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Delayed/unable to send to AOL addresses with new Exchange 2003 server

Our domain at work was a single Windows 2003 server (fileserver.domain.local) Then I added an Exchange 2003 server as a member server and simply added it to the domain (exchange.domain.local). I then ran the SMTP wizard which appears to have amended the recipients policy by adding mydomain.org.uk as a suffix so that when I add a new user it automatically creates 3 email addresses for them (user@domain.local - user@domain.org.uk & an X400 one).

Everything seemed to be working fine, users were able to send and recieve internal and external emails however I noticed that emails sent to AOL were getting delayed and then were unable to be delivered so I ran my mailserver IP through dnsstuff and it appeared that I didn't have a PTR record. I contacted my ISP who set this up for me however they were unable to set the record to point to exchange.domain.local, they had to set it to exchange.domain.org.uk (which obviously isn't the name of my mailserver)

AOL emails still aren't going so I wondered if anyone could advise on what to do next? Can I simply change my server name to domain.org.uk or will that break anything?

carl_legere

next step is to edit what your exchange server tells the world when a SMTP connection is made.
go to ESM -> servername -> protocols -> SMTP -> right click default virtual server, properties
go to delivery -> advanced ->
change the Fully qualified domain name to what you have the PTR record set to. Restart SMTP

from the server do
telnet localhost 25
what do you see?

Also verify that the ISP setup the PTR, go to an outside connection with a DNS not provided by that ISP, and do:
nslookup xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
xxx = the IP address of your outside mail server connection
should resolve to proper mail.domain.com

Sembee

Unless you are very lucky, if you are on a DSL or cable connection then you can make all the changes you like, AOL will never accept your email. It doesn't matter if you have a dynamic or static IP, they simply will not accept your email.

You will need to use an SMTP Connector to route email through the ISPs SMTP Server.
http://www.amset.info/exchange/smtp-connector.asp

It can help to make the changes that Carl has outlined above, although you don't need to restart the SMTP service to get the name announcement to take affect - it is live.

You can also try putting your external domain name in to dnsreport.com and see what it says.

Simon.

philz75

ASKER

Carl.

I'd already done the FQDN bit so here's the result of the telnet and nslookup (telnet seems to be ok but nslookup is still not working)

TELNET
220 exchange.domain.org.uk Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: 6.0.3790.1830 ready at Sun, 9 Apr 2006 23:08:01 +0100

NSLOOKUP
C:\Documents and Settings\Admin>nslookup 81.*.*.19
Server: ns1-wol.blueyonder.net
Address: 62.*.*.39

*** ns1-wol.blueyonder.net can't find 81.*.*.19: Non-existent domain

Does this mean that my ISP hasn't done my PTR yet?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

carl_legere

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Sembee

The easiest way to find out is to simply put the domain in to dnsreport.com and see whether that reports a reverse lookup or not.

Simon.

philz75

ASKER

Carl, you were right, the ISP was either lazy or there was a propagation problem as I've just checked today and everything is ok now.

Cheers for your help