an AppRiver customer with anti-spam service (this includes Hosted Exchange) gets a piece of spam they should forward it to spam@appriver.com so we can update our rule databases as new campaigns and trends emerge.

Note: Multiple answers were allowed, so each category doesn't add up to 100%.

Image from Flowtown found using Visual.ly.

iOS 5 Beta 3 (and 4) - HTML Error with Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010

Monday, July 25, 2011 by David Petree

One of my responsibilities as Solutions Engineer at AppRiver is to test new software with our products. Our commitment to Phenomenal Care means we want to find issues we can help resolve as soon as possible. Lately I've been using the beta of iOS 5 on our hosted exchange platform and I've run across an interesting formatting bug. If someone sends you an email using Outlook 2007, or Outlook 2010, and using HTML formatting and a user responds from an iOS 5 device running Beta 3 or 4, then a bit of additional HTML will be included in your reply. The user of the iOS 5 device will only see this if the user replies and sends the message back to the iOS device. The HTML Code looks something like this:

On Jul 5, 2011, at 8:03 PM, "xxx" <xxx> wrote:

2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;} @font-face {font-family:Tahoma; panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;} @font-face {font-family:"Book Antiqua"; panose-1:2 4 6 2 5 3 5 3 3 4;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; text-decoration:underline;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; text-decoration:underline;} p {mso-style-priority:99; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} p.47b51e00-4c11-461c-8093-24c35ca99fad, li.47b51e00-4c11-461c-8093-24c35ca99fad, div.47b51e00-4c11-461c-8093-24c35ca99fad {mso-style-name:47b51e00-4c11-461c-8093-24c35ca99fad; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";} span.EmailStyle19 {mso-style-type:personal-reply; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; color:#1F497D;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; font-size:10.0pt;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} -->

The original message follows this encoding.

I reported this to Apple earlier, so it is a known bug. If you are using Hosted Exchange from AppRiver and you see this extra bit of code, you may want to see if the message was sent from an iOS device using the iOS beta. As always, please let us know if AppRiver can be of any assistance.

Transferring Local Data from iOS Devices to Exchange

Wednesday, June 29, 2011 by Jim Rhodes

Every now and then I get a call from an iOS user that has unknowingly discovered a common issue while using their iPhone/iPad. They tell me that they have created a calendar event or contact on their device that does not appear in their Exchange account. After some investigation, the answer is usually the same. The item(s) in question have been stored in the device's local calendar or address book. The next question is invariably "Can I move it to my Exchange account?"

The answer is yes, but it will require some work. The item details cannot be modified to directly transfer the item to Exchange from the device. The process is a little more involved. It requires exporting the local data to Outlook via iTunes and then importing back into the Exchange account with the Outlook PST file. Here are the details.

STEP 1. DETERMINE IF THERE IS LOCAL DATA ON THE PHONE

To determine if calendar events and/or contacts have been stored locally on the device, look at the appropriate screens for each type of item. For the calendar, go to the calendar app and click the “calendars” button in the top left corner. You will then see a screen similar to this:

iPhone Calendars

If there is a section called “From MY PC”, then there are local calendar items stored on the device.

For contacts, go to the contacts app and click the “groups” button in the top left corner. You will then see a screen similar to this:

If there is a section called “From MY PC”, then there are local contacts stored on the device.

STEP 2. EXPORTING THE LOCAL DATA

To export these items, the user will need to have the current versions of Outlook and iTunes installed on their computer. Once this is done, complete the following steps.

1) Create a blank profile in Outlook. First, close Outlook if it is open. Then, in Windows, go to Start --> Control Panel --> Mail.

2) Go to the profiles section and choose to create a new profile by clicking the Add button.

3) Choose a name for the profile.

4) Outlook will then try to configure an e-mail account for the profile. Click the cancel button.   

5) A prompt will come up and ask if you want to create a profile with no e-mail accounts. Click the ok button.  

6) You will be returned to the profile screen. If there is more than one profile listed, choose to use the blank profile in the “Always use” option and then click the ok button.  

7) Launch Outlook.  

8) An Outlook startup screen will appear. Click the next button.  

9) There will be another option to add e-mail accounts for this profile. Choose “no” and click the next button.  

10) The next screen will have the heading “Create Data File”. Click the option to continue with no e-mail support and then click the finish button.

11) Launch iTunes and attach the iOS device via USB cable.

12) Highlight the device in the left hand menu and then choose the “Info” heading in the top menu.  

