Add a Disclaimer
Append text automatically to the end of all your organization's outgoing Internet messages.
by Ben Schorr and Jim McBee
December 2002 Issue
Q Is there a Registry hack, programming trick, special file, or product that can plug into Exchange 2000 to add a disclaimer automatically to all messages flowing to e-mail addresses outside the domain?
—Andrew, Sydney, Australia
A Ben: Unfortunately, there's no magic button you can click on to enable a disclaimer on the bottom of every message. The Exchange 5.5 Resource Kit provides such a feature, but it's not available for Exchange 2000. Your best bet is to purchase a third-party tool such as Mail essentials, MIMEsweeper, or XWall for Microsoft Exchange.
Jim: Another solution, if you're programmatically inclined, is to write your own SMTP event sink (see Resources). An event sink is a script or program that runs when a certain event occurs, such as when the SMTP Advanced Queuing Engine prepares to transmit a message. However, writing one isn't as simple as it might sound, because you have to take the outgoing format of the message and other factors into consideration.
Ben: Also, disclaimers the server generates will break digital signatures because the disclaimer modifies the message's content after the message has been signed. When the signature is verified on the other end, the message will fail authentication because it won't match up. You can read more about SMTP event sinks on the Windows 2000 MSDN Web site. Go easy on the disclaimers, by the way. I've seen some ugly instances of lengthy disclaimers that are more annoying than effective.
Q How can I find out the service pack level of my Exchange 2000 servers? I also have a couple of servers in the same Exchange organization but at other locations. Can I determine which service pack they're running too without having to go to those sites?
—Mark, Los Angeles, Calif.
A Ben: Well, Mark, as we say here in the islands, "Sure, that's easy!" To find out which service pack your server's running, start the Microsoft Management Console, open the Exchange Organization collection, and under each Administrative Group (you might have only one) click on the Servers collection. In the right-hand pane, you'll see a list of the servers in that Administrative Group. The Server Version column tells you which version and build that server is running.
Jim: This displays all the servers in your Exchange 2000 organization—you don't have to go any further than your local console to find out which Exchange service packs they each run (see Figure 1).
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