Re: Exchange can't send email to one of the domains

From: Boris Lokhvitsky (msexpert_at_community.nospam)
Date: 11/23/04


Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 13:48:48 -0800

Thanks a lot Josh,

These both ideas had already come to my mind, too. I have suggested the idea
of adding a connector for specified SMTP namespace. Unfortunately, Exchange
servers I am asking about are not directly in my jurisdiction so I don't
know yet if they checked this idea.
One small question here - if I specify the MX servers from the domain in
question as smart hosts for this connector, wouldn't they reject the
messages as an SMTP relay attempt? I was going to use the "good" server as a
smart host for the "bad" server, wouldn't that be better since they belong
to the same org and SMTP namespace?

As for Helo instead of Ehlo, I have tried both when sending mails from a
Telnet SMTP session. Both worked fine. By the way, can I switch the Exchange
virtual SMTP server to send Helo instead of Ehlo, rather than switching a
connector? (Yes I understand this will be a global setting).

Thanks for your help! Yes this IS odd. Unfortunately, as I said, I am not
sitting directly on these Exchange servers... they actually belong to our
client trying to send mail to our domain (the "domain in question" :)), -
when they couldn't they actually started blaming us, so I'm trying to find
an actual reason.

Thanks again,
Boris

"Josh Fooks [MSFT]" <jfooks@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:evHPhsP0EHA.3408@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Hi Boris,
>
> <oops...lemme repost this in a cross-post so see it> :)
>
> Something easy you can to to track down the problem to being related to
DNS
> or not is to create an SMTP connector with the domain for that org on the
> address space tab. Then on the general tab, use a smarthost with the
> correct (and verified) primary MX record as the smarthost. This will
allow
> you to completely bypass the DNS lookup portion if you're suspecting a
> lookup issue. If the mail is still sticking in the queue, then we can
know
> for certain whether or not it's SMTP or DNS.
>
> Another trick we can try if the messages are still sticking is to change
> that test connector to send HELO instead of EHLO. If we're timing out on
an
> ESMTP verb that's passed and removed at one of the gateways, this will
dumb
> the conversation down enough to not send any ESMTP verbs any longer.
>
> ...but it IS odd that one server can and one server can't... <ponders>
>
> -Josh
>
> "Boris Lokhvitsky" <msexpert@community.nospam> wrote in message
> news:OGt0phP0EHA.1392@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> > Thanks for answering Kevin,
> >
> > I get the same results on both servers. Correct MX entries.
> >
> > Exchange's SMTP, however, is performing DNS queries in a different
manner
> > (for example, it is always using TCP, not UDP, for DNS queries), so it
> > cannot be a big argument... and I did not perform TCP based nslookup
> > queries.
> >
> > http://support.microsoft.com/?id=263237
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Boris
> >
> >
> > "Kevin Longley" <kwlongley@cirtronics.com> wrote in message
> > news:e8dBYRO0EHA.1188@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> >> If you use Nslookup to verify the mx records of the domain in question,
> > from
> >> each of the exchange servers, what do you get for results?
> >>
> >> "Boris Lokhvitsky" <msexpert@community.nospam> wrote in message
> >> news:eVIhsLM0EHA.2572@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> >> > Hello All,
> >> >
> >> > Here's a strange problem. There are two Exchange 2000 SP3 servers (on
> >> > Windows 2000) hosting mailboxes, both belonging to the same
> > organization,
> >> > administrative group, and routing group. No SMTP or any other
> >> > connectors
> >> > configured. Virtual SMTP servers seem to be configured identically on
> > both
> >> > servers. Both servers use the same DNS servers for DNS resolution.
Both
> >> > servers (and DNS servers too) have private addresses and are behind a
> >> > firewall/NAT. No SMTP proxies / gateways / smart hosts for the
outgoing
> >> > e-mail.
> >> >
> >> > Now the problem itself: _ONE_ of these servers can't send out e-mail
> >> > messages to _ONE_ specific SMTP domain on the Internet. The mail just
> > sits
> >> > in the queue until its TTL expires. All other mail for other domains
> > seems
> >> > to work fine. Second Exchange server can send e-mail normally to all
> >> > domains
> >> > including the domain in question.
> >> >
> >> > On DNS server it can be seen that MX records for the domain in
question
> >> > appear in the cache when sending e-mail from the "good" server but
not
> >> > when
> >> > sending e-mails from the "bad" server. Seems to be a DNS related
issue
> >> > (strange). However, messages sent to the same domain from the "bad"
> > server
> >> > using a command prompt Telnet session directly to SMTP, go through
just
> >> > fine. Hence - still an Exchange configuration issue?
> >> >
> >> > I'm out of ideas... any thoughts?
> >> >
> >> > Thanks a lot in advance,
> >> > Boris
> >> >
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
>
>



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