Messages stuck in Queued state Exchange 2003

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They are sitting in a queued state - what's the NDR code in the queue?

Open System Manager and drill down into the Queue section, if mails are sitting there'll be a error code relating to why they are queued - post that here so we can help

ASKER

I don't see any errors. Their status is still Queued, not "non delivered" yet. I believe they have two days before they expire and get non delivered. My users received an email from the exchange system just saying it's been delayed - here is the email message they got:

This is an automatically generated Delivery Status Notification.

THIS IS A WARNING MESSAGE ONLY.

YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESEND YOUR MESSAGE.

Delivery to the following recipients has been delayed.

When I highlight the domain in the "Queues" area in the Exchange System manager, at the bottom there is a message that says "The remote server did not respond to a connection attempt". Sounds like it's something on their end maybe? Is there way (besides sending the client an email from my yahoo or gmail account) to test on the public internet the domain name to see if it's working properly? Some sort of internet tool for mail delivery?

Yes, use this site...

www.mxtoolbox.com

Enter their domain and it will test to see if they are responding to emails

Sounds like its a connectivity issue with their side...

I believe they have two days before they expire and get non delivered - Absolutely

The remote server did not respond to a connection attempt - Clearly says issue with Recipient Server :(

You can check with their MX record or IP and then try to telnet and see if you can drop an email

- Rancy

ASKER

mxtoolbox.com reports:

10 antispam01.maxim-ic.com 205.153.101.182 24 hrs Blacklist Check SMTP Test
10 antispam02.maxim-ic.com 205.153.101.183 24 hrs Blacklist Check SMTP Test

Not sure what to make of it.

Do the SMTP test to see what it reports...

I would also like to check if they arent blacklisted as if so they will have issues with receiving emails as well as other domains in sending emails to them.

If they are blacklisted do let them know so they can work to try and get themselves delisted.

- Rancy

ASKER

SMTP is all good, except for the warning saying it does not support TLS. Everything looks good on the black list too.

Ok, one last thing to test just to make sure - test your own domain on that site - blacklist check, etc...just in case you've been blacklisted somehow

This client you're emailing - has worked previously yes?
The outgoing emails - big attachments? What size are they?
Anything changed on your server in the last few days since it previously worked?

ASKER

I did a black list check for my domain...all looks good except there was a couple time outs. Did a second and third check and the time outs were gone on the second check then there were time outs for two other black lists but the first two time outs were now ok.

Emails have been sent to this customer for a long, long time sucessfully

The emails have no attachements

Nothing changed on our server that I am aware of We have a small business with one server and just me trying to manage the IT needs

Is there a blacklist for the recipient domain ?
Issue is more on the recipient end as only one doamin is affected .... if it would have been your server everything would have been halted.

- Rancy

ASKER

When I check the blacklists for the recipient domain, everything looked good there too. We contacted the IT people at the recipient's company, and they are looking into it.

Good let us know .... also were you able to telnet on port 25 to their MX entries ?

- Rancy

ASKER

I don't know how to telnet and haven't tried that. I'll do some digging see if I can find some instructions on how to do it.

telnet <their mail server ip> 25

Will open a prompt and should show their sides Exchange server name...

telnet 1.1.1.1 25 - note the space between ip and 25

ASKER

From my laptop (windows 7) do I type the telnet <server> 25 from the run command, or a command prompt? Neither of those work.

ASKER

Sorry, just read I need to install it from Windows features.

Yep. its not installed on Win7 by default

You can do that from your Exchange box as well.
Try with Telnet "IP of recipient server" 25

- Rancy

ASKER

When I did the telnet 205.153.101.182, it returned:

220 antispam.maxim-ic.com ESMTP

Is that what I am looking for and are there any other steps to perform?

Well that confirms you can access...next step is to try to send email using that command line...going to see if I can dig out the exact lines you need...or maybe Rancy has those handy

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

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ASKER

Ok, after the helo, I received the "pleased to meet you", so I assume that worked
Then I got an "OK" after I put the mail from email (my email), so I assume that worked
Then on the first rctp to: request, I got an error 550 No such domain at this location
I typed the exact rctp to: command again, and this time I got and "OK"
Then after the DATA, subject: and test message, I got a 250 Ok: queued as 90AC8191D4C0 response

I then closed the connection. I find it strange that the first time I put the recipients email address in, it said no such domain, and then it worked ok the second time. Any idea what that means?

Well depends...did you type it EXACTLY correct? Reason is, if you mistype in the telnet session it doesn't like it, it can complain with just one space out of sync!!

Sounds good though, its the normal messages I'd expect from a telnet session...

smckeown777: Thanks for sharing the telnet droping email details.
jbobst: This all looks good not sure then what could be the issue with sending email to the user.

- Rancy

At the same time maybe there is a config issue on the client end...based on it complaining about the 'no such domain'

Since you've already contacted the client IT people lets see what they say...

ASKER

Update -

I got a reply last evening from the telnet email I sent, so the telnet was successful. This morning when I got into the office I noticed all the emails were still stuck in the queue on our exchange server. I did a full reboot on our exchange server, and once that happened all the emails went out successfully. I have no idea why that is, but I suppose I am glad it's working now.

Thanks for all the help, and I'll close this out this question.