13) Choose to contacts and/or calendar with Outlook, which is listed in the pull down menu. You can choose to synchronize all items or select groups. Click the Apply button in the lower right hand corner. This will only synchronize local data on the device. Any calendar/contact information from other accounts that have been added to the device (i.e. Exchange) WILL NOT synchronize. Click the Sync button in the lower right hand corner. The iTunes will begin to synchronize the data and notify you when it is complete in the top window.  

14) Once this is done, the device may be removed by clicking the eject arrow next to it in the left menu.  

15) Outlook should now show the local data in the appropriate section. In Outlook, choose the Import/Export option.  

16) Choose to “Export to a file”. Click next.  

17) Choose to export to “Personal Folder File (.pst)”. Click next.  

18) Select the appropriate folder type that needs to be exported and choose the “include subfolders” option, if needed. Click next.  

19) Then choose a path and file name for the PST file to be stored under. Click next.  

20) Click the Finish button. You will get the option to add a password for the PST file. This can be bypassed by clicking the OK button. The PST file will be created under the path you selected.  

21) Close Outlook. 

IMPORT THE LOCAL DATA

Once the data has been exported, it needs to be imported into the user’s Exchange profile. To complete this, do the following.

1) First, close Outlook, if it is open. Then, in Windows, Go to Start --> Control Panel--> Mail.  

2) Choose profiles and change the “Always Use” option back to the user’s Exchange profile. If there is no user profile, create a new profile and configure it to access their Exchange account. Then set Outlook to use that profile when it starts.  

3) Launch Outlook.  

4) Choose the Import/Export option.

5) Choose to “Import from another program or file”. Click next.  

6) Choose to import from “Personal Folder File (.pst)”. Click next.  

7) Browse to the path where the PST file was created and highlight it. Click the Open button.  

8) Verify the correct file is selected and click the Next button.  

9) Highlight the data folder that needs to be imported and selected the “Include subfolders” button, if needed. If the entire data folder needs to be imported, highlight “Personal Folders”. Make sure the option “Import items into the same folder in Mailbox - *user’s name*” is selected. Click the Finish button.

10) The data will be imported into the user’s Exchange profile.  

11) Once the status bar at the bottom says “All folders are up to date”, the new data has synchronized to the Exchange server. Verify this by logging into Outlook Web Access and confirming it is there.

STEP 4. DELETE THE LOCAL DATA

Once it is verified that the data is there, the local contacts and calendar information can be removed using iTunes. If you choose to leave it on the phone, you will have duplicate entries. To remove them, complete the following steps.  

1) Close Outlook.  

2) Go to Start --> Control Panel --> Mail.

3) Choose profiles and change the “Always Use” option back to the blank profile and click OK.  

4) Launch Outlook.  

5) Launch iTunes and attach the iOS device via USB cable.  

6) Highlight the device in the left hand menu and then choose the “Info” heading in the top menu.  

7) Deselect the options to sync contacts and/or calendar. For each selection there will be a prompt asking if the data should be removed from the device. ONCE THE CHOICE IS MADE TO DELETE THE ITEMS THERE WILL BE NO WAY TO RETREIVE THEM. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE RECOVERED ALL OF THE LOCAL CALENDAR/CONTACT DATA YOU WANTED BEFORE CONTINUING.  

8) Click the Apply button in the lower right hand corner.

9) Click the Sync button in the lower right hand corner.

10) Once this is done, the device may be removed by clicking the eject arrow next to it in the left menu.  

11) Close iTunes.  

12) Close Outlook.  

13) Go to Start --> Control Panel --> Mail.  

14) Choose profiles and change the “Always Use” option back to the user’s Exchange profile and click OK.

All of the local contacts and/or calendar data should now be removed from the device. New calendar events created on the iOS device should now be stored in the Exchange calendar by default. To assure that new contacts that are created on the device are stored in the Exchange address book, check the default setting for the device. Go to Settings à Mail, Contacts, Calendars. Scroll to the Contacts section and check the “Default Account” setting. If it still says “On My iPhone”, click on it and choose “Exchange".

If you need more information about this process, or there are any Mac users that would like the specific info for this process using OS X, feel free to ask me a question in the comments. I can provide additional info in a future post.

Jim Rhodes is a Mobility Solutions Engineer for AppRiver, a leading hosted Exchange and e-mail security provider.

Has Your Phone Stopped Syncing? Better Check Those Folder Item Counts

Wednesday, April 13, 2011 by Jim Rhodes

If you are the owner of a smart phone that uses ActiveSync to connect to Exchange (i.e. Android, iPhone, Windows Phone 7), it is possible your device could suffer from information overload and stop synchronizing your Exchange data altogether. The culprit in these instances is too many items in a mailbox folder. Although AppRiver does not impose mailbox size limits on its hosted Exchange customers, Microsoft does have recommended guidelines for mailboxes that are being accessed via ActiveSync. These guidelines are based on item counts, not actual storage size. The limits depend on the version of Exchange in use. Here are the guidelines for Exchange 2007.

