Exchange sending but not accepting email - mail acceptance failure
I have a newly installed Exchange 2003 Server Standard running on Windows 2003 Server Enterprise. I have correctly set the MX records with the domain host, and correctly configured the firewall to forward port 25 to the Exchange Server. Our ISP is not blocking the mail. I am able to send mail outbound, which is immediately received by outside parties, but no mail will come inbound. I first attempted to configure things manually, and then tried to reset things to the default and run the internet mail wizard, but the results are the same. I installed the Microsoft Exchange Troubleshooter (ExTRA), and ran a mailflow analysis, which complained of a 'mail acceptance failure' (if you google that phrase, you get the technet article). The gist of it seems to be that my server's name and the name of the DNS domain that I want to host mail for are not the same. The complaint is that the FQDN and the DNS resolved names are not the same, which is true. I always understood that it was not good to do that, and in fact I have an SBS server using just such a configuration, where the server name and domain name are different, which is working fine.
I tried to resolve this by adding a forward zone to the DNS server with the same name as the mail domain, but that didn't do it.
I need to understand how to get mail flowing inbound.
I tried to resolve this by adding a forward zone to the DNS server with the same name as the mail domain, but that didn't do it.
I need to understand how to get mail flowing inbound.
ASKER
I actually had that set up when I did the manual config, which didn't work. I haven't checked to see if the wizard did the same thing, but I suspect it did. The problem here is that you are talking about relaying outgoing mail, when my problem is incoming mail.
ASKER
The mismatch between server name and FQDN is bogus. I ran the Troubleshooter on a working SBS machine, which came up with the same warning, but passed the test for accepting mail.
ASKER
Found the problem. For Default SMTP Virtual Server, properties, Access, Connection Control, the radio button needed to be set to "all except the list below". That is apparently not the default, and the writers of the Exchange Troubleshooting Assistant can't be bothered to state that in plain English. Oh, well.
Please restore my points.
Please restore my points.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Joshua7 definetely figured out this major problem, in correcting the Default Virtual Server settings selecting ALL instead of Only. This helped me to resolve a major problem in a Healthcare environment that not even the other IT company could resolve.
To configure an SMTP connector, open ESM, Expand the Routing Group container and then the First Routing Group, right click connectors and then click "New..." > "SMTP Connector".