February 22, 2010

Notification: WSB Can Do Notifications

I had a client who, much to my dismay, purchased a new server from Dell and opted not to go with Backup Exec but rather the free Yosemite Backup application that ships with the RD1000 drives. Not a huge deal until I discovered after a good deal of troubleshooting that Yosemite does not work with Server 2008 R2. Long story short, we were left with no option but to use Windows Server Backup and find a way to configure e-mail notifications.

February 11, 2010

AOL Can Break Rules

While testing an SMTP connection to AOL's mail servers, I got this awesome syntax error response when I forgot to put a space between "MAIL" and "FROM":

220-mtain-mi12.r1000.mx.aol.com ESMTP Internet Inbound

220-America Online (AOL) and its affiliated companies do not
220-authorize the use of its proprietary computers and compuer
220-networks to accept, transmit, or distribute unsolicited bulk
220-e-mail sent from the internet
220-
220-Effective immediately:
220-AOL may no longer accept connections from IP addresses
220 which no do not have reverse-DNS (PTR records) assigned.
HELO paulhite.com
250 mtain-mi12.r1000.mx.aol.com
MAILFROM:test@paulhite.com
221 2.7.0 Error: I can break rules, too. Goodbye.
Connection to host lost.

Yes you can.

February 09, 2010

Study Time!

Updates to the blog will be more sporadic than usual as I concentrate on my last few months of college, my final design exam for the MCSE, and the upcoming Cisco course. Phew!

Red Flags and the Value of Experience

One of the things I hear often said, and something I subscribe to as well, is the idea that a lot of technical knowledge in the world of IT ...