* Calendar – 5,000 items

* Contacts – 5,000 items

* Deleted items – 20,000 items

* Inbox – 20,000 items

* Sent items – 20,000 items

* Other folders created by user – 50,000

To quote Microsoft's TechNet article, which can be found here, ”With properly architected hardware, an acceptable user experience can still be maintained with item counts as high as 20,000 items (5,000 calendar/contact items). This recommended maximum also depends on the performance capability of your Exchange environment. Your specific hardware choices may result in lower maximum numbers. Ideally, it is best to keep the Inbox and Sent Items folders less than 20,000 items, and the Contacts and Calendar item counts less than 5,000.”

These are not definitive numbers. I help customers on weekly basis that are exceeding these limits and having problems getting their phone to sync. Your phone may continue to sync items to folders larger than this for a time, but eventually you will start to see synchronization failures. The limits for users on servers using Exchange 2003 is a bit different. The recommended maximum item count for ANY folder on this version is 5,000 items.

If you have crossed the line and your smart phone is refusing to connect, fear not. You do not have to spend a day "spring cleaning" your mailbox to get your device working again. Simply create a new sub-folder(s) and move the older messages into them. This will allow you to keep them in a safe and secure location, as well as be able to continue to access them no matter where you are.

Jim Rhodes is a Mobility Solutions Engineer for AppRiver, a leading hosted Exchange and e-mail security provider.

RIM Fights Back

Tuesday, April 5, 2011 by ChukBerry

Rim is preparing to take a few jabs at their mobile device competition as they prepare to launch their first dual core smartphone processor with a powerful new platform known as QNX. QNX is an operating system that has been used in products such like high capacity routers, millions of car systems, and the International Space Station. RIM purchased QNX in 2010 and is showing the world it isn't backing down from the fight for mobile users. The BlackBerry Monoco and the BlackBerry PlayBook will be the first 2 products utilizing the QNX core system kernel and should boost the level of BlackBerry device performance to another plateau.

You can read more about the reliability of QNX here:
http://www.qnx.com/company/announcements/blackberry_tablet_os.html

BlackBerry is also showing it's flexibility in the market by enabling the PlayBook to run BlackBerry and Android Applications on this device. This will make it the only device in the industry that will work with both RIM and Android applications.

More details of the BlackBerry PlayBook and its new QNX Operating system will be revealed at the BlackBerry World Conference in Orlando, FL. Attendees will include partners, sponsors, cell carriers, and vendors for this event. There will be hands on labs, discount RIM exams, on site BlackBerry training, and best practices for employee owned devices, and new steps for enterprise BlackBerry deployment when rolling out new services.

With their recent announcements it has become clear that RIM isn't down for the count, and is poised to battle for mobile users for years to come. Running Android apps and BlackBerry apps on the same device (PlayBook) is unprecedented and will be very appealing to users who have invested in the Android app ecosystem. It wouldn't surprise me if RIM decided to use this as a model standard, and have the BlackBerry smartphones use both kinds of applications as well. This move builds on the success of Android and levels the app playing field with the iPhone.

-ChukBerry

Chuck Sandz is a Senior Mobility Engineer with AppRiver's Hosted Exchange department.

Android Wins Quick Draw (Render) Competition Against The iPhone Or Is It The Other Way Around?

Friday, April 1, 2011 by Jim Rhodes

Recently, the mobile website optimization company Blaze.io conducted an experiment to determine who had the faster smart phone web browser. The competitors were a Samsung Galaxy S running Android 2.2 and 2 iPhones, one running iOS 4.3, the other running the 4.2 version.

The test was conducted by downloading over 40,000 web pages from Fortune 1000 companies. On average, the iPhones took (3.2 seconds) or 52 percent longer to render full web pages than Android's 2.1 seconds.

Apple is disputing the results stating that the tests did not use their Nitro JavaScript engine. Even if that were factored in, it appears the iPhones would have still come out on the short end because only 15% of the load time involves JavaScript.

According to the report, both operating systems had similar load times for pages that had been optimized for mobile devices.

You can read more about the experiment here.

But iPhone users, fear not. Compuware conducted a test that leans in your favor. According to the study, iPhone loaded pages 17 seconds faster than Android. More on this test can be found here.

The reason for the discrepancy? Browser speed testing is subject to many variables, including your network connection. Until someone is able to conduct these experiments in a controlled environment with identical hardware, the battle will rage on.

