Category Archives: Uncategorized

Exchange, Smarthosts, Basic Auth and TLS

Exchange server has the capability to use TLS to encrypt email in transit to another mail server.

When used for receiving, it checks that it trusts the root certificate (so a chain of trust is established) and the CRL (Certificate Revocation List) to make sure that the certificate has not been revoked in the CDP (CRL Distribution Point).

Therefore, if you want to use a certificate from a private CA, as well as importing the private root certificate to the trusted root certificates on both sides, you also need to publish a CRL on each side that the other side can check.

When you want a better filter for Windows event logs

The built in filtering in windows event logs is fine for when you want to find a specific event, but if you want to find when a specific service started or stopped, it’s not up to the job. Luckily there is the capability to use XML filters which I use in a custom view

 

<QueryList> 
 <Query Id="0"> 
  <Select Path="System"> 
  *[EventData[Data[@Name='param1'] and (Data='Hyper-V Time Synchronization Service')]] 
  </Select> 
 </Query> 
</QueryList>