SBS 2008 – Default Gateway is lost after a server reboot

June 11th, 2011

We have seen problems with several different installations of Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 (Microsoft SBS 2008) where upon a server reboot, the server becomes disconnected from the internet, losing email flow to/from the internet and users mobile and remote access stops working.

Users on the local area network (LAN) don’t seem to be affected and otherwise all other server functions e.g. shares, printers, Exchange 2007 still seem to work.

After investigation we have found that for some bizarre reason the setting for the (D.G) TCPIP default gateway on the SBS 2008 server has been lost for no apparent reason. Re-inputting the default gateway again or running the ‘Connect to Internet’ SBS wizard seems to resolve the issue until the server is restarted once again and the ther cycle of repair begins again.

After some investigation we have found that this is a known bug and Microsoft have available a hotfix which is only available upon request rather than a Microsoft Critical Update. You can review this Microsoft article KB973243

The fix will involve installing a Microsoft hotfix and making some changes in the SBS 2008 server registry.  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973243

Our experience is that once the hotfix and registry changes have been applied the issue does not re-occur.

Century IT Services – Getting IT Right

Providing Computer Support & Network Support to businesses in Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey, Wiltshire, Sussex & Berkshire.

Send Arcserve & Backup Exec Email Alerts Through SBS 2008/Exchange 2007

December 16th, 2010

 Emailed backup alerts from Arcserve or backup Exec will not be delivered through Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 due to the fact that  Exchange Server 2007 has improved SMTP relay security when comparing the earlier Microsoft Small Business Server 2003

You will need to an a customer SMTP recieve connector within Exchange 2007 even to recieve backup alerts from the same server.

1) Exchange Management MMC

2) Server Configuration, Hub TransportNew Recieve Connector, Recieve Connectors

3) Create a new (Internal) SMTP Recieve Connector and set the IP address of the server in the ‘Recieve Mail From Remote Servers IP Addresses’

4) Set ‘Externally Secured’ under Authentication’

 Job done

We have since found a useful article on the C.A website  detailing the changes

Century IT Services – Getting IT Right
Providing Computer Support & Network Support to businesses in Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey, Wiltshire, Sussex & Berkshire

Exchange 2003 Database Size Limits

January 18th, 2010

By default, Microsoft Exchange 2003 is preconfigured to limit the size of the Exchange Data file size to 16GB. If you have Microsoft Exchange 2003 SP2 installed you can use the registry to alter the 16GB limit to a larger size, anywhere up to 75GB. You can also add further registry keys that can:-

• Warn you when the Database size reaches a preset limit

• Configure the preset time of day this Database size check occurs

All of the Registry Changes are made in the following location:-

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\<SERVER NAME>\Private-013e2e46-2cd7-4a8e-bfec-0e4652b94b00

For More Information, Visit Microsoft Technet at:-

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998066(EXCHG.65).aspx

Century IT Services – Getting IT Right
Providing Computer Support & Network Support to businesses in Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey, Wiltshire, Sussex & Berkshire

Firewall service stopped because an application filter module C:\WINDOWS\system32\msvcrt.dll generated an exception code C0000005

October 5th, 2009

You may find you have intermittent Microsoft ISA Firewall crashes on a Microsoft Small Business Server 2003 Premium Edition that has Symantec Endpoint Protection and Symantec Backup Exec Installed.

When Symantec Backup Exec is backing up, an event is is displayed in the Application Event Viewer (see below) and users lose connectivity to the SBS 2003 server:-  

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Microsoft Firewall
Event Category: None
Event ID: 14057
Date: 29/09/2009
Time: 08:32:08
User: N/A
Computer: Server-SBS
Description:
The Firewall service stopped because an application filter module C:\WINDOWS\system32\msvcrt.dll generated an exception code C0000005 in address 77BC6F76 when function CompleteAsyncConnect was called. To resolve this error, remove recently installed application filters and restart the service.For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

To resolve this problem you will need to add some exceptions to the Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager – Centralized  Exceptions Policies.

Add some exceptions to exclude Microsoft ISA Server data directories from being included in the Symantec Endpoint Realtime Scanning.

Symantec Endpoint Protection Manager Console

Symantec Endpoint Protection - Centralized Exceptions

Symantec Endpoint Protection - Exclude ISA Cache Folder

Symantec Endpoint Protection - Add Exception for ISA Log Folder

Century IT Services – Getting IT Right
Providing Computer Support & Network Support to businesses in Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey, Wiltshire, Sussex & Berkshire.

ISA 2004 / ISA 2006 – Bypassing Web Proxy

August 18th, 2009

You might find some of your network users cant access certain sites when behind a Microsoft ISA 2004 Server.

These sites could be online banking, ecommerce or other web site which doesnt like parts of its web site being accessed through a proxy server.

The trick is to modify your ISA 2004 configuration to add certain sites to a ‘Directly Access’ list.

You can find this setting in configuration, networks, internal network. If you double click on the ‘Internal Network’ and choose the ‘Web Browser’ tab, you can add your list of domains or internet addresses that you want to bypass the ISA 2004 Server Web Proxy.

Useful Links

Microsoft ISA Server

Century IT Services – Getting IT Right
Providing Computer Support & Network Support to businesses in Hampshire, Dorset, Surrey, Wiltshire, Sussex & Berkshire