Jim Rhodes is a Mobility Solutions Engineer for AppRiver, a leading hosted Exchange and e-mail security provider.

Windows Phone and Android - The Unhackables?

Thursday, March 31, 2011 by Jim Rhodes

Windows Phone 7 and Android users can take pride in that the hacker community doesn't think there is a way to gain access to these devices. At least that is the case in this year's Pwn2Own competition.

The Pwn2Own is a three day contest that is part of the CanSecWest conference, which focuses on applied digital security. If a contestant is able to successfully hack their target, they are awarded a prize of $15,000. The contest pits entrants against web browsers and mobile devices.

The mobile device targets for this year's competition were:

* Dell Venue Pro running Windows 7

* iPhone 4 running iOS 4.2.1

* Blackberry Torch 9800 running Blackberry OS 6.0.0.246

* Nexus S running Android

The results? Both the Blackberry and iPhone were compromised within the first two days. The Android and Windows Phone 7 were abandoned during the contest, remaining undefeated. This does not necessarily mean that these mobile operating systems are more secure than the others. Some of the registered contestants did not show up. Others withdrew for various reasons.

iPhone and Blackberry users, fear not. Full details of the attacks are not published until the vendor issues an update to fix the vulnerability. Still, with that big of a bounty up for grabs, it does cause one to wonder if there were other factors involved that resulted in the other two being left untouched.

IPv6, Are We ready?

Friday, March 18, 2011 by Jim Rhodes

The Internet is running out of room. The pool of available public IP addresses is dwindling. The last blocks of IP addresses were allocated by Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to the 5 regional Internet registries (RIRs) on February 3rd. The exact time when the RIRs exhaust them is up for debate, but it appears that in less than 90 days is a good guess. Fortunately, there is a solution. The problem is going to be in implementing it.

For those that don't know what IP addresses are, a quick lesson. For computers to be able to communicate with one another on the Internet, they each need to have a "public" address known as an IP address. The most common analogy is to think of an IP address as a telephone number. The current IP addressing method, known as version 4, uses 32-bit numbers and appear in the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. Using this number scheme allows for approximately 4 billion unique addresses, but for various reasons, such as non-routable IPs, only 3.7 billion of them are usable. Back when this format was created, it was inconceivable that there would be 4 billion devices that would need their own IP address. Fast forward to today and it is not unusual for individuals to have multiple Internet ready devices. Look at the proliferation of smart phones and tablets alone and it is easy to understand why 4 billion is not enough.

Doing the math in your head, you may realize that there are probably more than 3.7 billion devices connected to the internet. Thanks to a process used by routers called Network Address Translation (NAT) we have been able to get around this limit for some time. NAT allows multiple computers to use one public IP address. This process is the reason you are able to connect multiple devices to the single connection (and IP) your ISP provides to your home.

The knight in shining armor that will save us from this IP address crunch is IP version 6, or IPv6. It's uses 128 bit addressing which will allow for 340 undecillion (3.4 x 10/38) unique addresses. How many is that? Here a few descriptions I have come across:

50 octillion addresses for each of the 6.5 Billion people on earth

We could assign an IPV6 address to EVERY ATOM ON THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH, and still have enough addresses left to do another 100+ earths.

Every atom in the human body could have an IPv6 address.

I am not saying any of these estimations are accurate, but you get the idea.

So we have a system that will handle the IP address shortage and then some. Most newer devices support the new protocol. The problem lies in how to merge "legacy" systems with this architecture. Most ISPs have been very slow in implementing the dual-stack protocol which is designed to bridge this gap. There is also the consumer side of this equation and with a few exceptions home routers do not support IPv6.

But fear not. Some companies are being proactive. Internet service providers Verizon, Time Warner, and Comcast are beginning to update their network infrastructure to handle the transition. Web services providers will also need to enable IPv6 on their web sites for there to be a smooth transition. Tech Goliaths Google and Facebook already support IPv6. More are sure to follow.

If you are searching for another cause to celebrate, add June 8th to your calendar. It has been designated as World IPv6 Day. For 24 hours major sites around the globe will be enabling IPv6 to perform a "stress test" of networks and work out any bugs.

You can get more information on IPv6 at http://www.ipv6forum.org.

Jim Rhodes is a Mobility Solutions Engineer for AppRiver, a leading hosted Exchange and e-mail security provider.

The Root Of The Matter

Monday, February 28, 2011 by Jim Rhodes

It is a pretty safe bet that if you own an Android device or an iPhone that you have heard (or read) something about "rooting" (also called jailbreaking). Your first question probably was probably was accompanied by a puzzled look. "What is rooting?" It's a pretty safe bet that the next question you asked was "Why would I want to root my phone?" If you didn't get your answers or weren't satisfied with what information you did get, maybe we can help make things a little clearer.

