Hi, I have received mail by POP3 for years, nowI want to get it via SMTP. I have created an MX record at my host which points to my fixed IP address. I have updated my router to forward port 25 traffic to the server (W2003 & Exc2003 fully patched.) I can telnet to myIP:25 from outsideand have a conversation with the SMTP server, even send an email internally. However, if I email in from the outside world, it doesn't arrive. Obviously, I'm using a test domain, but this is working properly and I can send mail internally to this domain, Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks, NEIL

Hea Neil, Did you set up a Recipient Policy for your domein? Be sure you check the "this organisation is resposable for delivering...." box in the SMTP adres for your Recipient policy. Say might wana try and read some implimentation tutorials, this site is rather good. http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Configuring-SMTP-Connector.html Cheers, Yakkie

Hi Neil, 1. Whether you are able to telnet to FQDN:25 instead of IP Address:25 from External. 2. At External Client, please run nslookup domain name (your external domain name) q=mx to check whether the external client is able to locate the MX record of your domain and resolve it to IP Address 2. Whether any NDR message received when sending message from External email account. For more information: Deployment Scenarios for Internet Connectivity http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa998085(EXCHG.65).aspx Mike

Out of curiosity what does it mean if you can not telnet to port 25 even internally? With the host name or the IP. I eventually figured that my HP NC373i NIC didn't like it's 2008 x64 driver (it had other problems too like it wouldn't team with the other NIC). Could that be something else?

Hi Mike, Thanks for your response. In order: 1. No, but this is not surprising since the the FQDN is pointing to a hosted website. 2. response is Code Snippet Server: UnKnownAddress: 192.168.1.3 tivysoft.netMX preference = 10, mail exchanger = x.x.x.x.domain.net x.x.x.x.domain.netinternet address = y.y.y.y I don't recognise y.y.y.y but the x.x.x.x is my server's address 3. Get lots of delay messages and then finally Code Snippetneil@domain.neton13/08/200817:01Could'>mailto:neil@domain.net">neil@domain.neton13/08/200817:01Could not deliver the message in the time limit specified. Please retry or contact your administrator. I'm finding it hard to understand this subject, so really appreciate the help. regards, NEIL

Hi Neil, From your output and description: +++++++++++++== Server: UnKnown Address: 192.168.1.3 tivysoft.net MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = x.x.x.x.domain.net x.x.x.x.domain.net internet address = y.y.y.y ++++++++++++++++++ I notice that your external IP Address y.y.y.y is incorrect for MX record. Thus, the external server is not able to telnet to your Exchange server and sends email to you. I suggest that you re-configure your DNS record to correct the issue. Mike

Hi Mike, If that y.y.y.y address is the problem then I don't know how to fix it. My host only provides one place to enter an IP address, and this has been entered correctly as x.x.x.x so what do I do now? Thanks for helping. NEIL

Are you able to set up more than one MX record with your host? I wasn't getting any mail on my first mx record, but when I set up another (mail2.mydomain.co.uk) and set it with a higher priority than the first mx record, it started coming in ok.

Hi Neil, I suggest that you contact your ISP to update your external DNS record. I would like to explain that when external server attempts to send email to your domain. It will firstly get the MX record of your domain: For your case, it gets the external Mail Server FQDN (x.x.x.x.domain.net) of your domain tivysoft.net MX preference = 10, mail exchanger = x.x.x.x.domain.net Then, it will resolve the FQDN to IP Address. Finally, it telnets to the IP Address and sends email to you. For your case, it resolves the FQDN (x.x.x.x.domain.net) to IP Address (y.y.y.y) and then telnet to y.y.y.y to send email to you. As the IP Address (y.y.y.y) is incorrect, the external server is not able to telnet to it. Thus, the external mail cannot be sent to your domain. Mike