Okay gang, Here is what I am encountring at the customer site:
The Situation:
--------------
The customer has MS Exchange server hosted at their ASP (Application
Service Provider). They connect to their MS Exchange through the
Internet (Cable Modem - Broad Band)using MS Outlook 2K/XP edition
fully patched and all. There are about 5 computers with WIN2K and 1
with XP Professional, all patched as well. Their MS Exchange server
is hosted behind the firewall (not sure which firewall the ASP is
using). They have a SAV GESTETNER printer which is behind the
firewall as well and hosted by the ASP. They connect to the printer
through standard TCP/IP port, therefore not through the print
server.
Now the customer wants to host their own MS Exchange, have a
firewall and VPN. I suggested SBS and they agreed. The customer
wanted to have Firewall and VPN portion done first and just
configure the MS Exchange portion and transfer the MX record later
on. I installed SBS and configured the firewall/VPN and MS Exchange.
The configuration and installation went smooth and successful.
The Network Configs:
-------------------
They wanted to keep static IP addressing and SNAT so that they can
ping because of some requirements they have because of their
development/programming enviornment. Their IP scheme is as follows:
Internal IP Address: 10.125.1.2
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 10.125.1.2
They wanted to keep it that way and didnt want to use any other IP
Scheme because thats what they have been using all the time.
Please note: MS Exchange and the SAV GESTETNER printer hosted with
ASP, NAT'd and behind the firewall.
They have encoded the MS Exchange Server and Printer's public IP
address in their host files on each computer which want to use the
MS Exchange Server and printing. Therefore they can ping with just
the host name and connect with the MS Exchange and the printer with
no problem!
The Problem:
------------
Few problems start arising after the installtion:
1) They were not able to log on to ASP hoste MS Exchange. Now it was
obvious that I needed to change the MS Exchange Server name in their
MS Outlook. So I did! I changed it from the new one (New SBS
Settings) to the old one but it still didnt work. As soon as I
change the name to their ASP hosted Exchange Server, after few
seconds it defaults back to new SBS Exchange Server!! Well I did
some work around and left the new SBS server Exchange settings as it
is and created a new profile specifying the name/settings for the
OLD ASP hosted MS Exchange! What I am thinking here is that once the
MX records are straighten up then I can delete/remove the old ASP
hosted Exchange profile. Now it worked with all computer whose OS
was WIN2K but with the one using XP Professional. It just CAN NOT
connect to the old ASP hosted Exchange server!! It just says that it
CAN NOT connect to the old ASP hosted Exchange server. Well, to work
around I put that computer to use OWA till we get the MX records
straighten up!
2) The second problem is that they can not access the SAV GESTETNER
printer. No one can print from that printer. The error message says
that the printer is disconnected! I deleted the printer and
installed it again but to no avail. Same error message.
Now I know that before SBS everything was working! I have no idea
what could have changed so that they can not print and the one XP
machine can not connect to the MS Exchange server. If anyone have
any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. I appreciate any
reply. Thanks in advance..
Best Regards,
Waseem