Exchange Server 2003 - POP3

Hi! I just installed MS Exchange 2003 on Windows Server 2003. Active Directoty and DNS are installed as well. But I can send email, but I cant recieved any. I tried to access the exchange server via webmail (localhost/exchange) and from mail client thunderbird, and i can check the mailbox, it says no new message. But when I tried to send email from yahoo.com to my server, it sends the email and I dont recieve any bounced mail, but it doesnt reach my exchange server. I added my users via Active Directory Users and Computer. create an exchange maibox is check. By the way, I was able to run the pop3 and smtp and works fine on this server using the default pop3 and smtp of this windows server 2003, I just add them thru server wizzard.

Also, where i could find the mail recived? in the default pop3 of windows server 2003 localted at c:/inetpub/mailroot... but in exchange where i could find it? tried to find it at C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\Mailroot\vsi 1 but I could not find any users folder.


Hope you could help me.

Thanks

 

I didn't hear any mention of how the internet knows where your domain is?

World wide DNS servers need to know what IP address your .com is at.

 

I have my domain dns setup. The default pop3 and smtp on windows server 2003 works. Here's my DNS configuration on godaddy.com http://www.i-bsc.com/wizzkid/mydns.png

Hope you find where the problem is.

Thanks.

 

This looks to be a classic SMTP mail routing issue.

To receive e-mails, an SMTP mail server sits listening on port 25 for other mail servers to send it mail. For the other mail servers to send that mail, they must both have access to the port and know which IP address the port is bound to.

There are three ways to get your system working.

1. Raw SMTP
The MX record for your e-mail domain must be set to the external address that matches your server. That is either the server's external address (if it is connected directly to the internet) or the NAT address assigned to it by your router/firewall. Then your firewall rules must either set port 25 as open (direct connection, firewall running on server) and/or forward port 25 to port 25 on the server (NAT on firewall/router).

2. SMTP via ISP
The MX record for your domain is set to your ISP's mail server. All mail goes to that server, which then forwards it to your server (either automatically or you have to trigger it with ETRN). For this to work, your ISP must know the external address of your server. Your firewall/NAT rules need to be the same as for option 1.

3. POP3 retrival of mail stored by your ISP
The MX record for your domain is set to your ISP's mail server. All the mail is held in a POP3 mail box. You use a POP3 connector to periodically connect to the mail box and retrieve any messages it finds there. The POP3 connector then forwards the message to Exchange via SMTP. For this to work, you need to have the POP3 connector configured correctly with the username and password for the ISP mailbox. SMTP mail routing still needs to be set up correctly as the POP3 mailbox still hands the messages to Exchange via SMTP. With this option you should not open port 25 to external access from the internet.

I'm assuming that e-mails within your network are working OK. If this is the case and you are using with option 2, or 3, then the best test is to try and connect into port 25 on your server using telnet:

telnet mailserver.address.com 25

If everything is correct you should connect. Try it inside your network (that will tell you whether Exchange is correctly bound to port 25 and/or whether your Server's firewall rules are correct), then try it from the internet. If you can't connect from the internet, you have a routing/NAT/firewall configuration problem.

If you are using option 3, first try is to connect to the mailbox directly and see if the messages are there (using Outlook or your ISP web mail system). Then check you POP3 connector settings.