• iPhone,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Configure Apple Push Notifications In Yosemite Server

    Push Notifications can be used in most every service in the Server app, especially in 3.5 for Yosemite (which I still like to call Yosemite Server as it makes me think of Yosemite Sam in a tux, pouring champagne). Any service that requires Push Notifications will provide the ability to setup APNS during the configuration of the service. But at this point, I usually just set up Push Notifications when I setup a new server. To enable Push Notifications for services, you’ll first need to have a valid AppleID. Once you have an AppleID, open the Server app and then click on the name of the server. At the Overview…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Upgrading to Mountain Lion Server

    Now that we’ve looked at what you get and what you don’t get in Mountain Lion Server, let’s take a little while to look at what the upgrade path itself looks like. Before we start, let’s just say that upgrading to Mountain Lion Server is probably one of the fastest, easiest and most boring upgrades you’ll ever get to do. And I say this more to the credit of the engineers that made the process so simple. Apparently there are bonuses to your Server just being an app. There is a catch, some of the services are gone. Another catch, you’re gonna’ need to have a system that meets the…

  • Mac OS X,  Mass Deployment,  Microsoft Exchange Server,  Windows Server

    How Exchange's Autodiscover Works With Mail.app

    Autodiscover automatically configures profile settings for Exchange clients. These clients include Microsoft Outlook 2007 or Outlook 2010, Outlook for Mac, Mail.app in Mac OS X, iPhone, iPad and ActiveSync enabled phones. Autodiscover is often made out to be complicated. There’s an Autodiscover service that gets installed when a Client Access Server (CAS) role is setup for Exchange 2010 in the form of a default virtual directory named Autodiscover for the default Web site in Internet Information Services (IIS). You then forward an autodiscover service locater record in DNS in the form of _autodiscover._tcp. The virtual directory handles Autodiscover requests. But what about other vendors, and even for Exchange, how do…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac Security,  MobileMe

    SMIME in OS X Lion

    In a previous article I showed how to get and install an SMIME certificate. Now let’s look at installing it into Mail. It’s really, really hard. First, open Mail. Then, click on the Mail menu and select Preferences. Then click on Accounts. Then click on the account you got an SMIME cert for. Then, in the TLS box, select the certificate you want to use. Next, go to compose a new message. You will see the little disclosure triangle to the left of the From dialog. Click on it and then check the box for the lock and the icon to the right of that, meant to look like a…