exchange server 2003 error message Could not deliver the message in the time limit specified. Please retry or contact your administrator.

So it may not be a sonicwall problem?

There may be some changes/modifications or settings that you could possibly change in the sonicwall that "may" correct the problem. But if you are able to send and receive mail to and from all other external addresses...the sonicwall should be fine. My point about Bellsouth addresses, is that they can be a problem for a lot of people. If you search the web about problems with Bellsouth email addresses...you will find they are numerous. And so the point of my suggestion, was that unless you have a lot of time to research and test the issue that you are currently having, in order to determine what nuance BellSouth has "this" week with their mail servers...you'd be far better of creating an SMTP Connector to use a Smart Host and forward Bellsouth.net addresses to them. The connectors in Exchange are useful and using one for BellSouth addresses is a good idea IMO.

Ok I will try that, I just wanted to make sure that the sonicwall was not the problem.

I host my own exchange mail server and I have been experiencing this problem for about a month now, with no change to my sonicwall.....I have tried one thing after another, checked reverse dns, tweaked spf, firewall, security, checked rules, policies, even checke my bellsouth spam protection settings........can not figure it out, I also feel this is something related to Bellsouth as my IP is not listed on any spam database.

I am working with http://www.worldnet.att.net/general-info/bls_info/block_inquiry.html

I recieve the delay notification according to my rules and then the error email response I recieve appears as follows:
Could not deliver the message in the time limit specified.  Please retry or contact your administrator.
            <mail.ABC123ZXY.com #4.4.7>


Anyone have any other ideas or approaches???

The procedure was succesful! Havent had time to update this is quite a while, but just follow the directions at http://www.worldnet.att.net/general-info/bls_info/block_inquiry.html and issue should be resolved within 3-4 days, the only major change was that I added was an SPF record. I preferred the msft wizard http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/safety/content/technologies/senderid/wizard/ but learned how to tweak it to my needs at openspf.org

I made the change on friday, tested and reported to bellsouth/att on Monday and issue was resolved by wednesday evening.

Good Luck!