Exchange SMTP almost working :-(
I have set up Win2k SBS and the basic setup seems like it is working fine. Well now they want me to set up Exchange to host their internet email. They own several domains, so I am testing with a domain they don't acutally use yet.
I have set up Win2k SBS and the basic setup seems like it is working fine. Well now they want me to set up Exchange to host their internet email. They own several domains, so I am testing with a domain they don't acutally use yet.
The box is set behind an SMC router and I have opened up Ports 25 and 110 pointing to the server. I went into the Exchange SMTP virtual server and set up the domain name, and set the administrator to have an email account with the new domain. I can send to the email acount fine, and it can send out to SOME but not all domains. This is what is driving me a bit crazy.
The guy that was previously hosting their mail fixed the MX record properly (it appears) and if I do a telnet mail.theirdomain.com 25 it opens up fine. I don't understand why it can't send out to some domains but not others.
Any hints? Is there a problem with running Exchange behind a router as long as the ports are forwarded properly?
Thanks for any pointers. I did buy a $50 book on Exchange 2000 and have been reading it, but I have not found anything obvious that I have done wrong yet ...
The box is set behind an SMC router and I have opened up Ports 25 and 110 pointing to the server. I went into the Exchange SMTP virtual server and set up the domain name, and set the administrator to have an email account with the new domain. I can send to the email acount fine, and it can send out to SOME but not all domains. This is what is driving me a bit crazy.
The guy that was previously hosting their mail fixed the MX record properly (it appears) and if I do a telnet mail.theirdomain.com 25 it opens up fine. I don't understand why it can't send out to some domains but not others.
Any hints? Is there a problem with running Exchange behind a router as long as the ports are forwarded properly?
Thanks for any pointers. I did buy a $50 book on Exchange 2000 and have been reading it, but I have not found anything obvious that I have done wrong yet ...
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First, unless you have people using POP3 clients to check their mail from outside the network, I would close off port 110. Next, the domains you are sending to from your test domain *might* also have some sort of SPAM filter that performs reverse DNS checks on the domain name. So, if the test domain name is "mysuperdupermail.com", and the mail server name was "mail.mysuperdupermail.com", the receiving email server would perform a lookup on that name to find the IP. If the resulting IP does not match the IP of the incoming request (or cannot be resolved), then it rejects the mail. You can try enabling logging on the smtp service and see what it comes up with when you try sending emails to a good domain, and to one that doesn't work.
Hmmm....
Well, it would typically be here:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\LogFiles\SMTPSVC1
and is viewable using Notepad. You would get something like this:
#Software: Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0
#Version: 1.0
#Date: 2004-03-03 00:33:11
#Fields: time c-ip cs-method cs-uri-stem sc-status
00:33:11 192.168.1.25 HELO - 250
00:33:13 192.168.1.25 MAIL - 250
00:33:19 192.168.1.25 RCPT - 250
00:33:29 192.168.1.25 DATA - 250
00:33:31 192.168.1.25 QUIT - 240
My logs cycle out daily. You can also have it log to an ODBC source (such as SQL Server) and write an application that can query it, such as an ASP.NET app.
Well, it would typically be here:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\LogFiles\SMTPSVC1
and is viewable using Notepad. You would get something like this:
#Software: Microsoft Internet Information Services 6.0
#Version: 1.0
#Date: 2004-03-03 00:33:11
#Fields: time c-ip cs-method cs-uri-stem sc-status
00:33:11 192.168.1.25 HELO - 250
00:33:13 192.168.1.25 MAIL - 250
00:33:19 192.168.1.25 RCPT - 250
00:33:29 192.168.1.25 DATA - 250
00:33:31 192.168.1.25 QUIT - 240
My logs cycle out daily. You can also have it log to an ODBC source (such as SQL Server) and write an application that can query it, such as an ASP.NET app.
