Erratic or Totally Missing eMails with Windows SMTP Server

This week I was doing configuration work on a client's new SharePoint Server 2010 farm to get inbound & outbound mail set-up.  This project had a slightly "one-off" requirement in that their business uses Microsoft Office365 for their employees' email and Office suite.  Ergo, there is no on-premise Exchange or other mail server and instead we needed to set-up SharePoint to route mail via their mail domain inside Office365.  Fortunately, John White has two great blog posts covering this topology (though it references Office365's "predecessor," BPOS):

http://whitepages.unlimitedviz.com/2010/09/integrating-sharepoint-on-premises-with-bpos-and-exchange-online-part-1outbound/

http://whitepages.unlimitedviz.com/2010/10/integrating-sharepoint-on-premises-with-bpos-and-exchange-online-part-2-inbound/

I had the configuration done and had started unit testing the setup.  Outbound email was working fine but as we completed more and more inbound email tests and confirmed the SharePoint site's mail-enabled document library was getting the emails it became apparent that not ALL emails were making it in.  Time to put on the troubleshooting faceshield, crap-waders, leather gloves and get out the proper tools for computer troubleshooting:

 

Spam filter folders/logs showed nothing amiss. Examination of the SMTP log files showed that each test message resulted in the Office365 mailservers connecting to our SMTP server and seemingly delivering the email messages successfully (e.g. 200-series status codes, bytes-transferred relative to the test email's attachments).  No error messages could be found in the SharePoint ULS nor the Windows Event Logs.  Then, looking in the SMTP server's Badmail folder (default location is C:\inetpub\mailroot\Badmail) we discovered where all the missing emails were going.

For each missing message sent, three files existed in the Badmail folder; a .bad, a .bdr, and a .bdp.

This MS KB article describes the three file types in more detail:  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306043

But looking inside the .bdr files for an explanation gave only the following error information:

Unable to deliver this message because the follow error was encountered:This message is a delivery status notification that cannot be delivered.The specific error code was 0xC00402C7.

Sadly, that is a fairly generic error message and Googling it lead to many false leads (including the KB article above).


Over the course of several days we sent multiple messages from different email addresses (e.g. hotmail, gmail, internal to the client, etc.) and the puzzle only grew.  There seemed to be no absolute pattern to the failures. E.g. attachment v. no attachment, type of attachment, size of attachment, time of day, one sender v. another, one email service v. another, text in the body of the message.  Eventually, though, it started to seem that emails sent via corporate email servers (e.g. our Exchange server) had a higher failure rate.

So here is the short and skinny of it all:  The default setting in the MS SMTP Service (for IIS7.5...and probably all the way back to the first offering of SMTP Server) for the Maximum Hop Count is 15.

You can see that setting at the top of the Advanced Delivery tab as screenshotted in John White's coverage of SMTP configuration in his blog post (see URL above). Ignore his red circle around the Smart host parameter.....

In the old days, that was probably a pretty generous limit.  But, now days with outbound & inbound spam filters, corporate IP trackers, and global Web mail-provider networks (e.g. GMail), it seems it isn't that hard to have your email message passed through 15 machines on its zippity-do-da way around the big ole Internet as it goes to a server across the street from your office.  Depending on the gods-of-TCP/IP-routing and the current sum of the airspeed of all airborne English Sparrows, test messages that seemed to be identical tests resulted in different pass/fail results as some messages took slightly different (i.e. longer routes, they'd exceed the allowed Maximum Hop Count and the SMTP Server would do as configured and shove them into the Badmail folder.

 Raising the Maximum Hop Count to a more generous 99 (max allowed value is 255) solved the erratic-emails problem.

One other thing to note while your in the SMTP configuration is to ensure the message size and session limits on the Messages tab reflect modern email expectations...especially for a SharePoint server that will be accepting documents into a document library via email.  If nothing else, raise the "Limit Message Size To (KB)" parameter from its default value to something with real MB meat - e.g. 51200KB = 50MB (but don't forget that the default IIS & SharePoint file upload limits might still need to be addressed for your document library's needs, as well).

Sadly, the server never seemed to use the email address in the "Send Copy of Non-Delivery Report to:" parameter (aka Postmaster) to send an email notifying a human of the non-deliverable emails during our testing.