Rooting is the process that gives you administrative or "superuser" access to your phone. The term "root" is what the superuser account is referred to as in this environment. Rooting is the process that is used to gain access to these priviledges. By design, smartphones only give you guest privileges. This is to prevent you from damaging the operating system or installing malicious programs. However, this also some limits on your ability to customize your phone or to remove "embedded" applications.

So why root your phone?

Most Android manufacturers add their own user interface to the Android operating system to give it its own "flavor." Motorola's UI is called Motoblur, HTC has HTC Sense, and Samsung's is called Touchwiz. Typically these are modified to suit the wireless carrier's requirements, as well. In the end, this means you end up with a device that comes bloated with additional apps (like Sprint's NASCAR app or Verizon's VCast) that you are unable to remove. If you have root access to your device, you can delete these applications. Removing apps you don't want or use frees up internal memory which will translate into faster response times. Rooting will also allow you to move the apps you want to keep to external memory, which also frees up internal memory.

For the tech enthusiasts out there, the main appeal of rooting is the ability to install a custom ROM on the device. A ROM is essentially a modified version of the operating system. Thanks to an active Android developer community, there is a wide selections of ROMs available for download. Some are more cosmetic in nature while others seem to have been designed for a specific purpose. This also gives you the ability to run the latest version of Android, even if your phone's manufacturer decides to stop pushing out updates.

Another benefit is being able to run special applications that require root access, like wireless tethering. Tethering can be accomplished without rooting by installing an application on your PC/laptop, if your carrier allows it. Rooting your phone removes the need to install the client software to successfully tether. Some applications will even allow you to use your phone as a wireless hotspot, allowing multiple devices to connect to it.

Finally, rooting will give you the ability to back up your device. Not just the application installers, but all of the associated data and settings for downloaded and built-in applications. If you have ever had to reset your phone, you know how much of a time saver this can be.

Disadvantages to rooting? There are a few.

The most important being is that you could render your phone useless, often referred to as "bricking it." Most sites offer thorough documentation on how to root a device, along with how to back it up and restore it if the need arises. But still, there are cases where the worst case scenario has happened. Your best bet is to do your research and see what kind of experience other users have had with any ROM you are considering installing. Rooting your phone will also void your warranty with your wireless provider. Keep in mind that any other service providers, including AppRiver, will be limited in their ability to support custom ROMs. So again, you must use care when doing this.

Also, you will not be able to receive any over the air updates from the wireless provider. This is probably a "disadvantage" only to those that continue to use their manufacturer's OS version and just wanted to be able to remove certain embedded apps or create a wireless hot spot. This is less of a concern for users that are running a specialized ROM because they can usually obtain a version that is running the latest release of Android long before the official manufacturer's update is ever pushed out.

Finally, there is the security risk. Allowing root access to your phone opens you up to attacks by any malicious software you download. You must exercise careful judgment when choosing what to install on your phone because you have essentially "opened the gates" by allowing root access. If you are unsure about the integrity of perspective application, don't install it.

If you are interested in learning more about how to root your mobile device here are few web sites to check out:

XDA Developers (Android)
CyanogenMod (Android)
Digital Trends (iPhone)

Rooting can be a way to make your old device "new" again, speed up its performance, or tailor it to suit your needs or tastes. There will always be some risks involved, but for many users, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.

Jim Rhodes is a Mobility Solutions Engineer for AppRiver, a leading hosted Exchange and e-mail security provider.

Recover Deleted Items for Mac users on Microsoft Exchange Server - Part 2

Monday, January 31, 2011 by James Dean

This is part 2 of a 2 part post about recovering deleted items for Mac users on Microsoft Exchange Server. Part 1 was for Exchange 2007 w/SP3 and part 2 pertains to Exchange 2010 w/SP1. Mac clients tested in these posts all used Exchange Web Services to connect to Exchange, not IMAP4 or POP3.

Out of the box DIR 2.0 with Exchange 2010 w/SP1 offers the same level of protection, and non-protection as I talked about in Part 1 with Exchange 2007. With the default settings in Exchange 2010 w/SP1 items deleted with Mac Mail 10.6.x cannot be recovered with DIR 2.0 and you will need to restore the data from a backup of your Exchange database or lagged copy.

