Mail not going to Exchange mailbox from POP connector Windows SBS 2003
Hello,
We have a Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 and we have Microsoft Exchange setup using POP connectors to download mail and send it to a distribution group. Each user we make a member of the distribution group in Active Directory gets a copy of the mail in their mailbox.
We think that the mail is being downloaded from the POP server to our Exchange Server but not being sent to any mailboxes.
Where would we find failed or undelivered email that the POP3 connector didn’t know where to route?
Regards,
Robbie.
We have a Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 and we have Microsoft Exchange setup using POP connectors to download mail and send it to a distribution group. Each user we make a member of the distribution group in Active Directory gets a copy of the mail in their mailbox.
We think that the mail is being downloaded from the POP server to our Exchange Server but not being sent to any mailboxes.
Where would we find failed or undelivered email that the POP3 connector didn’t know where to route?
Regards,
Robbie.
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Larry Struckmeyer MVP
iirc, this is one of the many issues with the SBS Exchange POP3 connector. This app is not now and never was meant for long term use and has several flaws, you have hit one of them. There are two solutions that I am aware of: purchase a third party pop3 connector that is supported and asserts it will do everything you want, or change to SMTP mail, as the mail gods intended. But that connector is flawed.
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I have popped the mail and looked at the logs and I am not getting any errors?
If you've enabled detailed logging, you should see in the event viewer a fairly verbose description of the download process, what emails were downloaded, and what Exchange then did with them, it will tell you which mailbox it dropped them into, or tell you if it couldn't route them - what are you actually seeing logged here?
Before marking as answer, it would be good to know that the proposed answer actually offered a solution to the problem.
I repeat... the 2003 era pop3 connector is flawed. Randomly, seeming without reason, and not meant for sustained use. Mail just randomly disapears with no trace is just one of the issues.
I repeat... the 2003 era pop3 connector is flawed. Randomly, seeming without reason, and not meant for sustained use. Mail just randomly disapears with no trace is just one of the issues.
Flyfishing, you seem to be interpreting your difficulties with the SBS 2003 POP3 connector as being indicative of deeper problems with the POP3 connector. This simply isn't true. Thousands of businesses use the connector with no issues at all, and the level of logging it provides is better than most 3rd party solutions. If you'd like some help getting it working, open a new question and I'll be happy to help you - as I say I have dozens of clients using this connector without any problems at all, and I'm confident that I can help you too - however, I'll need a bit more information than "Mail just randomly disapears with no trace" - where does the pop3 connector log say it's delivered the emails to? How about the message tracking centre?
And your claim that the pop3 connector is "not meant for sustained use." - citation please?
As to how he solved the problem, I'd imagine that as advised he enabled diagnostic logging on the pop3 connector, looked at the messages generated in the event log and used these to resolve his issues, all seems perfectly reasonable to me.
And your claim that the pop3 connector is "not meant for sustained use." - citation please?
As to how he solved the problem, I'd imagine that as advised he enabled diagnostic logging on the pop3 connector, looked at the messages generated in the event log and used these to resolve his issues, all seems perfectly reasonable to me.
Not my problems... I don't use it. But I have been supporting SBS since 4.0 and have a long history of the pop3 connector and SBS. You have been very lucky. But your experiences do not match up with the thousands of cases we see go through the public and private SBS forums and before that the nntp newsgroups.
The citation is in the documentation itself. The pop3 connector is meant for tranistion from web mail to exchange mail, or maybe even indivdual imap or pop3 client email to Exchange.
Probably now long since withdrawn from public view, since 2003 is 4 versions ago, but if you search on the phrase below you get 14,000 hits, and that is just the public results:
problems with sbs pop3 connector
The citation is in the documentation itself. The pop3 connector is meant for tranistion from web mail to exchange mail, or maybe even indivdual imap or pop3 client email to Exchange.
Probably now long since withdrawn from public view, since 2003 is 4 versions ago, but if you search on the phrase below you get 14,000 hits, and that is just the public results:
problems with sbs pop3 connector
You'll get similar numbers of hits for searching for, say, "problems with windows 2003", or "problems with popcon" - lots of people have lots of problems with pretty much every bit of software ever released, so I'm afraid that's not very meaningful. And Microsoft have never stated that it's only for transition - some "experts" have opined that this is the case, but Microsoft have never made such a statement.
This page: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885685?wa=wsignin1.0 has a whole load of troubleshooting steps for the sbs2003 pop3 connector, and nowhere does it say you should consider not using it. Like I say, the fact that you couldn't make it work for you doesn't mean it's broken, and certainly isn't grounds for telling other people that it wasn't designed for long-term use, it's simply not true.
Incidentally, a citation would be a link to the documentation you claim says these things, not just repeating the assertion that it says something that it doesn't.
This page: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885685?wa=wsignin1.0 has a whole load of troubleshooting steps for the sbs2003 pop3 connector, and nowhere does it say you should consider not using it. Like I say, the fact that you couldn't make it work for you doesn't mean it's broken, and certainly isn't grounds for telling other people that it wasn't designed for long-term use, it's simply not true.
Incidentally, a citation would be a link to the documentation you claim says these things, not just repeating the assertion that it says something that it doesn't.