Oh, and here is a nice single-page overview sheet of the MS SMTP Server settings: http://www.tech-faq.com/understanding-and-managing-smtp-virtual-servers.html

Determine Which Version of SharePoint You're Running

This isn't anything new, just a summation of the best sources I've found for different ways to determine:

1) Am I running WSS v3 (Windows SharePoint Services v3) versus MOSS 2007 (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007).
2) Which version / build / hotfix / CU / SP of the respective software am I running?
3) Which edition of MOSS 2007 (standard or enterprise) am I running?

So try these references:

http://insomniacgeek.com/how-to-determine-the-installed-sharepoint-version/


http://www.heathersolomon.com/blog/archive/2007/05/11/SharePoint-Tip--How-to-tell-if-your-WSS-site.aspx

http://www.sharepointoverflow.com/questions/1395/determine-which-edition-of-sharepoint-is-installed

And if you have access to the SharePoint server's SQL Server:

SELECT [VersionId]



,[Version]


,[Id]


,[UserName]


,[TimeStamp]


,[FinalizeTimeStamp]


,[Mode]


,[ModeStack]


,[Updates]


,[Notes]


FROM [SharePoint_Config].[dbo].[Versions]

The root (must) read for Alternate Access Mappings in SharePoint 2007

http://blogs.msdn.com/sharepoint/archive/2007/03/06/what-every-sharepoint-administrator-needs-to-know-about-alternate-access-mappings-part-1.aspx

Prepare files for upload to SharePoint

'______________________________________________________________________________________________
'++++++++++++++++++++ File Digester for SharePoint Document Library Loading ++++++++++++++++++++
'++++++++++++++++++++ File Digester for SharePoint Document Library Loading ++++++++++++++++++++
'++++++++++++++++++++ File Digester for SharePoint Document Library Loading ++++++++++++++++++++
'+
'+
'+ +++++ Usage Summary +++++
'+ Allows a source root folder to be specified (in CONFIG Section below) and have all files and sub-folders' files
'+ to be crawled. Every file found is checked for:
'+ 1) SharePoint-disallowed characters in the filename.
'+ 2) barred filetype extensions (i.e. the OoTB ones for SharePoint)
'+ 3) filename length longer than 128 characters (i.e. SP's max allowed).
'+
'+ You must specify the destination folder for the "cleaned-upu" files to be COPIED to. I.e. the original's are left untouched.
'+ You can also specify if you want the outputted copies to be broken into subfolders.
'+ If you do so, you need to specify what total size you want to aim for for each sub-folder.
'+
'+ See Deron for more details if need be.
'+
'+ '+++++ Revision History +++++
'+
'+ 2010-02-13 (21:45MDT) Deron S. Dilger Original Version
'+
'+
'+
'______________________________________________________________________________________________




Option Explicit

Dim intDebugLevel
Dim DisallowedCharArray
Dim SubstitutionChar
Dim DisallowedExtensionsArray
Dim SubstitutionExtension
Dim strSourceRootPath
Dim strDestRootPath
Dim CurrentPath
Dim strCurrentDestPath
Dim CopyResult
Dim intDocIDStart
Dim intFilesFoundCounter
Dim intFoldersFoundCounter
Dim intBadCharsCounted
Dim intBadExtCounted
Dim intTooLongNamesCounted
Dim MsgOut
Dim CurrentPrefix
Dim intMaxFileCount
Dim blnOutputDestSubs
Dim MaxOutputFolderSizeMB
Dim objShell
Dim objFSO
Dim objLogTS
Dim intUserResponse
Dim objSrcRootFolder
Dim objDestRootFolder

Dim FileDigestionLogPath
Dim aItem 'the object (file or folder) found by the recursive FSO crawl

'--- Set counters to zero
intFilesFoundCounter = 0
intFoldersFoundCounter = 0
intBadCharsCounted = 0
intBadExtCounted = 0
intTooLongNamesCounted = 0

'______________________________________________________________________________________________
'++++++++++ CONFIGURATION AREA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
'++++++++++ CONFIGURATION AREA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
'++++++++++ CONFIGURATION AREA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

intDebugLevel = 0 '0=off, 1 = low verbosity, 2 = medium, 3 = high

'--- SharePoint doesn't allow the following characters in files uploaded to docLib.../ \ : * ? " < > | # { } % ~ &
'--- but since WinXP doesn't allow the following characters \/:*?"<>|
'--- we'll only check for # {}%~&
DisallowedCharArray = Array("#", Chr(9), "{", "}", "*", "~", "&")
SubstitutionChar = "^"

