Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 - Email like its 1998

In this video we're going to take a look at Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5, Microsoft flagship email server program from 1998. We'll cover the basic installation and set it up for internet email.

Enjoy the video !

0:00 - Introduction
0:33 - To virtualize or not
2:36 - Word from our sponsor
3:17 - Windows NT 4.0 setup
8:25 - Installing Service Pack 6
8:54 - Virtual Box Guest Additions
9:27 - Microsoft Exchange Server installation
10:35 - Windows NT domain and users
13:11 - Outlook Web Access / NT Option Pack
16:00 - Microsoft Inbox / Exchange client
18:14 - Outlook 97 (Exchange Client)
19:23 - Outlook Express
20:43 - Exchange Server Internet Mail Service
22:48 - Exchange Server MS MAil connector and outro

[rottenfist]

Those pre 2000 MS products aged me considerably. Even the sight of it gave me chills...

[ianhollis]

Love your video. Back in 1998 I was Network Administrator for a State Government organisation. NT was our server OS of choice and Windows 95\98 the Client. Mail server was Exchange. Boy the memories came flooding back. I remember our system availability was 99.99% which was far better than other networks at that time. The server room was a glassed goldfish bowl and I was often swimming around performing various maintenance tasks, waving at staff as they passed by. Best job I ever had, and they paid me for it. Survived Y2K bug no problem 😉 thanks for your video. 😍🥰

[darkavenger]

I LOVE how you show and explain this kind of stuff, so this way of doing things is not forgotten forever. It's sad when people retire, a lot of knowledge disappears and the new generations aren't respecting that because it's "old culture". Thank you for showing us how stuff was done in the past, this is better than a museum.

[kristofnys]

This brings back memories! Spent the first 6 years of the 2000’s as a system and exchange admin… (and also from Belgium and from ‘78 😊)

[mxmaverinho]

When I moved to my first dorm room late 90's I was the only one in the building with a 1 mbit internet connection. I provided internet services for around 10 people using a bnc network that I cabled myself and 2 servers (pentium 200 if I recall correctly) that I setup in my closet aka server room and provided a mailbox with it hosted by an exchange server The other server ran ISA server as a router / firewall. A real trip down memory lane for me.

[timanderson]

Brings back memories of one of my first Sys Admin gigs. Every change always required a reboot. Every reboot was long as it had to check all the server hardware. There was no snappy internet to look up any questions. A lot of hours spent sitting in the server room ripping away at items trying to get the PDC/BDCs and Exchange server talking and then routing mail.

[Giepie]

You made it look too easy :D

Back in those days it was really hard to configure these things, mostly because computers (and servers) were real slow... Make a mistake, or try with incorrect DNS, and you go home hours later...

Thanks for a look back at the old days :D

[jeremiefaucher-goulet]

This is more fascinating than I imagined

[olivierdebonne]

Thanks for taking us with you on this trip through email memory lane. It’s amazing that Exchange Server 5.5 was released almost 25 years ago. I have installed and supported a lot of those environments for our customers back in the days, including connecting many of those to the Internet for the very first time. With Office 365, a lot has changed over the time…

[vincentnnyc]

I don’t know why youtube recommended your video…but this bring back nostalgia back in the 90’s when i first started my career as IT support in nyc!

[MKnife]

I was a support tech at Microsoft PSS nordic 1995-99. I started out with NT/Win3.11/95 then moved on to the Exchange team in -96, supporting 4, 5 and 5.5 (and even occasional MS-Mail on which I also was certified). I remember all the connectors, MTA:s, isintegs, ds/is consistency checks, eseutil etc. And most of all I remember what it was like when Bedlam DL 3 happened, which gave Exchange a really hard time with the reply all storm. But it never crashed completely. Good old memories, thank you for reviving some of them!

[International_Criminal_Court]

Always love watching your retro systems, retro softwares. Thanks a lot for such a great channel!

[williambrisa]

Wow, you can feel the engineers mind developing those products. It’s simple to use and works well, even if it was a pain to install. I must admit, seeing this outlook web interface got me very impressed. They were really at the forefront of what we use everyday today.

[judgewest]

This video hits my early career nostalgia. Working with Windows NT and Exchange and luckily Terminal Server/Citrix - I would sit amongst the servers knowing there were around 500 odd folk up and down the country hooked up to this doing their job and it felt incredibly powerful!

[xianox]

Nice to see you posting. This particular video was not my favourite subject, but still you are a brilliant narrator and generally nice productuction.

[cstr]

computing/server work in early 00's and late 90s was something else.
so personal and perfect

[airfixer]

Awesome video, great setup explanation...brings back happy memories 😍 Looking forward to the next one !

[isx]

The virtualization route was smart. I did an Exchange 5.5 install on Compaq Armada 7700DMT systems. It was just for recreation. Between the domain controller, Exchange server and client install it took hours. The video was a mess.

[josevusa]

Thanks for creating. I think the first version I installed in a corp environment was 5.0 around 1998 or so. So much more simpler back then, kind of. From 5.0 to 5.5 then to other versions. Great job.

[ProBloggerWorld]

Every second of this video rang a bell. I really appreciate it. I can imagine this setup for fun in a virtual environment at home for fun.

I hardly ever install real hardware machines since VMs are easier to use for reinstalls/fallbacks.