For those of you who have not upgraded to Exchange 2003, there are many reasons to consider it. While there are several new features, the security enhancements and new Outlook Web Access (OWA) are the most compelling.  This article will detail some of the key enhancements.

Enhanced Security features of Exchange 2003

As part of their ongoing security initiative, Microsoft has built Exchange 2003 with many new and enhanced security features.  Relevant features include:

Secure by default
Exchange 2003 disables services and features out of the box that could be exploited by attackers. For example, Post Office Protocol (POP), Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), and Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) are disabled by default for new installations. NNTP also has anonymous authentication disabled by default. In addition, Outlook Mobile Access is disabled by default.

Ability to restrict distribution lists to authenticated users
Exchange 2003 allows administrators to restrict access to distribution lists to only allow authenticated users to send messages. In addition, administrators can restrict access to a specific distribution list on a user-by-user basis.

Support of real-time safe lists and block lists
Exchange 2003 administrators can use real-time safe and block lists to filter incoming messages. This allows organizations to limit the amount of unsolicited email they receive.

Ability to accept or reject messages based on IP address
Exchange 2003 administrators can create lists of IP addresses from which to block or allow messages. These lists are now stored in the Active Directory and may be bound to specific Exchange servers. This allows for finer granularity for organizations with multiple Exchange 2003 servers.

Inbound recipient filtering
Inbound email to an Exchange 2003 server is filtered on recipient. Any inbound email to a recipient that does not exist in the Active Directory is not accepted for delivery, resulting in a Non-Delivery Report (NDR) to the sender. This also reduces the amount of unsolicited email.

Anti-spoofing measures
This allows Exchange 2003 users to verify whether a message originated from an authenticated or anonymous sender outside the organization. This gives the user a clue as to whether or not the sender is spoofing an address.

Kerberos authentication between a front-end and back-end server
Because Exchange 2003 is integrated with the Active Directory, Exchange 2003 takes advantage of industry-standard Kerberos security. For example, credentials between a front-end Exchange server (an Outlook Web Access server) and a back-end server (where a user’s mailbox resides) are passed using Kerberos authentication.

Improved Outlook Web Access (OWA)

We at KMA depend heavily on OWA to receive and send corporate email when we are at home or a client site. Another great reason to upgrade your Exchange environment to Exchange 2003 is improved Outlook Web Access (OWA). The Outlook Web Access user experience now more closely resembles the user experience of the Office 2003 Outlook desktop application. Relevant enhancements to OWA include:

User Interface Features
The new Outlook Web Access user interface includes a reading layout mode for messages, as well as the ability to set the number of items shown in the message view.

Reading Messages
Attachments can now be opened from the reading pane. In addition, sender address properties can be read from the reading pane, and the information bar is also available.

Sending Messages
Email messages may now be created directly from the address book. Outlook Web Access now also supports AutoSignatures, the ability to insert a signature on demand, as well as the ability to set a default font for new messages.

Receiving / Replying to Messages
Outlook Web Access now notifies the user when a new message has arrived. In addition, Outlook Web Access now provides advanced search capability for messages in the user’s inbox as well as any other folder.

Organizing Messages
Users now have the ability to flag messages for follow-up, mark messages as read or unread, and send messages from a public folder.

Address Book and Global Address Lists
Users now have access to general Global Address List properties such as name, address, and phone.

Calendar
Users have the ability to forward or reply to a meeting request, as well as the ability to invoke the calendar from a meeting request to see the user’s full schedule.

Contacts
Users now have the ability to view contacts by follow-up flag.

Tasks
Prior versions of Outlook Web Access provided no user interface to tasks. The new version gives the user the ability to create and manage tasks, and provides simple and detailed task views such as view by Active/Completed/Overdue status. Task reminders and task public folders are also available.

Security and Content Management
Outlook Web Access now allows the user of Internet-standard S/MIME security extensions, which allow the user to digitally sign and encrypt email messages and attachments. Users may also selectively disable attachments from being viewed outside the corporate firewall. In addition, Outlook Web Access now supports automatic logoff after the user’s current session has been inactive for a period of time.

Summary