'---
DisallowedExtensionsArray = LoadDisallowedExtensionsArray() 'see the function to modify which extensions are corrected
SubstitutionExtension = ".XYZ"

'strSourceRootPath = "C:\PRRIP Library Digester"
strSourceRootPath = "C:\PRRIP Files"
strDestRootPath = "C:\PRRIP Library Digested For SP Uploader"

FileDigestionLogPath = strDestRootPath & "\^^^FileDigestion.log"

intDocIDStart = 0 'this will be incremented the first time into the loop so start one less than the desired first ID
intMaxFileCount = 5000
blnOutputDestSubs = True
MaxOutputFolderSizeMB = 180

'______________________________________________________________________________________________
'++++++++++ CODE AREA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
'++++++++++ CODE AREA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
'++++++++++ CODE AREA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

intFilesFoundCounter = 0
intFoldersFoundCounter = 0

Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject ("WScript.Shell")
'### Set objFolder = objShell.Namespace (folderPath)
Set objFSO = WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objSrcRootFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(strSourceRootPath)

'--- See if our output/destination folder exists and if not, create it.
If objFSO.FolderExists(strDestRootPath) Then
intUserResponse = objShell.PopUp("Destination Folder" & vbCrLf & "'" & strDestRootPath & "'" & vbCrLf & " already exists!", ,"Proceed with Pre-Existing Destination Folder?", 52)
If intUserResponse = 7 Then
WScript.Quit
Else
Set objDestRootFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(strDestRootPath)
End If
Else
Set objDestRootFolder = objFSO.CreateFolder(strDestRootPath)
End If
'--- set our current output/destination folder as the root destination folder to start
strCurrentDestPath = strDestRootPath

'--- create the output log to record our file digesting moves into
If objFSO.FileExists(FileDigestionLogPath) Then
intUserResponse = objShell.PopUp("Digestion Log" & vbCrLf & "'" & FileDigestionLogPath & "'" & vbCrLf & " already exists!", ,"Append to Pre-Existing File Digestion Log?", 52)
If intUserResponse = 7 Then
WScript.Quit
End If
End If
Set objLogTS = objFSO.OpenTextFile(FileDigestionLogPath, 8, True)

objLogTS.WriteBlankLines(3)
objLogTS.WriteLine("++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++")
objLogTS.WriteLine("++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++")
objLogTS.WriteLine("++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++")
objLogTS.WriteLine("File Digestion Started at " & Now)
objLogTS.WriteBlankLines(3)
objLogTS.WriteLine("!X! in a new filename indicates an intentionally truncated filename.")
objLogTS.WriteLine("^ in a new filename indicates an intentionally substituted character in the new filename.")
objLogTS.WriteLine("a double-extension filename indicates an intentionally added 'safe' extension for the filename.")
objLogTS.WriteLine("Field header row follows after three blank lines.....")
objLogTS.WriteBlankLines(3)
'--- Write the field header line to the log
objLogTS.WriteLine("DocID" & Chr(9) & "OutputPath" & Chr(9) & "OriginalPathAndName" & Chr(9) & "NewFileName")


'--- create the first sub-folder in the output folder if subs are desired
If blnOutputDestSubs Then
strCurrentDestPath = strCurrentDestPath & "\" & CStr(intDocIDStart+1)
'### WScript.echo("Check for existance of " & strCurrentDestPath & vbcrlf & " is:" & CStr(objFSO.FolderExists(strCurrentDestPath)))
If Not objFSO.FolderExists(strCurrentDestPath) Then
objFSO.CreateFolder(strCurrentDestPath)
End If
End If


'--- enter the recursive function to crawl the source folder's subfolders and rename/relocate all found files.
getInfo(objSrcRootFolder)

'--- build the final msg

MsgOut = "File Digestion Ended at " & Now & vbCrLf
MsgOut = MsgOut & "All done!" & vbCrLf & intFilesFoundCounter & " Files found in root folder plus " & intFoldersFoundCounter & " subfolders." & vbCrLf
MsgOut = MsgOut & "Bad Characters Removed = " & intBadCharsCounted & vbCrLf
MsgOut = MsgOut & "Bad Extensions Stuffed = " & intBadExtCounted & vbCrLf
MsgOut = MsgOut & "Overly-long Filenames Chopped = " & intTooLongNamesCounted & vbCrLf

