Setting up SMTP in SBS 2003

I have setup most things in Windows Small Business Server 2003. I can get email via the exchange client and through outlook on a client PC. However I do not seem to be able to send.

Whoever I send to, it comes back undeliverable with the message: "Could not deliver the message in the time limit specified "

I have tried 2 different smtp servers from 2 completely different hosts and get the same message.

If I send from a outlook direct through smtp (ie without going through exchange,) it works fine.

Thanks for your help.

Francis

 

Correct me if Im wrong but I believe your server is the SMTP server and resolves through DNS.

I wasnt aware (Even in SBS) that you could send mail through another SMTP server. Then again I could be wrong and it wont be the last time.


See Attached

 

It is quite likely I have this setup totally incorrectly.

On the main exchange system manager screen (as in your screenshot), under Internet message format, I have one option - Default which has an SMTP domain of *???

Also, Under 'Connectors' I have 'Small Business SMTP Connector'. On the General tab of this, I have the option of sending through DNS or Forward through the following Smart Hosts.
I have tried both - entering my smtp server in the smart hosts box.

Under Protocols > SMTP I just have Default SMTP virtual server. Under this there is Current Sessions (which is always blank).

Any thoughts?

Francis

 

I've not used the latest version of Exchange. However, from what you describe, it sounds like it is similar to previous versions. You have two main options:

Let Exchange send the messages directly to the SMTP mail server hosting each mailbox. In this case, Exchange will look at the domain (the bit after the @ in the e-mail address) for each message destination and request the local DNS server to retrieve the MX record for that domain's SMTP server. That will give Exchange the IP address of the mail server supporting the destination domian. Exchange will then forward the message to that mail server.

The second option is to simply forward all message to your ISP's mailserver and let that server do all the work described above. This is in many ways the simplest solution.

My guess is that your problem is with DNS. If DNS is not working properly on your server, it will not be able to resolve the MX records (if you use the first method) or the address of your ISP's mail server (if you use the second method).

Try going to a command prompt at the server and type:

nslookup www.windowsbbs.com

Does this work? If it doesn't, did you install DNS while connected to the internet?

 

I want to use your second method (ie using my ISPs SMTP server) however,

a) I am not sure where to tell exchange what SMTP server to use
b) I am not sure if my DNS is setup correctly.

I am connected to the Internet through an ADSL modem which give me a dynamic IP address - not sure if that makes a difference.

Your test resulted in:

Server: mabtechsbs.mabtech.local
Address: 192.168.1.14

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: www.windowsbbs.com
Address: 67.15.19.177

Can you help?

Thanks

Francis

 

OK, thanks for your tip. I changed the dns server of my connection to point to the dns servers of my isp. I can now send email through exchange to anyone......except myself!!

This is very weird. It works fine except when I send myself a test.

The bounce I get is:

The e-mail account does not exist at the organization this message was sent to. Check the e-mail address, or contact the recipient directly to find out the correct address.
<shrago.net #5.1.1>

Please help.

Francis

 

Hello,

sorry to ask a basic question, just to make sure, is your mx record for the domain that you have chosen for smtp hosted somewhere externally and is it resolvable? for instance, if you were to tell me your smtp domain name and I did and nslookup on it with the type set to mx, who would I find as a result?

Best regards

Desiree

 

Fshrago,

Is this server a Domain Controller?
I will tell you up front I am Not a DNS Guru.

You can not point your server to the net for DNS first because it will have no idea it's supposed to handle DNS. Therefore it will not resolve anything internaly like local exchange mail. (hope I explained that correct)

DNS is a very complex process to set up because there can be so many diffrent scenerios.
I can get you started in the correct direction and hopefully someone like Newt, reggie, Bursley or others will jump in and cross the t's and dot the i's.

Is the internal Domain a .com or a .local?

In tcp/ip properties of the NIC it needs to be pointed to itself for DNS so it knows it's an authoritative source for DNS.

Here is a screen Shot


Then after the previous step DNS will have to be configured in Administrative tools / DNS

I will add to this after you reply and answer the questions above so I know I'm not typing to myself.

 

Ok, let me try and clarify my setup.

I have Windows Small Business Server 2003. My ISP assigns a dynamic IP address to my router which has its own dhcp server which I am using to give an internal IP address to my server and clients.

My internal domain is set as a .local

I do have my own domain (shrago.net) but this hosted externally and I have not made any changes to my mx record.

I want all outgoing mail to be processed directly by my ISPs SMTP server.

I currently have the DNS for the network adaptor of my server set to the dns of my ISP. This has allowed me to send mail to anyone except myself.

