SMTP Smart Host Exchange 2016

why dont you just allow exchange to send the email. you dont need a smarthost. allow exchange to send using the MX record of the recipient.

Just thought it was a little better to use smart host, tracks nicely, easier reporting... and from my experience, doesn't it have a higher success rate of sending?

If sending via exchange and using mx records, do you know the best way to do it?

exchange is a messaging system and it will send just a good as a smart host. simple to setup on the send connector. instead of choosing smart host, just choose mx record instead.  if you desire to use a smart host I found a free one that I like for my personal exchange environment named Scrollout F1, and it works well

what about if i have 30 different domains?

it doesnt matter.

I have never seen the point of using a Smart Host. I like to be able to see SMTP logs and track down any problems myself, rather than having to rely on a third party.

What particular useful functionality does the Smart Host provide you with?

mostly the ease of setup. punch in smart host details and away we go. to be honest i have never setup exchange any other way.

using the recipient MX option is even easier than setting up smarthost. just select that option and you are done

nothing special needs to be done at the mx level? like i dont need to add records on each domain or anything ?  MX dns recrods are forwarding to a spamfilter, will that cause issues ?

nothing special needs to be done at the mx level?

Since MX records are required for incoming emails and not for outgoing emails ,there is no need to create any record on any server.

MX dns recrods are forwarding to a spamfilter, will that cause issues ?

This is configured for incoming emails and not for outgoing emails so it will not create any issues.

If you are looking for smarthost than you can try "mail gun"

But I would personally  recommend you to Configure your exchange server itself to send all outgoing emails directly to internet.

Refer following article to configure your send connector to send emails directly to internet using MX routing option.(check send connector section).

http://www.mustbegeek.com/configure-exchange-server-2016-to-send-and-receive-external-emails/

There is no problem to set send connector for yours 50 domains because there is no different for server if sending email for one domain or 50.
The problem will be to setup MX record in public DNS, because you must set 50 records for MX record and 50 SPF files (if you don't want to use INCLUDE function) for same external IP address.
This will be challenge but it's not that hard.

what kind of dns entries do i need ?

https://MailGun.com provides great smarthost/relay facilities.

They provide a DNS record generator + DNS record verifier, to ensure all your records are setup correctly.

The big wins with MailGun.

1) First 10K messages free each month.

2) Rich/Complete set of Webhooks called for every message state change.

3) Deliverability Debugging is simple as several days of entire SMTP log set are kept for each individual message.

#3 is the big winner. All relay services provide basically the same features. Problem with most of these services is they rarely provide full logs, so debugging problems is impossible.

With MailGun, usually a few seconds to find the log record + a few seconds of review, provides sufficient detail for fixing deliverability problems.

author, you dont need to make any DNS entries in order to send the emails, regardless of the amount of domains. just select the MX recipient option instead of the smart host option and you are done

If you want to be able to receive and send messages then you must create public DNS, register domain and create A host, MX and SPIF record.
If you not then you not going to be able send messages, because most of recipients are checking if server message coming from is legit
Also If you'll not have MX record you are not going to be able receive any messages from outside because other companies Exchange server will not know where you server is installed.

I think you have your domains names register somewhere, so go there and check your DNS setting

ok, sending using dns now. which is fine. but i need to authenticate the domainsby adding spf records etc,.

How do i know what records to create? eg: what do i need to put into the spf record etc?

also, how easy is it for someone to spoof the email address when doing it this way? had a client report that emails were received from his customers with his email address