WScript.Echo(MsgOut)

objLogTS.WriteBlankLines(3)
objLogTS.WriteLine(MsgOut)
objLogTS.Close
WScript.Quit

'+++ Some brainscribbles....
'### objFSO.MoveFile origFullName, newFullName

'______________________________________________________________________________________________

'++++++++++ FUNCTIONS AREA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
'++++++++++ FUNCTIONS AREA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
'++++++++++ FUNCTIONS AREA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Function LoadDisallowedExtensionsArray
'### .List of disallowed file extensions:
Dim TempArray
TempArray = Array(_
".ade",_
".adp",_
".app",_
".asa",_
".ash",_
".asm",_
".asp",_
".bas",_
".bat",_
".cdx",_
".cer",_
".chm",_
".class",_
".cmd",_
".cnt",_
".com",_
".config",_
".cpl",_
".crt",_
".csh",_
".der",_
".dll",_
".exe",_
".fxp",_
".gadget",_
".hlp",_
".hpj",_
".hta",_
".htr",_
".htw",_
".ida",_
".idc",_
".idq",_
".ins",_
".isp",_
".its",_
".jse",_
".ksh",_
".lnk",_
".mad",_
".maf",_
".mag",_
".mam",_
".maq",_
".mar",_
".mas",_
".mat",_
".mau",_
".mav",_
".maw",_
".mda",_
".mdb",_
".mde",_
".mdt",_
".mdw",_
".mdz",_
".msc",_
".msh",_
".msh1",_
".msh1xml",_
".msh2",_
".msh2xml",_
".mshxml",_
".msi",_
".msp",_
".mst",_
".ops",_
".pcd",_
".pif",_
".prf",_
".prg",_
".printer",_
".pst",_
".reg",_
".rem",_
".scf",_
".scr",_
".sct",_
".shb",_
".shs",_
".shtm",_
".shtml",_
".soap",_
".stm",_
".url",_
".vb",_
".vbe",_
".vbs",_
".ws",_
".wsc",_
".wsf",_
".wsh"_
)
LoadDisallowedExtensionsArray = TempArray
End Function
'______________________________________________________________________________________________


Function getInfo(pCurrentDir)
CurrentPath = objFSO.GetAbsolutePathName(pCurrentDir)
For Each aItem In pCurrentDir.Files
intFilesFoundCounter = intFilesFoundCounter + 1
CurrentPrefix = CStr(intFilesFoundCounter + intDocIDStart) & "-"
Dim OrigFilename
Dim NewFilename
OrigFileName = CStr(aItem.Name)
NewFileName = OrigFileName
NewFileName = CleanUpBadChars(NewFileName)
NewFileName = ChangeBadExtensions(NewFileName)
NewFileName = ChopNameLength(NewFileName, CurrentPrefix)

'--- debug info output?
If intDebugLevel > 1 Then
WScript.Echo ("File Found = " & intFilesFoundCounter & vbCrLf &_
"Current Dir: " & CurrentPath & vbCrLf & "Current File: " &_
aItem.Name & vbCrLf & "Relocated File's filename will be: " & NewFileName)
End If


'--- Move the files
CopyResult = CopySPSafeFilename((CurrentPath & "\" & OrigFileName), NewFileName)

'--- write the file modification info to the log
objLogTS.WriteLine(intFilesFoundCounter + intDocIDStart & Chr(9) & CurrentPath & Chr(9) & OrigFileName & Chr(9) & NewFileName)

If (intFilesFoundCounter > intMaxFileCount) Or (intFilesFoundCounter = intMaxFileCount) Then
Exit For
End If
Next

For Each aItem In pCurrentDir.SubFolders
intFoldersFoundCounter = intFoldersFoundCounter + 1

'--- if we haven't hit our stoppoint for files, keep digging.
If (intFilesFoundCounter > intMaxFileCount) Or (intFilesFoundCounter = intMaxFileCount) Then
Exit For
Else
If intDebugLevel > 1 Then
WScript.Echo ("Found sub-folder #: " & intFoldersFoundCounter & vbCrLF &_
"We are recursively passing thru sub-folder" & vbCrLf & aItem.Name)
End If
getInfo(aItem)
End If

Next
End Function
'______________________________________________________________________________________________


Function CleanUpBadChars(FileToCheck)
'--- SharePoint doesn't allow the following characters in files uploaded to docLib.../ \ : * ? " < > | # { } % ~ &
'--- but since WinXP doesn't allow the following characters \/:*?"<>|
'--- we'll only check for # {}%~&
'--- and the filename has to be shorter than 128 characters

