asked on

Local email needs to be sent via ISP's smtp server

Due to unusual ISP reliability issues, it is difficult to use the Exchange server as it was intented. What I have set up is a smart host where email is sent to the clients web domain smtp server (not their isp). This is working well for email outside of their domain but not working at all for local addresses. Since our outside folks are using the web hosts pop3 to gather their email, anything send internally is ending up in their exchange email box and not being sent out to the web hosts mail server.

The question is this: When I send an email to someone within the clients domain, is there a way to force exchange to send it to the webhosts mailserver instead of holding it locally? I believe I've seen messages to that effect but haven't had any luck locating them.

As background, DNS is working correctly on the server. I have the smart host set to go to the ip address (in brackets; [xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx]) in case of a DNS issue. In the address space there is a single '*'. The local bridgehead is the SBS server. I have outbound security set to authenticate. The webhost server is a Linux box.

Thanks in advance for the assistance with this knotty problem.

Regards,

Bill

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy

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w_marquardt

ASKER

Okay... let me make sure that I understand you. If I get rid of the outside users exchange mailbox, then any mail sent from the clients domain will route to the web host's smtp server? To get rid of the mailbox, I assume that I can just go in, highlight the mailbox, use the SBS exchange tasks wizard and select remove email box?

Thanks,

BIll

Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy

Well, that's only part of it. You need to remove the mailbox as well as the email addresses from the User account. (Actually is there any reason that you are keeping user accounts for these folks? Do they need to log into the domain for any other reason?)

Then you need to follow the steps I've outlined in this question to make sure that the messages leave your SBS: http:Q_21877908.html

Jeff
TechSoEasy

w_marquardt

ASKER

Thanks,

Yes, they do need to log onto the domain occassionally via Term Server. I'd have set up accounts for them on the term server profile but they only have the one server and it gives many warnings about having Outlook running on the same box as Exchange. Didn't know that either <g>.

I'll give that a try right away.

Thanks,

Bill

w_marquardt

ASKER

Whoops.. little hiccup.

When I go to remove the email address (I assume via AD / users and groups) -- when I try to remove the email address from the E-mail address tab for the user profile information, I get a message that says "This is the primary SMTP address of this reciepiant. It can not be removed."

How do I go about removing the email address?

Thanks,

BIll

Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy

Just make their .local address primary. Unless your internal domain is the same as your Internet domain, in which case they won't have a .local SMTP address. If that's true, just create a dummy SMTP address like abc@123.local and make that primary. The dummy SMTP addresses will have to be different on each account though.

Also... I'm a bit concerned about what you said above:
"they do need to log onto the domain occassionally via Term Server. I'd have set up accounts for them on the term server profile but they only have the one server and it gives many warnings about having Outlook running on the same box as Exchange"

Are you saying that you don't have a separate Terminal Server and you're allowing them to log onto the SBS? Because SBS 2003 does not provide Terminal Services. Remote desktop connections to the SBS is only for Administrative purposes... and the only way you can gain access is if you have administrative privileges... and I certainly hope you aren't granting those to these users.

Jeff
TechSoEasy

w_marquardt

ASKER

I'll change the email. Thanks.

I believe that you can do term server on sbs 2003. Take a peek here -- http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sbs/2003/deploy/adstrmsr.mspx

Thanks,

Bill

Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy

No, please read that carefully... you can ADD an additional Server 2003 to your SBS domain to run Terminal Server, but you cannot run Terminal Services in Application mode on an SBS 2003 itself. See http://sbsurl.com/sbstss for details on how to add an additional server.

JEff
TechSoEasy

w_marquardt

ASKER

Oh Shoot!

Bill

w_marquardt

ASKER

Hmm... still not working.

I set up myself on their server as a user account. I have no email box (I deleted it so I have no email address because the exchange addon's to AD are removed. When I try to sent an email from an existing account on the server using OWA, I get the following bounced back to the sending account.

****************************************

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: test = 8/5 1:56pm
Sent: 8/5/2007 1:55 PM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

bmarquardt@domainname.net on 8/5/2007 1:55 PM
The e-mail account does not exist at the organization this message was sent to. Check the e-mail address, or contact the recipient directly to find out the correct address.
<D600SCSRVR.domainname.local #5.1.1>

******************************************

The D600SCSRVR is their SBS server.

Can you tell me what I'm missing?

Thanks,

Bill

Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy

"I set up myself on their server as a user account."

Did you use SBS's Add-User Wizard? Or did you do this from ADUC?

