Hi, I have inherited a Windows SBS 2003 server running exchange. The email was working fine on it but we have recently changed our ISP and domain information. Although the MX record has been updated to reflect these changes, we are now unable to receive any emails. We can send ok, just not receive! Is there anything I need to change on the sever to update this? How can I test exchange server is receiving correctly? Many thanks guys!

On Tue, 6 Apr 2010 12:55:28 +0000, The Riviera Kid wrote:>I have inherited a Windows SBS 2003 server running exchange. >>The email was working fine on it but we have recently changed our ISP and domain information. Although the MX record has been updated to reflect these changes, we are now unable to receive any emails. We can send ok, just not receive! You changed only the MX record? What about the A record? Or did youkeep the same IP address when you moved to another ISP?>Is there anything I need to change on the sever to update this? How can I test exchange server is receiving correctly? The Exchange server is probably working just fine. But you can checkthis by sending using a POP/IMAP client (e.g. Outlook Express) andtelling it to use the IP address of your server as its SMTP server.That should eliminate any DNS issues.---Rich MatheisenMCSE+I, Exchange MVP--- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Hi Yes sorry I should have been clearer yes ammended the A record as well: RecordType Host Value Priority(MX) A mail 123.456.789.123 MX mail.ourserver.com 5 If i open a telnet session from a PC (accross net, so not on our network) I am unable to open a session on port 25 of our server either using the ip address or the mail.xxx name

Do you have a firewall where you have to specify the IP-address in the publishing rules? Do you allow access to any other services in your internal network? If so, does these work or are they also denied?

thanks for the replies! yes there is a firewall however helpfully there is no information regarding its configuration or a password to access it so I'm flying blind there. I will need to do a complete reset to gain access which I don't want to do unless i really have to! The only access i know of is normal internet access which seems fine... I'm starting to now wonder if emails were ever being received directly - as i have found entries in the pop connector for the email addresses in use and also a few that are long obsolete. These email addresses have been 'moved' when domain hosting was changed and as such there was no thought given to pop boxes. But pointing the MX record to an offsite mail server (not exchange) and the mails are received ok and put into pop boxes. They can then be collected by exchange using the pop collector. So it appears i have incoming on 110 and outgoing on 25 working ok. Is there a way I can determine how it was originally working? Will there be a record of how the mail is being received anywhere? like a copy of the MX/A records on the server? anything that can help me determine if it ever was really receiving email directly! If it transpires that it never was receiving mail directly, is it just a matter of setting the MX/A records to the public IP address and forwarding port 25 to the server LAN IP to enable this?

On Wed, 7 Apr 2010 11:23:47 +0000, The Riviera Kid wrote:>yes there is a firewall however helpfully there is no information regarding its configuration or a password to access it so I'm flying blind there. I will need to do a complete reset to gain access which I don't want to do unless i really have to! So nobody knows the password??? How about the person that set it up?Seems pretty risky to not change the password after the previousadmin's departed.>The only access i know of is normal internet access which seems fine... >>I'm starting to now wonder if emails were ever being received directly - as i have found entries in the pop connector for the email addresses in use and also a few that are long obsolete. If those are recent entries then I'd say you're on the right track.You should be able to see if there's activity on port 110/995 andwhere it's going.>These email addresses have been 'moved' when domain hosting was changed and as such there was no thought given to pop boxes. But pointing the MX record to an offsite mail server (not exchange) and the mails are received ok and put into pop boxes. They can then be collected by exchange using the pop collector. So it appears i have incoming on 110 and outgoing on 25 working ok. If you're using a POP-to-SMTP kludge the port 110 connections shouldbe outbound, not inbound. An inbount connection implies there arepeople connecting to mailboxes on your server using POP3.>Is there a way I can determine how it was originally working? Will there be a record of how the mail is being received anywhere? like a copy of the MX/A records on the server? anything that can help me determine if it ever was really receiving email directly! Shouldn't that be in the docs that describe the configration for thissite?>If it transpires that it never was receiving mail directly, is it just a matter of setting the MX/A records to the public IP address and forwarding port 25 to the server LAN IP to enable this? That would be your next step if you plan to have mail delivereddirectly to your organization. Before you do that, though, make sureyou have your Exchange-aware AV updated and you have some sort ofanti-spam protection. The ISP is probably doing at least some of thefor you now.---Rich MatheisenMCSE+I, Exchange MVP--- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP

Unfortunately there was no information left behind by the company that installed the system and I have been unable to get hold of anyone from there either! Would there be any issues to collecting from a catch all POP mail box and then routing to the user mail boxes based on the TO/CC email addresses? Dumping any mail that can't be routed into, for example, the admins mailbox? Bearing in mind there are actually only 2 email addresses in use (possible third one maybe introduced) is exchange not a huge amount of overkill? Surely the company that sold the system in the first place should have advised more appropriately as it is quite a large financial investment for such a small amount of use! Is it a good idea to stick with exchange or just set up 'external' pop mailboxes? or even use a simpler smaller email system - there is no administrator onsite so a system that can be administered by anyone is preferable!

On Thu, 8 Apr 2010 14:30:10 +0000, The Riviera Kid wrote:>Unfortunately there was no information left behind by the company that installed the system and I have been unable to get hold of anyone from there either! >>Would there be any issues to collecting from a catch all POP mail box and then routing to the user mail boxes based on the TO/CC email addresses? Dumping any mail that can't be routed into, for example, the admins mailbox?Well, you're asking a "SBS" question since there's no POP-to-SMTPkludge included with Exchange.From my POV, using that sort software successfully means never usingthe contents of the email headers to deliver the message since thoseheaders don't necessarily match the RCPT TO envelope addresses.>Bearing in mind there are actually only 2 email addresses in use (possible third one maybe introduced) is exchange not a huge amount of overkill? It is. Have a look at Microsoft's BPOS.>Surely the company that sold the system in the first place should have advised more appropriately as it is quite a large financial investment for such a small amount of use! But SBS is more than just Exchange, isn't it?>Is it a good idea to stick with exchange or just set up 'external' pop mailboxes? or even use a simpler smaller email system - there is no administrator onsite so a system that can be administered by anyone is preferable!POP is a pretty limited protocol. I wouldn't recommend it for anythingexcept the most basic things.---Rich MatheisenMCSE+I, Exchange MVP--- Rich Matheisen MCSE+I, Exchange MVP