'---count how many substitution chars we already have (by subtracting from the counter will use for bad ones below
Dim intBCCL
Dim NewBCCount
For intBCCL = 1 To Len(FileToCheck)
If Mid(FileToCheck, intBCCL, 1) = SubstitutionChar Then
NewBCCount = NewBCCount - 1
End If
Next

'--- now loop through the array of disallowed characters and replace any that are found in the filename
Dim NameCheckLoopCounter
For NameCheckLoopCounter = LBound(DisallowedCharArray) To UBound(DisallowedCharArray)
If intDebugLevel > 1 Then
WScript.Echo ("Checking " & vbCrLf & FileToCheck & vbCrLf & "for " & DisallowedCharArray(NameCheckLoopCounter))
End If
FileToCheck = Replace(FileToCheck, DisallowedCharArray(NameCheckLoopCounter), SubstitutionChar, 1)
Next

'---count how many bad chars we replaced
For intBCCL = 1 To Len(FileToCheck)
If Mid(FileToCheck, intBCCL, 1) = SubstitutionChar Then
NewBCCount = NewBCCount + 1
End If
Next
intBadCharsCounted = intBadCharsCounted + NewBCCount

CleanUpBadChars = FileToCheck
End Function
'______________________________________________________________________________________________


Function ChangeBadExtensions(FileToCheck)
'--- SharePoint blocks file uploads OoTB for files with certain extensions.
'--- and the filename has to be shorter than 128 characters
Dim NameCheckLoopCounter
For NameCheckLoopCounter = LBound(DisallowedExtensionsArray) To UBound(DisallowedExtensionsArray)
If intDebugLevel > 3 Then
WScript.Echo ("Checking " & vbCrLf & FileToCheck & vbCrLf & "for " & DisallowedExtensionsArray(NameCheckLoopCounter))
End If
'FileToCheck = Replace(FileToCheck, DisallowedExtensionsArray(NameCheckLoopCounter), SubstitutionExtension, 1)
If Right(FileToCheck, Len(DisallowedExtensionsArray(NameCheckLoopCounter))) = DisallowedExtensionsArray(NameCheckLoopCounter) Then
'--- Use the following equation to REPLACE the bad extension...
'FileToCheck = Left(FileToCheck, (Len(FileToCheck) - Len(DisallowedExtensionsArray(NameCheckLoopCounter)))) & SubstitutionExtension
'--- or use the following equation to tack the substitution extension on the end.
FileToCheck = FileToCheck & SubstitutionExtension
intBadExtCounted = intBadExtCounted + 1
End If
Next
ChangeBadExtensions = FileToCheck
End Function
'______________________________________________________________________________________________


Function ChopNameLength(FileToCheck, pCurrentPrefix)
If Len(FiletoCheck) > (128-Len(pCurrentPrefix)) Then
FileToCheck = "!X!" & Right(FileToCheck,((128-Len(pCurrentPrefix))-3) )
intTooLongNamesCounted = intTooLongNamesCounted + 1
End If
ChopNameLength = pCurrentPrefix & FileToCheck
End Function
'______________________________________________________________________________________________


Function CopySPSafeFilename(pOrigFPath, pNewFName)
Dim objCurrentOutputFolder
Dim strCalcDestFilePath

If blnOutputDestSubs Then
Set objCurrentOutputFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(strCurrentDestPath)
'### WScript.Echo("size of " & strCurrentDestPath & " in MB is: " & (objCurrentOutputFolder.Size / 1048576 ) )
If (objCurrentOutputFolder.Size / 1048576) > MaxOutputFolderSizeMB Then 'math of output folder size if for MegaBytes,
'###If (objCurrentOutputFolder.Size / 1024) > MaxOutputFolderSizeMB Then 'math of output folder size if for KILOBytes, not MB (for testing)
'create a new folder and change workingoutputpath
strCurrentDestPath = strDestRootPath & "\" & CStr(intFilesFoundCounter + intDocIDStart)
'### WScript.echo("Check for existance of " & strCurrentDestPath & vbcrlf & " is:" & CStr(objFSO.FolderExists(strCurrentDestPath)))
If Not objFSO.FolderExists(strCurrentDestPath) Then
objFSO.CreateFolder(strCurrentDestPath)
End If
End If
End If

strCalcDestFilePath = strCurrentDestPath & "\" & pNewFName

If intDebugLevel > 0 Then
WScript.Echo("Moving......" & vbCrLf & pOrigFPath & vbCrLf & "To" & vbCrLf & strCalcDestFilePath)
End If


objFSO.CopyFile pOrigFPath, strCalcDestFilePath, False
CopySPSafeFilename = 0
End Function