The proper method to create a user account on SBS is with the SBS's Add-User Wizard. If you leave the email address field blank on the user information screen of that wizard it will create the account without creating a mailbox.

"I deleted it so I have no email address because the exchange addon's to AD are removed"

HUH? Please explain!

Jeff
TechSoEasy

Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy

Oh... furthermore... did you create an account for bmarquardt@domainname.net on the ISP POP3 email server?

Jeff
TechSoEasy

w_marquardt

ASKER

I created the user in AD not using the SBS wizard. When I open user and groups and click on the new user button from the toolbar, I get the standard add user dialog. After that dialog completes, I get another dialog asking if I want to create an exchange mail box. In the case of my user name, I did when I set up the account. This is also true for the other users on the box but I didn't set them up to begin with.

So in my case, I did have a mailbox (which I have since removed using Exchange tasks wizard.)

My understand is that Exchange 'adds on' to Active Directory. That's where the extra tabs for Exchange General, Addresses, Features, and Advance come from. Those tabs exist in the properties for the users who have mail boxes. Where I removed my mailbox, they don't exist. Does that make that part clearer?

Yes, the email account does exist on the pop3 server and I have tested sending a receiving from it with a different email source.

Thanks,

Bill

Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy

That is NOT the SBS Wizard.

You need to be working from the Small Business Server Management Console, not the individual MMC's.

So... how about trying the Small Business Server Add User Wizard found in the Server Management Console > Users Snap-in.

My guess is that you have not been using any of the SBS wizards to manage this server (nor has the prior person who managed it). Therefore, there's a very great chance that you'll have many other problems. For instance, if all of your users are not in the Default OU of mydomain.local\MyBusiness\Users\SBSUsers and all workstations are not in the Default OU of mydomain.local\MyBusiness\Computers\SBSComputers then the configuration wizards will break and many easily configured things will take 10 or 20 more steps to complete. Additionally, SBS's default group policies will most likely not propagate.

Jeff
TechSoEasy

w_marquardt

ASKER

I'll give that a try and get back to you tomorrow.

Thanks,

Bill

Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy

FYI, this is a good summary overview of what you need to be aware of when dealing with an SBS: http://sbsurl.com/itpro

Jeff
TechSoEasy

w_marquardt

ASKER

Thanks for that. I ran across that one yesterday while looking into options about the terminal server issue. Wish I'd seen that awhile ago. That explains a lot of good stuff (especially the gotcha's.)

My initial thought regarding the terminal server issue (which will be next) is to run virtual server since the server is fairly underutilized. Do you have any experience / feedback with this process? I saw it mentioned in an article and it seems like a reasonable solution.

Thanks,

Bill

Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy

Well, it's not really appropriate to ask a separate question that's unrelated to your initial one... (https://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hi107) but I can tell you that I've got lots of experience with running a Virtual TS on SBS. Start with this document: http://sbsurl.com/vs and if you have futher questions please post them and feel free to email me the links to the questions if you want me to specifically review them. My contact info is in my profile.

Jeff
TechSoEasy

w_marquardt

ASKER

I understand about the separate questions. I was just trolling to see if I might be headed in the right direction. I wasn't trying to get 'two for one'. Be watching the terminal server section for the question <g>.

Thanks,

BIll

BTW: I'm thinking that we'll be going with the first suggestions of Outlook 2003 configured with RPC over HTTPs. I think in the long run, that will be easier and serve them better.

I'll keep you posted.

Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy

Honestly, the issue really isn't about getting a "two-for-one" as much as it is about keeping the Answered Question database clean and usable as well as giving you the opportunity to have a separate issue reviewed and answered by more Experts, because once the thread is a few days old, it won't get noticed or looked at anymore.

Jeff
TechSoEasy

w_marquardt

ASKER

Outlook web access was the easiest way to go. There were too many other issues in play to trying to work with two mail servers viable.

Thanks for hanging in there with me..

Regards,

Bill

Jeffrey Kane - TechSoEasy

Please also understand that remote users can use Outlook 2003 (licensed through their SBS CAL) configured with RPC over HTTPS to get the full Outlook client experience. See http://sbsurl.com/rpc for the technical details, and most importantly, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa996069.aspx for how to set up their user profile in Outlook. (this document is also available as a customized set of instructions from your Remote Web Workplace main menu by clicking on "Configure Outlook via the Internet")

Jeff
TechSoEasy

w_marquardt

ASKER

Thanks Jeff. I'll check out that article.

Bill