GBHPBOY passes 284 today and is now MCSA

found the exam very fair indeed, scored 850
plenty of time for it as well, had nearly half an hour to spare

I used MS Press, Exam Cram 2 which was excellent, the best EC2 book out of the 4 I have used.
Transcenders which have just been updated and are also brilliant as always.

Also decided to go for Train Signal CBT's this time, and was very very impressed by those, as a newbie to echange they really helped me to get into it and get my test lab at home singing and dancing real quick.

thanks again guys for support.
good luck with your studies, I've gone as far as I need to go now with these certs.

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Comments

Ricka182

congrats!

geekie

Congratz!!

Exam Cram 2 which was excellent, the best EC2 book out of the 4 I have used.

Totally agree with you on that one!

jescab

CONGRATZ dude..........

Treg

Congrats mate,

This is my last exam to complete MCSA, how long did you prepare overall, much previous experience? Im using Sybex 70-284 study guide which so far seems like a nice read and CBT Nuggets.

Any specific topics you recon requires more attention? Apparently no sims on this exam too?

steve-o87

Congrats

Trainsignal comes through again, they even rock with the MS certs

Good luck on the next one

LukeQuake

Congrats bro! How long did it take you to study for this one?

gbhpboy

hi Treg and LukeQuake

I started Mid August and took exam on Nov 21st.

I had zero exchange knowledge b4 I started and to be truth only did this one to finish off MCSA, but I also knowm that within HP who I work for there are opportunities to get into Exchange work.

This is why I started with Train Signal, because I wanted to get lots of hands on, before I got into the books and learned the Theory. When I went thru the Train Signal videos the second time a whole load then made much more sense.

This was a different approach to what I have used on the other exams I have taken, but it was really good, because when I did eventually near the end get into the Transcenders, I feel I really knew the stuff not just on a theory level but on a practical level as well. I really enjoyed actually getting my own exchange server up and running, email in and out, internal and external, including using dyndns.

There were some exceptions to this, namely Clustering, because try as I could I just didn't have the kit in my test lab to get a cluster properly set up and working. So I logged on to some clustered servers at work and had a look and also asked colleagues, and really spent more time learning the sort of questions that could come up regarding clustering on the exams. Without giving secrets away, I would recommend you do this as well.

There are no simulators in the exam, but there were quite a few questions that relied on knowledge from previous exams, for example 291. I would say you do need to be very conversant with IP config stuff, because you will get questions giving network diagrams, where an exchange server just isn't working and it probably won't be the exchange element that is broken.

The bread and butter exchange recipient stuff was very easy, and you will get questions that do rely on some basic AD knowledge, so make sure you know this.

This exam took less effort and less revision that 291, and was much more enjoyable.

Hope this helps and good luck, to you both.

LukeQuake

Thanks for sharing the info dude, i'm taking this exam soon!

itdaddy

I really enjoyed actually getting my own exchange server up and running, email in and out, internal and external, including using dyndns.

Hey gphpboy,

can you explain how you set your Exchange server up with dyndns
i am getting into dyndns and gees I dont know how i can setup my own
mail server.

I have a good understanding of many networking things like dns, mx record,
port forwardig in my router. but i am confused.

do you setup a virtual smtp server and then a connector?
and then how (without paying) does dyndns work with your home mail server?

i guess what i am saying is this: i am cofused how the public talks with the private side of dns and NAT transversal.

dyndns gets to my public Ip and stops at my gateway.
and then i port forward say on port 24 (cause my isp blocks 25)
and smtp traffic to my exhange server. but is that it?

i thought you had to pay for mailhop and mx records?
the free stuff has no free mx record support?

boy any help on this would be great!

and i already have a public domain name. itdaddy.net (go figure)

but i want my site to be query using itdaddy.net and not itdaddy.dyndns.org name. the free site only allows this child name schema correct? i would have to pay for what static name??? custom?
can you help me get a grip!! haha
thanks

I will be going through trainsignal tool; i have studied other courses as well by them and they rock![/quote]

royal

You would have to configure clients to send mail on port 24 so when they establish a connection with the server, they will use the port 24. Your router will port forward the public connection at port 24 to your internal exchange ip address. You should host your own dns server.

This is what you would have to do as long as your isp doesn't block these ports:

Create a dns server internally. Port forward 53 to your internal dns server. Go to your registrar and have them register ns1.itdaddy.net and ns2.itdaddy.net to point to your internal dns server. The registrar will then take these 2 ns records and propagate them through the root servers, tld servers, etc... Now on your internal dns server create a mx record to point to your internal mail server. Now when a client on the internet tries to see who the mail server is for itdaddy.net, they will contact the root server through the process of recursion, then a referral will be sent to the .net server, then a referral will be given to itdaddy.net, who will then response with the canonical name of the mail server. Now the client will establish connectivity to the mail server. As long as that client's e-mail client is set to establish communication on port 24, it should be fine.

