Ok I am having a debate with another engineer over exchange 2003 smtp connectors. I am stating to use an smtp connector under the routing group and he states that we should use the smtp virtual server under protocols under the administrative groups. which is better to use? The networkis a single exchange server using a smtp gateway(barracuda, ironport etc)

Hi,This is depend upon your environment and requirement to setup SMTP virtual setting or SMTP connector.An SMTP connector alsorequires an SMTP virtual serve to work .Please have a look of below link to understand well.http://support.microsoft.com/kb/294736Anil

Hi,you need to use SMTP connector when you want to set delivery restrictions in mail flow.If your server that are running Exchange 2003 reach the Internet and successfully perform Domain Name System (DNS) lookups for Internet addresses then you can configure SMTP virtual server for mail flow.Reasons to create an SMTP connector :: You are connecting to a Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 computer in another routing group (site), and want to use SMTP. You want to configure either server-side or client-side ETRN/TURN. You want either to send or not to send ETRN/TURN. You want to request ETRN/TURN when sending messages. You want to request ETRN/TURN from different servers. You want to configure outbound security, and to do it one time and affect many outbound servers. You want to permit high, normal, or low message priorities for a domain. You want to permit system or non-system messages. You want to schedule the SMTP connector. You want to use different delivery times for oversize messages. You want to queue mail for remote triggered delivery. You want to send HELO instead of EHLO. You want to specify a specific address space. You want to set delivery restrictions. Anil