Hi All I'm running Exchange 2007 SP2. We are using addresses - user1@mydomain.com etc. We're having one of our departments rebranded, so these users should be able to send/receive email with the @happy.com domain name. There are about twenty of them. We've bought the domain name and all the MX stuff can be handled by our gateway provider, but am not sure about Exchange. Am I correct that I need to: 1. Add happy.com as an Accepted Domain (Authorative domain) 2. Then add happy.com as a new Remote Domain Is there anything else I need to do?

You should ensure that these 20 happy.com users get happy.com as their primary SMTP address. You could do this manually or better with an e-mail address policy Managing E-Mail Address Policies in Exchange Server 2007 http://www.msexchange.org/articles_tutorials/exchange-server-2007/management-administration/managing-email-address-policies.html You should not add them as a new Remote Domain. The settings here serve other purposes. Understanding Remote Domains http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996309.aspxMCTS: Messaging | MCSE: S+M

Hi Jon Sure, I'll be adding the primary SMTP address manually since there are only twenty users. As regards the domain config, are you saying that we only need to add happy.com as an Accepted Authorative domain, there is no need to add it as a Remote Domain to Exchange?

No need to add happy.com as remote domain. Remote domain configuration is used to specify message formatting and policy, and specify acceptable character sets. You can prevent certain types of messages from being sent to that domain, or the opposite, you want to allow them. These message types include out-of-office messages, auto-reply messages, non-delivery reports (NDRs), and meeting forward notifications. This applies to domains that are remote, for instance a partner or a different forest that belongs to your organization.MCTS: Messaging | MCSE: S+M

What I wasn't sure was if I had to add happy.com as an Accepted domain AND a Remote Domain, or just an Accepted Domain? Reason being, I see stuff in the Remote Domain configuration such as "Accept Out of Office messages, Allow Non-Delivery Reports" etc, and I'm worried that if we don't add happy.com as a Remote Domain, then these users won't recv OOO , NDR's etc? Or does the fact that happy.com is added as an Accepted Authorative domain mean this is all allowed automatically anyway?

happy.com will be part of your Exchange organization within your Active Directory forest. Remote domains are SMTP domains that are external to your Microsoft Exchange organization. The happy.com users will receive all your OOOs, NDRs. You can create remote domain entries to define the settings for message transfer between your Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 organization and domains outside your Active Directory forest. When you create a remote domain entry, you control the types of messages that are sent to that domain. In your case, your Exchange organization is authoritative for happy.com. This means there are no other foreign e-mail systems involved. Thus you should NOT configure happy.com as a Remote Domain. Configure Remote Domain Properties http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124931.aspx Understanding Remote Domains http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996309.aspxMCTS: Messaging | MCSE: S+M

Thanks Jon, so effectively by classing the happy.com domain as Accepted (or is it Accepted AND Authorative that does it), we are saying to send all OOO, NDR's etc?

Yes, you could put it that way. In the event happy.com was an Internal Relay Domain, it could have made sense to configure happy.com as a Remote Domain as well. Because then some of its users would belong to your Exchange organization, and some to would be external. Basically authoritative means there are no users outside your Exchange organization.It is very common that users will listen on proxy SMTP addresses in addition to their primary SMTP address. Your (and our) scenario is at least not uncommon. Btw, I just tested with the Exchange 2010 organization I'm currently involved with. There we have four authoritative SMTP domains. OOFs and NDRs are working fine.MCTS: Messaging | MCSE: S+M

Hi, Use remote domains to define override settings for the message transfer between the Exchange 2007 organization and domains outside your Active Directory directory service forest. When you create a remote domain entry, you control the types of messages sent to that domain. You can also apply message format policies and acceptable character sets for messages sent from mailboxes users in your organization to the remote domain. The settings for remote domains are global configuration settings for the Exchange organization. So you don't need to use remote domain. ThanksPlease remember to click Mark as Answer on the post that helps you, and to click Unmark as Answer if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.