Exchange incoming email issue

Hi all,
Got a bit of an urgent problem here that I'm hoping someone can help
with. I built an SBS 2003 R2 server a couple of weeks ago, mainly so my
client could use Exchange.

I configured the usual settings (I've done at least ten of these now),
tested tht it wasn't a relay etc. and added port forward rules on their
router/firewall for SMTP and OWA (80 and 443)

I tested the receipt of Email using telnet from an external location (my
office) which worked fine. Feeling fairly confident, I migrated their .pst's
into the mail store, and contacted the ISP that hosts their DNS and asked
them to update the MX record.

That was a bit of a nightmare(and a whole other stroy), but after a week
(!!!) of mucking around with them, they finally got an MX and A record right
for my client.

I then sent several test emails from several domains to the Exchange server,
without issue.

A couple of days later, I got a call from them saying they haven't been
receiving email. They can send and reveive email internally, and they can
send emails out to external locations, but they can't receive from external
sources.

I straight away did a telnet test on port 25, which goes to a blank DOS
screen for a minute, then returns to a prompt with no further info.

Since then, I have:
Checked the event logs, and 'cleaned up' any further error events that were
occuring (Such as 2014 and 2016, which looked to be related, but according
to MS can be safely ignored if they only occur at startup.

It now looks to me that port 25 is being blocked 'somewhere'.

If I change the port the SMTP virtual server uses from 25 to anything else,
I can then telnet into the Exchange server from my office (ie. externally)
no problems.

I have re-created the firewalls rules, replaced the firewall/router with a
different model, removed any extraneous software from the server that might
ahve been causing issue (eg spybot was on there - installed by someone else)
but no joy.

The server has Norton Corp AV, but this doesn't have any firewall type
component that I'm aware of. (And I disabled it to test the theory anyway.)

I reckon it might be the ISP that is supplying the ADSL connection to my
client that is blocking port 25, but I rang them and they say 'no'.

I'm at my wits end with this one, and I am going to have to pull the server
out and go back to pop mailboxes at the ISP if I can't figure it out ASAP.
Any help or ideas would be hugely appreciated.

Cheers!
Scott


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