As I've only been on my 284 exam for a week, my exchange is very weak still so I'm not exactly sure how to setup your own exchange server to send/receive mail to outside clients yet. I do know the dns process and how to host your own dns/web server on the internet which is what I explained in the previous paragraph.

itdaddy

icroyal

dude you should be an instructor; i understood all that you said.
thank you

and now if gphpboy would add your 2 cents on whatyou did to setup
your own MX server, etc with dyndns.org
what did you have to do; i understand have done stuff on the private
site but need to bridge the gap and icroyal you have enlighten me more.

icroyal, so in my private dns server which i do have running
do i put a child name of say ns1 and ns2 for say my internal mail server
which is purple.itdaddy.priv....how will this conlfict with my public domain
name of itdaddy.net; will it conflict or not because of the MX record estaablished on my dns server??

i have my privated call purple.itdaddy.priv
and my public domain name is itdaddy.net

and i am sure in bravenet.com which is my registrar
they have a config for name servers; which i have done before
but never my own. i didnt know i could use my own dns seerver
but with this dyndnsorg i can use my own dns server huh?
thanks
and i understand how to make sure to set my protocol smtp server to port 24.

so in gist; the public will use my DNS server for the mx record
and just as long as i point my itdaddy.net domain name to
ns1 and ns2?

okay i am getting myself confiused here.

i have itdaddy.net as my public domain name
but i have to use itdaddy.dyndns.org for my name since i am using
their free service to refresh dns to my public ip.

i cant name my ns1 and ns2 servers but have to
name them ns1.itdaddy.dyndns.org and ns2.itdaddy.dyndns.org
correct? or my question is how does root server know to look
at ns1 and ns2 child domain???

i hope i didnt confuse you

thanks so much

Treg

Thanks for sharing the information gbhpboy.

To be honest, im abit nervous about this exam, I havent failed the previous ones (did study alot longer for others), but my knowledge on exchange was about 20% before I picked up the Sybex book.

Im itching to do my CCNA, so just want it out the way

Cheers

itdaddy

gphpboy

hey you are on that uk forum too cool! me tooo!

hey sorry for the psycho babbel above about my not understanding
how to set up a mx server publically. i understand 85 %. so what i am going to do it some how get you a decent explaination of what i have done/understand and then you can help me piece in my puzzle.
if you guys have time. I willl display it neatly and logically so all you have to do is point me in the right directory based of what i know from what you see.
;D so it will be coming soon my little chart or something to display what i am going to do.
thanks guys
Robert(itdaddy)

[/img]

gbhpboy

Hi itdaddy

sorry I haven't come back to you b4 now.....
I'm busy at work today, but tommorrow I will have time to answer your question.

and I agree with you icroyal did give a really cool explanation above.

itdaddy

hey bud
yeah i talked with dyndns and i asked them if i have to get
custom dns to use my itdaddy.net vs their given name to me with the dyndns.org at the end.
and i willl need the mailhop(10 day backup if my mail server goes down)
i think that is all i need for basic ftp, http, vpn, and Mail relaying to my email server. my internal DNS is itdaddy.priv vs my public itdaddy.net which
is a register name but no nsx servers yet.

I am just curious how you set yours up MX records and all exactly
portforwards etc.. i really want my own
ftp
http
vpn into my home network
and my own mail server to manage for my own home IT shop
so i can use for testing purposes.
thanks gphpboy!

Itdaddy;D

I do understand busy i get that way and i forget my posts sometims
so i have no right to get cranky! i get very bizzy to; It is the nature of the job! hahaaa butu thanks!

Silver Bullet

There is no need to host your own DNS server in order to use dyndns.org. And if you do then you will only want to forward UDP port 53 to that server not TCP port 53. TCP port 53 is used for zone transfers and by forwarding that port to your internal DNS server you will open up your dns server for dns poisoning.

I am currently running a linux mail server at home using dyndns.org. My ISP blocks port 25, so I use my ISP as a mail relay host. All of my email is sent to my smtp server and my smtp server relays the emails to my ISP smtp where it is sent to the world. The only scenario that this would not work in is if you were trying to use an email client to access your email server remotely and had entered your smtp server as the smtp server to use on the client side.

I also use web based email for my home email server so these smtp server settings work like a charm since it is all being handled by the server.

There are no additional packages that you need to purchase from dyndns.org in order to use the xxxxxx.dyndns.org domain name. There is an option under "Modify Dynamic DNS" that allows you to specify the mx record. All you simply need to do is type in the dyndns domain name there. For example, if your domain name you have registered with dyndns is itdaddy.dyndns.org, then for the mx record on the aforementioned page you will enter itdaddy.dyndns.org for the mx record. Now any mail exchange requests are going to be forwarded to the IP address that is updated with their service.

Forward the necessary ports for email traffic to your email server and you are in business.

itdaddy

silver bullet

thanks for the info; finally 2 weeks ago had time to get my mail server on line
and my website online with Dyndns.org; i pay like 125 a year for register site name
itdaddy.net, and i use CustomDNS and Mailhop outbound with TLS and Mailhop relay
for inbound. Created my own mxrecords to reside on dyndyn dns servers.
and portforward appropriate ports. and waited 24 hours. bam

itdaddy.net born though my http is SSL with password for now.
robert@itdaddy.net is my email! addresses hosted on my own Exchange 2003 server.
yeah! love it.
nice to have full IT shop at home; later on want to make SPF record so noone can spoof my mx record.
but was alittle hairy at times but well worth say the 125.00 a year to get a sort of static IP. dyndns rocks!

anyone can email me to help them

itdaddy

also use web based email for my home email server so these smtp server settings work like a charm since it is all being handled by the server.

silver bullet

ru using https for your webmail? just curious and TLS outbound?

thanks