Hi All, I am finding it hard to understand the difference between a smarthost serverand smtprelay server and not finding proper links or articles that explains each one. As from the perspective of sending email from one exchange(2003) to another I would need send connectors and use smarthost to send the emails to other domain. So can anyone please explain how the smart host server and the Smtp relay server come into play and what difference exists between them and provode me any articles or links that I can go through. Any suggestion would be really appreciated. Regards, Prad

As far as I know the two terms mean the same thing depending on a frame of reference. Smart host is the next hop server an SMTP server sends all outbound mail, while SMTP relay just refers to an SMTP server that relays. Your Exchange server uses an SMTP relay server as its smart host. Ed Crowley MVP "There are seldom good technological solutions to behavioral problems."