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Exchange 2003 not sending or receiving e-mail

Exchange 2003 not sending or receiving e-mail.
the mirror was corrupted and the system basically died. However with the exception of a few rare errors exchange was working well. I copied down every setting I could think of prior to re-install. MX records are ok, static IP is ok, all forwarded ports are ok
ran many troubleshooting tips and have slogged through KB's whitepapers and everything on this forum i could find for the last 15 hours solid. I need HELP!!!!
Dell poweredge SC420 server 3gb ecc DDR-2 with onboard sata disabled and a Hipoint 2310 satarocket raid controller card installed. 3 seagate 160gb hard drives hosting 4 raid 5 volumes os-75gb /exchange-100gb /quickbooks-100gb /autodesk-44gb

Clean install of server 2003 standard
dc (client company's initials).local
Clean install of exchange 2003 standard
mx record is mail.(clients company).com
Best I can tell all seems well but outgoing messages are stuck in the smtp connector que for the recipients server. and no messages have been recieved at all.
I know I mustve set something wrong, but for the life of me I can't find it, I've even removed exchange and re-installed it.
I"m at a loss.

mass2612

Hi,

Are you using a smarthost or DNS to deliver mail on your SMTP connector? Have you checked your SMTP authentication if you are using a smarthost?

Can you telnet from your server to a external mail server and deliver mail i.e. telnet mailserver 25

Telnet to Port 25 to Test SMTP Communication
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/153119

Configuring an SMTP Connector
http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/Configuring-SMTP-Connector.html

CpufixerDenver

ASKER

DNS delivers mail on SMTP connector, dns test passed
however telnet test passed earlier today but fails now.

CpufixerDenver

ASKER

post reboot, telnet working fine, and mail from smtp que delivered successfully. however still no mail received.

mass2612

You might want to drop you domain or e-mail address in here and see if you are able to connect and verify the addresses in use for your MX record.

http://www.zmailer.org/mxverify.html
http://www.dnsstuff.com/

http://www.petri.co.il/configure_mx_records_for_incoming_smtp_email_traffic.htm

CpufixerDenver

ASKER

ERROR: I could not complete a connection to any of your mailservers!

mail.valveandfilter.com: Timed out [Last data sent: [Did not connect]]

If this is a timeout problem, note that the DNSreport only waits about 40 seconds for responses, so your mail *may* work fine in this case but you will need to use testing tools specifically designed for such situations to be certain.

CpufixerDenver

ASKER

now outgoing mail is not working again. "the connection was dropped by the remote host"

mass2612

Are there any kind of bandwidth limits set in place on the link or anything? I've seen very strange issues with queues before where the SMTP traffic has been limited and this causes the connection to drop.

Try turning up the diagnotic logging for the SMTP exchange transport - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124167.aspx.

Winroute can also be a help to isolate what's happening with a connection - http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/WinRoute-Routing-status-Exchange-organization.html

mass2612

No servers can connect to port 25 on

Name: mail.valveandfilter.com
Address: 65.102.244.226

Is this public IP assigned to your router and then port forwarded? We can ping the ip 65.102.244.226 ok.

CpufixerDenver

ASKER

we have staic route through business class ADSL the public IP is the modem/router and it is port forwarded through to the server on the wan side nic, the lan side is on a different ip structure on a different nic. If I reboot the server with the remnant drive of the broken mirror, the system sends and recieves perfectly, so I KNOW it's in the new setup SOMEWHERE. I've just gone back through IIS so see if there are any permissions conflicts and there does not seem to be a problem there. I'm about ready to call MS @ 500 a shot.

CpufixerDenver

ASKER

what's odd is that about every hour or so I recieve sthe test messages I am sending to my business account from one of the lan computers. However none of my replys have reached the lan mailbox and the outgoing messages are still in que AND none of the ones I have recieved have shown in the lan users sent items folder.

mass2612

Sounds like there are big issues alright a call to MS support might be worth it especially if this is impacting the business.

CpufixerDenver

ASKER

Thanks for the attempt :) I"ll wait till tomorrow when it's cheaper :)

mass2612

Don't give up the likes of Sembee will be coming online soon and he may be able to assist.

CpufixerDenver

ASKER

Seems the Remote access VPN server was causing the problem. Had to allow traffic through on the RAS software-firewall. Now sending and receiving, but other things have stopped working. spent over 5 hours on the phone with a really great tech from MS. however now new mailboxes are not being updated into exchange from the active directory. I think he mustve changed something because it was working fine before.
ARRRGH.
-E

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

mass2612

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