Good Resources for coded/scripted File Uploads to SharePoint DocLibs

Here are some useful resources if you (like me) are trying to upload documents to a SharePoint 2007 (MOSS or WSS) document library with code:

http://sharepointfieldnotes.blogspot.com/2009/09/uploading-content-into-sharepoint-let.html

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepointdevelopment/thread/5ba4f06e-020b-490a-9452-163ac64fd2f3

How to modify a SharePoint _Hidden Site Column

Putting aside the debate (for now) of whether or not you should modify native (aka out-of-the-box) Site Columns in SharePoint (WSS v3.0 / MOSS 2007), here is a way to easily modify site columns that are in the _Hidden Site Column group. <Std. Disclaimer> If you don't understand what this is about, don't risk doing this.</Std.Disclaimer>:

First get to an admin page that shows you the Site Column. You can do this by going to Site Settings > Site Content Type Gallery and click on a Site Content Type that includes the _Hidden Site Column you want to tweak:

Here is a partial view of the Site Content Type Gallery. We are going to click on the "Document" CT so we can modify the _Hidden Site Column "Name."

Note in the following view (it's hard to see, though) that the "Name" site column is NOT a link but "Title" site column is a link to its modify page.

I.e. If we click on the "Title" column's link, we get to this page, which in turn has a link to edit the site column:

If we clicked on that link it takes us to the edit page for the site column:

Now look at the URL for the "Change Site Content Type Column: Document" page:

http://MyMOSSSite/_layouts/ManageContentTypeField.aspx?ctype=0x0101&Field=Title&Fid=%7Bfa564e0f%2D0c70%2D4ab9%2Db863%2D0177e6ddd247%7D

AH!! Lookie there, a field name and GUID in the querystring. So now we just need the field ID for the Name field that the SharePoint GUI is refusing to render a link for. Well, let's look at the source for this page (where the "Columns" section is described):

WSS uses the field GUID as the id so there is the GUID for the "Name" site column -

So now we can do some substition...

The "Title" Site Column's (field) ID=fa564e0f-0c70-4ab9-b863-0177e6ddd247

The "Name" Site Column's (field) ID=8553196d-ec8d-4564-9861-3dbe931050c8

and looking at the link for the "Title" column's editing page...

ManageContentTypeField.aspx?ctype=0x0101&Field=Title&Fid=%7Bfa564e0f%2D0c70%2D4ab9%2Db863%2D0177e6ddd247%7D

So let's hack our way to the "Name" S.C. field "Manage" page using the "Name" S.C.'s GUID:

ManageContentTypeField.aspx?ctype=0x0101&Field=Title&Fid=%7B8553196d-ec8d-4564-9861-3dbe931050c8%7D

which we should clean up to have the dashes in the GUID HTML encoded as %2D to get...

ManageContentTypeField.aspx?ctype=0x0101&Field=Title&Fid=%7B8553196dec8d%2D4564%2D9861%2D3dbe931050c8%7D

Which for the full URL works out to be:

http://MyMOSSSite/_layouts/ManageContentTypeField.aspx?ctype=0x0101&Field=Title&Fid=%7B8553196d%2Dec8d%2D4564%2D9861%2D3dbe931050c8%7D

Which when requested against our SharePoint site gets us:

And from there we can click that edit link to get the page to edit the _Hidden site column "Name":



Insert evil Gene-e-Us laugh here.

Warning: Do NOT change the group or column name without potentially really hosing up your WSS/MOSS site. For this example I was changing the "Description" value for the "Name" field.

If you mess up and rename an out-of-the-box site column and try to change it back, you'll get a warning that prevents you from doing so. If you muck that up, see this KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923589

If a content type that contains the site column you want to modify is not listed in the Site Content Type Gallery, you may need to drill into the list of columns via a list that uses that content type. For example, the "Event" content type is _Hidden but you can get to it by opening up a calendar list's list settings:

Here is a site that has a full list of the SharePoint ID's for a more direct route:

http://www.aarebrot.net/site/index.php/sitedefinitions/20-sharepointcolumnfieldids