Mac Mail 10.6.x

Exchange 2010’s DIR 2.0 has the ability to preserve purges (i.e. Store Hard Delete) of data in a user’s mailbox. Deletions from a Mac Mail 10.6.x client are the same as a Store Hard Delete, which is not protected by default with Exchange 2007 or the default configuration of Exchange 2010's DIR 2.0. To enable that ability you can use the Set-Mailbox cmdlet with the –SingleItemRecoveryEnabled $True option on the user's mailbox. Enabling that option is not retro-active, so to use DIR to recover data deleted from a Mac Mail user it has to be enabled before the data is deleted.

I enabled the –SingleItemRecoveryEnabled option on a test mailbox, waited for AD replication and started deleting away with Mac Mail 10.6.6. As you can see from the screen shots below the deleted data was found using Exchange 2010’s Search-Mailbox cmdlet option and stored as a Purged item.

I deleted 3 items from my Inbox with Mac Mail 10.6.6 then emptied the Trash folder from the Mac.

Using the Recover Deleted Items option in OWA you will see that no messages appear after emptying the Trash bin in Mac Mail 10.6.6

However using the Search-Mailbox cmdlet I was able to recover deleted messages to a subfolder of my Discovery mailbox.

You can’t use the quick and easy Recover Deleted Items option in Outlook Web App or Outlook 2010 for Mac Mail deleted items. The only way to get the data back with DIR, is to use the Discovery option in the Exchange Control Panel or the cmdlet search options in Exchange Management Shell. It is not clean and easy but it is better than having to restore from a backup of your database.

Entourage 2008 EWS and Outlook for Mac 2011

You don’t need to enable the –SingleItemRecoveryEnabled option to recover normal Store Soft Deletes or Shift-Deletes from these two clients. With an improved structure of DIR 2.0 everything is in the same DIR folder which makes recovery a little easier.

Conclusion

If you’re a Mac Mail user on Exchange, Microsoft Exchange 2010 is the best for your data recovery options. If you’re an Exchange administrator with Mac Mail users I recommend you enable the SingleItemRecoveryEnabled option on their mailboxes, or continue your single item recovery from backed up databases.

Disclaimer!

There are size implications to enabling the SingleItemRecoveryEnabled option, please read Mr. Ross Smith’s post on the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog to plan your servers accordingly.

In this post I reference Store Soft Deletes, Store Hard Deletes and Shift-Deletes. Once again please read Mr. Ross Smith’s post on the Microsoft Exchange Team Blog for a deeper explaining of each type of deletion and how Exchange 2010 treats each type.

James Dean
Senior Exchange Engineer
AppRiver

www.appriver.com

EMAIL & WEB SECURITY
EASY, EFFECTIVE, AFFORDABLE^TM

______________________________________

SecureTide^TM – Spam & Virus Protection
Exchange Hosting – Secure Microsoft Exchange
SecureSurf^TM – Hassle-free Web Filtering
MessageSniffer^TM – Spam Detection
Phenomenal Customer Care^TM

Recover Deleted Items for Mac users on Microsoft Exchange Server - Part 1

Monday, January 31, 2011 by James Dean

This is part 1 of a 2 part post about recovering deleted items for Mac users on Microsoft Exchange Server. Part 1 is for Exchange 2007 w/SP3 and part 2 pertains to Exchange 2010 w/SP1. Mac clients tested in these posts all used Exchange Web Services to connect to Exchange, not IMAP4 or POP3.

For quick recovery Microsoft Exchange has the built-in capability to recover data that has been deleted from your Deleted Items folder, Shift-Deleted from other folders or folders that have been deleted. This feature is called Deleted Item Recovery or DIR for short. Even though the DIR can’t be accessed from a Mac an Exchange administrator, or Hosted Exchange provider, could recover deleted messages using the DIR from a MAPI client, with a few exceptions. Mac Mail’s 10.6.x (tested up to 10.6.6) deletion style is incompatible with the DIR and any messages/folders deleted from a mailbox with Mac Mail cannot be recovered with Exchange 2007’s DIR. If items or folders are deleted from a mailbox with Mac Mail the only way to recover them is from a backup of an Exchange database. Data deleted from a mailbox with Entourage 2008 EWS or Outlook for Mac 2011 can be recovered with DIR however as you will see below it is not always found in the DIR under the right folder. This can cause some confusion and wasted time restoring the data from a backup of an Exchange database.

When you use a MAPI client (like Outlook 2007/2010) to recover deleted items/folders select the folder the data was deleted from, click Tools then Recover Deleted Items. As you can see each folder has the Recover Deleted Items Tools menu.

