I have had numerous problems with trying to send e-mail since installing SBS
2003 with Exchange. I have spent many days on this issue, so any help would
be greatly appreciated. When I do a google search, I see others have also
had these issues but I can't find a resolution.
Here are the things I have tried/experienced:
1. I have SBS 2003 also set up as the DHCP server. All of the DHCP clients
on the network were receiving/sending mail just fine using Outlook that is
connecting to an outside Pop3 server and the ISP's SMTP server. When I
tried setting up Exchange on the server, I got a call from employees that
they could no longer send e-mail. I hadn't changed a thing on any of the
client PC's or in their Outlook. In order to get them to send mail again, I
had to setup static IP addresses with the router as the gateway and DNS
server.
2. I tried setting up one client's e-mail on the Exchange server using the
Pop3 connector. I am able to receive e-mail all day without any problems
using the Pop3 connector. But when I try and send e-mail through Outlook
which is configured to go through the Exchange server, it usually gets stuck
in the queue. I have tried setting the SMTP connector both ways - either
DNS or Smarthost.
3. DNS / PTR Records - When trying to use DNS instead of a Smarthost, I say
"usually" in #2 above because if I send mail to places such as verizon.net,
hotmail.com, or yahoo.com, my mail gets stuck in the queue. But if I send
it to a gmail.com account, it sends. I have read several places that this
is due to the receiving host not accepting records from sending hosts that
do not have correct PTR Records. I don't understand this enough to know
what I need to do to fix this. We have a static external IP address. Is
this something that I need to get our ISP to help fix, or is this something
I can change on our SBS 2003 to respond with a correct PTR record?
4. Smarthost - I have tried setting this up every which way possible. I
have changed settings both in the "Default SMTP Virtual Server" protocol
settings as well as the "Small Business SMTP Connector" settings. I have
followed numerous guidelines on the web. I have put in our ISP's SMTP
settings, username, password, etc., in both places. But I always have the
same result - e-mail gets stuck in the queue.
5. Firewall Settings
- What ports, if any, need to be opened to receive e-mail through the Pop3
connector?
- What ports, if any, need to be opened to send e-mail if using Smarthost?
- What ports, if any, need to be opened to send e-mail through DNS?
6. Tools - I have tried using tools such as nslookup.exe and smtpdiag.exe.
According to the web articles, when I run these tools from the SBS command
line, I get back valid results with no errors.
7. Other thoughts - What is the correlation between DHCP clients not being
able to send mail to the ISP's SMTP server and Exchange not being able to
send mail either through Smarthost?