Re: SMTP/destination name is the same

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From: RDavid (r_at_c-m.NOSPAMcomm)
Date: 04/23/04 

Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2004 17:09:41 -0700

Wow, okay Ace, things have changed on this, mostly for the good, so here
goes....

We have two offices so I'll just call them North and South. The south SBS2K
was set up with a domain name of "casual-management" with the server name of
"casual", certainly not the most optimal naming conventions, and we do not
have a registered domain name in use here, just a block of IP addresses.
The company HQ, North, has a registered domain of "casual-management.com"
and just a single IP address. They are running Win2003 server and for a
mail server are using an old Sun Cobalt Blue Qube (it's an appliance that's
just been working for about four or more years with pretty much no
interventions). The qube is a POP/SMTP server and the domain
(casual-management.com) is pointing to the qube.

When I began to have probs with the South SMTP in Ex2K, I contacted a local
consultant who surmised that part of our prob was that there were no Reverse
Lookup records and so therefore we were being looked at, by outside SMTP
servers, as being spam and therefore being rejected. I chased around MS
KB's and looked at some of the returned emails and found that they didn't
like the fact that we were "relaying" emails. So there was a KB article
talking about turning off relaying in Ex2K. I followed things and sure
enough one of the items making me a relay was wrong, so I fixed it and
several emails went out clean.

Shortly later they began bouncing again. This consultant TS'd into my
server and set the Smart Host to point to the Qube at the North office which
was fine until it too began rejecting because it said we were not on it's
list of approved hosts for relaying. The consultant edited a file on the
Qube and added our IP's and things began to go out cleanly, for a while.

When probs came up again, he added my desktop internal IP to the Relay
Approved list of IP's to send to the SMTP and things worked again. So now,
I can send emails, get emails, etc and so can my boss (which means I get to
work here for another week).

The residual issues I've got rattling around in my head are:

- Why I *need* to identify a Smart Host (I've already read articles why I
should) when I do not send out "tons" of emails.
- The list of approved hosts now has my IP's hardcoded and so if we change
anything, I'm back inside that Linux qube messing with files again. Isn't
there a better way?
- Lastly, why didn't I open a Deli or restaurant instead?

Your help is appreciated and yes indeed this is a strange situation. If I
only had a brain maybe I could trouble shoot this a bit better.

Rich

"Ace Fekay [MVP]"
<PleaseSubstituteMyActualFirstName&LastNameHere@hotmail.com> wrote in
message news:eqziTp$JEHA.3184@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> In news:uUPUNevJEHA.3704@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl,
> RDavid <r@c-m.NOSPAMcomm> posted their thoughts, then I offered mine
> > Ace,
> > Thank you very much for tackling this issue with me.
> >
> > I checked my E2K and under the Advanced tab have FQDN:
> > casual.casual-management.local and the Smart Host field is blank.
> >
> > Under Access-> Relay the radio button for "Only include list below":
> > which
> > now has 10.0.0.1 for the local address start and 255.255.255.0 for the
> > subnet mask and the checkbox for "Allow all qualified..." is checked.
> >
> > I added two external DNS servers within E2K as well (I read that E2K
> > only
> > validates on the first DNS it finds (our internal DNS) but will look
> > at
> > external DNS if configured).
> >
> > After all this, now when I send an email via our SMTP I get:
> >
> > Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.
> > Subject: Still testing - Please delete
> > Sent: 4/20/2004 9:32 AM
> >
> > The following recipient(s) could not be reached:
> >
> > ryan@casual-management.com on 4/20/2004 9:32 AM
> >
> > The e-mail account does not exist at the organization this message
> > was sent
> > to. Check the e-mail address, or contact the recipient directly to
> > find out
> > the correct address.
> >
> > <casual.casual-management.local #5.1.1>
> >
> > This email IS a valid one for sure.
> >
> > Well, at least I've gotten away from the 5.5.0 and 553. Just not
> > sure if
> > this is much better.
> >
> > Your help is appreciated more than you know,
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Rich
> >
> >
>
> I'll try to do my best here Rich. This is strange. But the first thing, is
> that you cannot configure your Ex2k or any other internal server to use an
> external DNS. That is just an AD requirement, and other issues WILL
develop
> if you use an external address. So stick to your internal one ONLY.
>
> Glad you got rid of the 550's. That's out of the way.
>
> Still didn't see a response on what your internal domain name is. Is it
the
> same as the one you are trying to send to? If so, then it;'s resolving
> probably to your own server, which the name doesn;'t exist. I'm trying to
> get a clearer pic of your internal configuration. Do me a favor and post
an
> ipconfig /all please.
>
> Let's try this, if the domain you are sending to is the same FQDN as your
> domain, manually create the mail record's FQDN under your internal DNS and
> give it the IP of their mail server. I tried to look it up for you
> (casual-management.com ) but found that name does not exist publicly.
>
>
> --
> Regards,
> Ace
>
> Please direct all replies to the newsgroup so all can benefit.
> This posting is provided "AS-IS" with no warranties and confers no
> rights.
>
> Ace Fekay, MCSE 2000, MCSE+I, MCSA, MCT, MVP
> Microsoft Windows MVP - Active Directory
>
> HAM AND EGGS: A day's work for a chicken; A lifetime commitment for a
> pig. --
> =================================
>
>

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