DIR for Deleted Items folder

DIR for the Inbox folder (keep in mind all folders have DIR, I am just showing 2)

Microsoft Entourage 2008 EWS and Outlook for Mac 2011

In Entourage 2008 EWS or Outlook for Mac 2011 if messages are deleted from one folder then emptied from the Deleted Items folder before those first deletions are sync’d to the server then they will not show up in the DIR of the Deleted Items folder as they should. Instead they will show up in the DIR of the folder they originally were. Below are some examples.

I deleted two messages from my Inbox with Entourage 2008 EWS and then emptied my Deleted Items folder about 30 seconds later. When I went to restore the data with DIR the items were in the DIR of the Inbox, not the Deleted Items folder. *Deletions with Outlook for Mac 2011 showed the same results.*

I did the same process again, however this time I waited a couple minutes after deleting the messages from my Inbox. This time the messages showed up in the DIR of the Deleted Items.

The timing of deleting and sync issue also applies to folders. I deleted a folder under the Inbox then emptied my Deleted Items. However I didn’t wait long enough and the deleted folder is in the DIR of the Inbox, not the Deleted Items folder.

Deleting a folder that was at the same level as the Inbox then emptying the Deleted Items folder before it sync’s the initial deletion will cause the folder to be in the DIR for the Top of Information Store.

In all I was able to use the DIR to recover deleted data from Entourage 2008 EWS and Outlook for Mac 2011, I just had to spend more time looking around for the deleted data.

Mac Mail 10.6.x (I tested up to 10.6.6)

I ran all the same tests with Mac Mail and nothing was recoverable with DIR. It didn’t matter how long I let it sit after deleting it to the Trash bin. Once I empty the Trash bin, shift-deleted an item or delete a folder (in Mac Mail it is called deleting a Mailbox???) they were gone and could only be recovered from a backup of the database. I would suggest heeding the below screen shots when deleting data from Mac Mail.

I am not a Mac user so I don’t really know all the differences between Mac Mail 10.6.x, Entourage 2008 EWS or Outlook for Mac 2011. From speaking with many Mac customers that we support here at AppRiver they all seem to have their own problems, but when it comes to data reliability the Microsoft clients have Mac Mail beat when using Microsoft Exchange 2007.

*Please note DIR is not enabled at the mailbox or database level results may be different than shown in this post. Entourage 2008 EWS tested was version 13.0.8, older versions may experience different results.*

James Dean
Senior Exchange Engineer
AppRiver

www.appriver.com

EMAIL & WEB SECURITY
EASY, EFFECTIVE, AFFORDABLE^TM

______________________________________

SecureTide^TM – Spam & Virus Protection
Exchange Hosting – Secure Microsoft Exchange
SecureSurf^TM – Hassle-free Web Filtering
MessageSniffer^TM – Spam Detection
Phenomenal Customer Care^TM

It's Caveat Emptor In The Land Of The Smartphone Application

Monday, January 17, 2011 by Jim Rhodes

That device in your hand is a very powerful thing. Besides being able to make calls, send text messages and e-mail, it can be customized with an almost endless supply of applications. Many cell phones have added features and become more computer than phone. You need to treat it as such when it comes to security.

Several tech sites are abuzz with stories about an Android trojan that was discovered over the holidays. If you want to know the details, you can read more about this story here. While this particular incident seems to be isolated to people in China, it does signal that the dark side of the Internet has now found its way to the mobile computing world. So, it is time for us to exercise a little more care when it comes to what gets installed.

If you are an iPhone, Windows Phone 7, or Blackberry user, you can take some solace in knowing that apps submitted by developers have to meet strict requirements before they are made available to the public. Keep in mind that doesn't mean that an app with malicious intent can't be slipped past the goalie.

The Android Market is a little more like the wild west. It uses an open distribution model, which has an automated screening process to verify applications meet the minimum security requirements. It relies on users to find and report problems.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both models and I am not here to debate which is better. I just simply want to point out that you should know what that program you are thinking about downloading had to go through to get to the point where all you have to do is push a button to install it on your phone.

So before you decide to install the next great application that you've heard everyone talking about, do the following:

1) Pay attention to the source, especially if the application will be handling financial information or other sensitive data. Make sure the publisher of the app is in line with what the app does. Don't download an application to access your bank account if the publisher is a 3rd party in a foreign country.

2) Read the privacy policy and permission requests. Does the application have a legitimate need to access what it is requesting approval for?

3) Trust your feelings. If your instincts tell you there seems to be something "fishy" going on, it is better to err on the side of caution.

4) Consider installing a security application on your phone to monitor application behavior. While Apple has not approved any anti-virus programs for its platform, there are several vendors (i.e Symantec, Kaspersky Lab) that offer apps that offer real time monitoring for threats. For Android (and BlackBerry) users, Lookout not only looks for suspicious activity, but can also be used to run scheduled virus scans on your smartphone. Lookout is being credited with spotting the trojan mentioned above and they appear to be one of the more vigilant watchdogs in the Android community.

