Question

exchange 2003 mail hosting best solution

Asked by: rick81

Hi i have an exchange2003 server.  Currently using the pop connector to pull in mail from my email host.  I want mail to be sent directly to my mail server so i can scrap the pop connector.  I want to maintain the current email host as a fall back if my server is offline.  what is the best way to do this?  should i just create a high priority mx record and point to my server or should i relay from my email host to my server.  I am also a little confused with the A records and cname, etc do i need to change anything here.  The host also host my website so i dont want to stuff that up.  thanks

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Asked On
2009-09-17 at 18:24:49ID24742009
Topics

MS SharePoint

,

Exchange Email Server

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Comments
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Answers

 

by: ahmedabdelbasetPosted on 2009-09-17 at 18:36:31ID: 25362452

 

by: rick81Posted on 2009-09-17 at 18:39:34ID: 25362462

that is unrelated to my question.  i am quering the best way to setup my exchange server while retaining my current host as fall back or relay.  

 

by: SkysharkPosted on 2009-09-17 at 19:10:24ID: 25362546

You can setup the email domain on your exchange server.   Move the MX record to point to your external address and then NAT that through the firewall to your exchange box.   A records and PTR records are important as well.  These will have to be created on your DNS provider's name servers...depending on the provider you may be able to do it yourself or you'll have to contact their support to request change.  You can have a secondary MX record as the current provider, but you'll only be able to relay if they allow it.  Otherwise you'd have maintain the POP to transfer from their server to yours when it's back online.  Does your current email host have a filtering service (spam/antivirus)?  If so you can leave the MX record with them and only accept SMTP mail from their hosted servers...and do "mail-bagging" for maintenance periods or even a full outage.  Really depends on the services the current provider can give.

 

by: rick81Posted on 2009-09-17 at 21:20:20ID: 25362914

ok below is what my domain host control panel looks like.  to get mail direct to my exchange server.
should i just change the mx records to my exchange server.  and also create a cname and A record for mail.mydomain.com for owa, etc  i dont want to affect my website here.  thanks



www                           A      domain host wan IP address      
mydomain.com      A      domain host wan IP address      
pop3                     CNAME      pop3.domainhost.com      
webmail                     CNAME      webmail.domainhost.com      
imap                     CNAME      imap.domainhost.com      
smtp                     CNAME      smtp.domainhost.com      
pop                     CNAME      pop3.domainhost.com      
mydomain.com      MX                      20                       mx2.domainhost.com
mydomain.com      MX                      10                       mx3.domainhost.com
mydomain.com      NS      nameserver.com      
mydomain.com      NS      nameserver.com      


 

by: SkysharkPosted on 2009-09-18 at 03:36:02ID: 25364445

The cname are not essential unless your users are referencing them.  You can redirect the cnames if they're using Blackberries with POP3 or IMAP....or shortcuts to OWA...or any other external email checking method.  As long as the www.yourdomain.com stays on their server....your website will  be fine.  The main thing is that mail.yourdomain.com is pointed to your external IP as the MX 10 record.  You can leave the 20 record set to them while in transition and to test the backup method you desire.

 

by: MesthaPosted on 2009-09-18 at 05:10:52ID: 25365010

If you leave the service provider's host in your MX records, then you are going to have to continue to use the POP3 connector. Valid email will go to the other host. As far as I am concerned, all MX records are equal. The "cost" value is now practically pointless, as for some reason servers ignore. Furthermore if you have a server with a higher cost, it will receive more spam. Spammers specifically target them.

I outlined why backup MX records are a bad idea here:
http://blog.sembee.co.uk/archive/2007/02/02/38.aspx

Simon.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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