Francis

 

I think there is a bit of work to do here, and I am not sure how easy it will be to step you through it. I can point you in the right direction, but you may have to do some of the donkey work to get exactly the right settings.

1. Change the server's internal IP address to a static address. That is one address that it is a good idea to have the same all the time.
   
   
2. Use DHCP on the server rather than the router. The server's DHCP will give you a much greater range of scope options and is much more flexible that the tools you get with the router's DHCP system. So install the DHCP service, set up an address range to match the one you are currently using. Add an exclusion range that excludes the addresses of your server and router plus a few spare for additional static address (in case you add something like a print server at a later date). And then enter scope options for your gateway router (set the to the internal addres of your router), and DNS (see the next bit). So a typical set up might have:
   
   Address pool: 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.254
   Exclusions: 192.168.0.1 to 192.168.0.50 and 192.168.0.250 to 192.168.0.254
   003 Router: <router's IP address>
   006 DNS: <DNS server address - your server's IP if you run DNS locally>
   
   If you run win9x or NT4 client PCs it is worth installing WINS and pointing to this in DHCP too (something you often cannot do via a router's DHCP):
   044 WINS/NBNS Servers: <your server's IP>
   046 WINS/NBT Node Type: Hybrid = 0x8
   
   Don't forget to disable DHCP on the router once it is set up and active on the server
   
   
3. Install DNS on the server (Active directory doesn't run properly without it. I expect you may already have it installed but are not using it). Set your DNS setting on the servers NIC to the IP address of the server (so that it looks at itself for name resolution) and then make sure that scope option 006 in DHCP is also pointing at the server.
   
   The gotcha that I've seen a few times with 2000/2003 DNS is that if you install it while the server is disconnected from the internet (a good idea I would argue), the system sees itself as the only DNS server in its universe and sets itself up as a root server. When it is set as a root server, the DNS system on your server will not talk to DNS servers on the internet. If this has occurred, in DNS you will find a look up zone label ". ". This actually looks very like a folder with no name, and it is only when you look closely that you spot the dot. If you delete the dot lookup zone and reboot, DNS will start working properly.
   
   To force your system to talk to your ISP DNS server, add the ISP DNS server as a forwarder (you cannot do this while the DNS server is set as root).

Once DNS is working correctly, I think you will find that e-mail will start working.

 

Here is a Screen Shot of the DNS forwarder.
Thanks Reggie.

 

Good screen shot - thank you

 

My two cents:
You are not able to receive incoming mail through your Exchange server because your SMTP domain (shrago.net) is being hosted by your ISP by a server named mail2.web1038.com running an email software called Marek, and it has no clue what to do with mail coming into it for addresses to <something>@shrago.net that it doesnt have defined.

If you want your ISPs SMTP server to receive incoming mail for shrago.net and then forward it on to your SBS 2003 server for distribution, that is all fine, you need to communicate that to your ISP. Different email programs have different ways of "de-queuing" email... just about any email program around today supports a method called TURN or ETRN. Exchange supports it as well. This method of email delivery was actually quite popular a few years back with smaller companies that had dial-on-demand connections to the Internet.

Most SBS customers that I deal with today, though, have a constant connection to the Internet and they have their ISP change the MX record for their domain to point to either A) the public interface of their Exchange Server (when used in conjunction with ISA) or B) the public interface of their PIX

Also, as a side, here is how I setup an SBS 2003 server for customers:

* It becomes a domain controller (for obvious reasons)
* It becomes a DNS server
* I point its primary DNS IP address in the network properties to itself
* In DHCP running on the server, one of the scope options I configure is to hand out the IP address of the SBS 2003 as the DNS server
* In the DNS Management tool, I configure the DNS server to forward external requests to the ISPs DNS server IP addresses. You will find this option in dnsmgmt.msc on the properties of the server, on the forwarders tab. This allows the server to forward out to your ISP any requests that it doesnt know the answer for (aka, that it's not authoritative for).

The decision now is.. how to handle incoming SMTP mail - hence the discussion above.

Please let me know if anything is unclear or if I can help with further instruction.

Best regards,

Desiree

 

A good two cents too.

Exchange in SBS has a connector that will also pull mail out of a POP3 mail box. In my experience most of the cheaper ISP packages route all domain e-mails into a single POP3 mailbox, and you'll need the connector to pull it out.

However, I would agree that a pure SMTP feed is a better system in almost all cases, but not all ISPs will support it.

Sending e-mails is a different process to receiving, so as the original problem was with sending e-mails, the receiving e-mails systems shouldn't be an issue. However, if we knew what it was, it might help with diagnosing how Exchange is set up.

fshrago, how is your system configured to recieve e-mails?