Any of you lurking here? I have an very annoying SMTP problem.

what's the problem?

Inbound SMTP gets to my server, knocks on the door and says goodbye :(

Expand, not much to go on there. Is the email domain set up as one managed by the exchange server? Are there mailboxes or public folders with the specified address assigned to them?

how is the Inbound SMTP getting to the server? how do you know it is actually getting to it and not being rejected at a firewall level?

Righty ho then, here we go <Stretches fingers and pops cartilage>

It's a single server with AD and exchange, the domain is run internally, with an ISP handling the external DNS to the domain.

Mail can flow internally, and from inside to external addresses. Mail heading inbound, get to the server, connects via port 25, and disconnects. :(

The firewall is not a problem, I've traced the SMTP logs for the server and it seems to start the EHLO...handshake bit, but instead of transferring the message, it quits immediately.

[Edited by STI MAN - 8/16/2002 12:11:09 AM]

Sounds like the SMTP connector doesn't know how to route the messages. Is the domain name in the email address the same as the domain name that you used to set up active directory?

what firewall are you using?

can you telnet to your smtp server? internally and externaly to your domain i.e. smtp.mydomain.com port 25.

ChristianR,

Yes I can get to it via port 25, the firewall is doing something correctly for a change:D


I can telnet to the port and initiate a connection.

ok telnet, to the box and press Enter.
then:

HELO me
The server will respond with 250 OK and identify your IP address and possibly your host name.

<Enter>
MAIL FROM: someaddress@somedomain.com
Again, the server will respond with 250 OK.

<Enter>
RCPT TO: nobody@afakedomain.com
The server will respond with 550 Relaying prohibited.

Using a valid address from your GAL, enter
RCPT TO: thegaladdress@yourdomain
The IMS will reply with 250 OK when it accepts the address.

To close the session, type
QUIT

telnet to it on port 25 (make sure local echo is turned on in telnet) and send the following commands to the server

HELO
MAIL FROM:test@test.com
RCPT TO:user@domain.com
DATA
Hello World<crlf>.<crlf>
QUIT

replace user@domain.com with a valid email address on the excahnge server.

This should put an email into the users mailbox, if it doesn't report back what error messsages the smtp server returns via telnet.

Okay, it's sitting in the queue's on the server......

I go with Belf's first post.....

you haven't called the exchange server something like, exchange.company.com or internal.company.com ??

if the mail is on the server but not reaching mailboxes when coming from external source, then i would suggest that you will need to add recipient addresses that relate to the incoming mail...

if your internal server is company.com (which is also your exchange server name), so users are david@company.com, but smtp mail is coming in addressed to david@yourisp.company.com then as above, if not... carry on

In Exchange Sys Manager >

Servers > {ServerName} > Protocols > SMTP > Default STMP Server

Do Properties, go to Messages and check you have an addy in the send NDR report to.

That can add with troubleshooting addressing issues.

Have you set up the recipient policy to allow incoming mail for your domain?

Cheers,

Phil