server sbs exchange issue. Pls help

janesssssy · 14 Aug 2007 at 11:55

I have a server 2003 sbs server setup.

server is called test.local (for example)
Email domainname is: test.co.uk

Exchange is running off a bop box which is at test.co.uk

Exchange is setup and working. however there is 1 issue.

When a user emails one of those pop boxes which he wants to pick up from home, we will call it [email protected] when at work its bounces straight away saying that the email account does not exist. It does work as i can check it from my account at home etc.

For some reason the email is going to the local server and then not get fired to the test.co.uk server. I understand that there is no user in Active directory call home, but it should be directed to the ISP (test.co.uk)

Any insight? DNS issue (i have created an A record in the forward to Mail.213.*.*.* but this hasnt changed anything.

Thanks

oddjob62 · 14 Aug 2007 at 12:15

The SBS server sees no reason to send the [email protected] externally as it sees itself as the server that handles the test.co.uk email. It checks AD and sees no sign of that email address and so bounces back any emails to that address.

You're best off forwarding to an external email address.

janesssssy · 14 Aug 2007 at 13:09

yeah thats what i thought, How do i forward it to test.co.uk. It will just bounce in and around the .local server. All ready tried that one.

the error changes from "the email does not exist" to "there is a problem with email being redirected from one server to the other"

oddjob62 said:
You're best off forwarding to an external email address.

the external address is [email protected]

oddjob62 · 14 Aug 2007 at 13:26

janesssssy said:
the external address is [email protected]

I thought test.co.uk was the email domain that the SBS server is using?

Are you saying that test.co.uk is NOT set up in the recipient policy on the SBS server?

janesssssy · 14 Aug 2007 at 21:47

Its a fast host account with 2 pop addresses.

the exchange is pulling down the root account but the user wants to email the 2nd pop account, However the emails are not leaving the server to the second pop account.

oddjob62 · 15 Aug 2007 at 05:55

janesssssy said:
Its a fast host account with 2 pop addresses.

the exchange is pulling down the root account but the user wants to email the 2nd pop account, However the emails are not leaving the server to the second pop account.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321721/

Curiosityx · 15 Aug 2007 at 12:31

For exchange to function properly you'll need several things in place.

1. A static external IP address
2. A publically registered domain with MX records pointing to your static external IP address.
3. Recipient policies configured on the exchange server to map your public external domain name to the private internal domain.

For example:

External domain "business.co.uk"
Internal domain "mybusiness.local"
Basic Recipient Policy "@business.co.uk"

Advanced recipient Policy:
%g = givenName.
%s = sn (Last name).
%4s = means first four letters of sn.
%d = displayname.
%m = Exchange alias.

Example: %3g.%[email protected] translates to = [email protected]

All internal email accounts will then be assigned the @business.co.uk primary SMTP suffix.

If your using SBS and POP3 accounts youll have to configure the POP Connector to periodically download email to the server then manually assign each POP account a local mailbox for delivery.

Outgoing mail wont function properly if there is no valid external domain configured with appropriate MX records in place. Firstly the recipient server wont be able to perform a lookup on the source address nor will it be able to reply as the source domain will show as invalid.

But youll be able to pull mail in without a problem.

In short exchange is not a recommended choice for a home user.

janesssssy · 15 Aug 2007 at 13:21

To the above post, thanks for your input but this is all known stuff.
I dont need help on how an exchange works just a problem that i have with it.

Exchange can be run using pop connectors in which this company does.

janesssssy · 15 Aug 2007 at 13:22

oddjob62 said:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/321721/

And we have a winner

thanks all sorted

Misan · 15 Aug 2007 at 17:53

Exchange is viable for home use.
I'm just using the POP3 Connector with my ISP's domain name listed under recipient policies. (But not set as primary obviously, instead the primary address is @domainname.local)
A POP3 Mailbox which points to the AD user account.
And then im using my ISP's SMTP server as a smarthost.

Hardly a setup you would use in a corporate environment, but it works to poll all my POP email into one Inbox, and it helps to have a test box I can break occasionally instead of breaking the one at work.

janesssssy · 16 Aug 2007 at 17:56

Git one more little question.

are the notepad files in the:

C:\Program Files\Exchsrvr\MDBDATA

temp files ?
now the damn server has run out of hard drive space and obviously aint working. the notepad files account for 40GB of space.

cheers

- trust me, i have searched and search but still havnt found a conclusive answer

Mikey · 16 Aug 2007 at 19:46

When was the last time exchange was backed up and I assume circular logging isn't turned on?

oddjob62 · 16 Aug 2007 at 20:59

If you mean the .log files DO NOT DELETE THEM!!!!

They are the transaction logs, and in essence they are the transactions that have taken place since the last backup.

If they are taking up a lot of space, i'm guessing your exchange backup has issues. Usually these will get committed to the database during a full backup of the database.

Read for more info.
http://www.msexchange.org/articles/Exchange-log-disk-full.html

As Mikey says, turning on circular logging would be the quickest fix.