Use the same caution you use with your personal computer and you will significantly improve your chances of sidestepping the smartphone malware minefield.

Jim Rhodes is a Mobility Solutions Engineer for AppRiver, a leading hosted Exchange and secure email provider.

I'll have a large latte and a secure connection, please.

Thursday, December 30, 2010 by Jim Rhodes

We that live in the mobile world are on a never ending quest. A quest to find wi-fi hot spots. We wander into bookstores, coffee shops, and airports, scanning the airwaves looking for an access point. Wi-fi is so common now that we are almost surprised if we can't find one while we sipping on our espresso.

But within this "always connected" universe we seek to live in, there are dangers. A subtle reminder of this was the enormous amount of attention that the Fire Sheep plug-in for Firefox received. Fire Sheep was developed by a gentleman named Eric Butler. The purpose behind this project was to show how insecure the web really is. It will only work in a wi-fi environment. The plug-in gives its user the ability to intercept public wi-fi connection via cookie-jacking. Once this has been done, the hacker is able to impersonate the unsuspecting user once they are logged into an unsecure web site.

The root of the problem is how most web sites accept connections. Connections are made via http, which is not secure, and therefore data is transmitted as clear text. If the wi-fi access point requires a password before you can access it, then this information is encrypted as it is sent between that access point and the user's device and the hacker cannot read it. However, if no password is required, the data continues on as clear text and anyone running Fire Sheep can see it.

The ultimate solution is for websites to require a secure connection by using https. Some sites do offer this by default and others allow you to choose to utilize a secure connection. There is a plug-in for Firefox called HTTPS-Everywhere that will force https, if it is available. The problem is that most sites do not even allow https as an option, including high profile sites like Facebook.

So the next time you stop off for a cafe mocha and decide to jump online, think about how you are getting to your destination in cyberspace. If you didn't need to enter a password and your web site of choice is not using SSL, there is possibility that one of your fellow caffeine lovers could be reading your email, checking in on your friends, and surfing right along with you.

Jim Rhodes is a Mobility Solutions Engineer for AppRiver, a leading hosted Exchange and secure email provider.

Updating Your BlackBerry Firmware

Friday, December 17, 2010 by ChukBerry

Updating a BlackBerry in the past was such a hassle, especially if you were connected to a Hosted Exchange server on BES. You had to go find the link, download the right model software, install it on your computer, fire up the application loader and run the update all because you wanted Secure Email. I've got great news, updating that way is a thing of the past. Research in Motion (RIM) has created a better way to do this, and it can be done with a few easy steps.

Step 1

Go to this link because there is no need to download any software. http://us.blackberry.com/update/

Step 2

Connect your BlackBerry to the USB cord that came with your device.

Step 3

Connect the other end of the cord to your computer

Step 4

Choose which firmware is on your device. You can find this on your BlackBerry by going to the Home Screen of the BlackBerry > Select Options > Select About. Your current firmware is listed here.

Step 5

Follow the on screen instructions on the web page to run your BlackBerry update.

Keep checking AppRiver blogs for more tips for living on the Smartphone edge.

Chuck Sandz is a Senior Mobility Engineer with AppRiver's Hosted Exchange department.

Exchange Account Hosting

iSwear My iOS 5 Battery Life Is Much Shorter

Create an AppRiver Login Page For Your Domain

Microsoft Releases update for Office 2011 for mac - Removes Export from Apple Mail

Setting Out of Office from Apple Mail app

Using Apple Mail with Hosted Exchange from AppRiver

Manage Your Internal Contact Info With AppRiver

What is Spam: Definition and Perceptions [Infographic]

iOS 5 Beta 3 (and 4) - HTML Error with Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010

Transferring Local Data from iOS Devices to Exchange

Has Your Phone Stopped Syncing? Better Check Those Folder Item Counts

RIM Fights Back

Android Wins Quick Draw (Render) Competition Against The iPhone Or Is It The Other Way Around?

Windows Phone and Android - The Unhackables?

IPv6, Are We ready?

The Root Of The Matter

Recover Deleted Items for Mac users on Microsoft Exchange Server - Part 2

Recover Deleted Items for Mac users on Microsoft Exchange Server - Part 1

It's Caveat Emptor In The Land Of The Smartphone Application

I'll have a large latte and a secure connection, please.

Updating Your BlackBerry Firmware

Search This Blog

Subscribe to this blog

Links

Categories

Sep	OCT	Nov
	19
2010	2011	2012