Blocked outgoing external email

[MSR63]

I have new systems setup at a data center. Three are Intell system and two are AIX - the AIX are configured to send SMTP email out for alerts.

SMTP Email goes out to my AIX guy within the same domain, but not to the AIX guy in another country on a different domain. We ran a test to see if a yahoo account would receive the alert and it did not - just internal domain accounts.

I added the AIX server as an allowed Relay but it still doesn't work.

Any suggestions?

 

[58sniper]

This is Exchange 2003? Does the message ultimately bounce? What do the SMTP logs say? Can you resolve the MX records for the remote domain from the Exchange server?

Pat Richard MVP

 

[MSR63]

Yes - this is exchange 2003
I am not aware of any NDR messages, I tried to look under Message Tracking to see what I can find and didn't see anything.

I can't ping the remote domain in Australia however - I am pinging from my location where the exchange server is at.
Which is on a 10.1.3.x network
My data center servers are on a 10.1.5.x network
Both on the same domain

But like I said - even if we send an alert test to a yahoo account it does not go out -- it only goes to the same domain accounts it resides on.

At first I question what my smtp server name was but when it works internally I was confident on the name.

 

[w33mhz]

Do you have a Smart Host configured on your Exchange box? Maybe the issue is with the outbound relay agent.

 

[MSR63]

I do not know if I have Smart Host
I inherited this network.
I just looked under programs and Add/Remove programs and do not see it. Is there another place I should be looking?

 

[MSR63]

I just checked -- Smart Host is not configured on the exch box

 

[58sniper]

The fact you can't ping is irrelevant. Try doing a lookup of the MX records for a domain you're trying to connect to. From the Exchange server, see if you can telnet over port 25 to those hosts.

Pat Richard MVP

 

[MSR63]

I found out that my AIX guy configured AIX’s sendmail program to use Exchange as a smart relay (the DS line in sendmail.conf), where AIX simply passes all outbound mail to Exchange and lets it decide how to route it.

I am not sure what that means - but I have been trying to look at my exch box to see how I can address this.

So far no luck.

Any further suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[MSR63]

I tried the telnet to the host displayed after I ran the nslookup tool

I get this first line and then lose connection

220 servermx2.domainname.com ESMTP (cf809fc647018facfab891d7f2d0950b)

The site to site VPN to our headquarters (the site listed about) is very secure. They may have ACL restrictions - could be allowing just ping and FTP I'd have to confirm if telnet is allowed to them or what else. But one would think if I can send an email to this remote user on a different domain - the smtp should send out also?

 

[MSR63]

I found out the by default smtp only send within the domain it resides on.

so I need to figure out how to configure smtp to send to a certain external domain also.

Any thoughts?

 

[58sniper]

Say what? Exchange 2003 will send to any domain via SMTP.

Pat Richard MVP

 

[MSR63]

I read and forgive me for not including the link -- I have been reading so many sites in my attempt to resolve this issue - that by default it's only sends internally unless you configure it to include external also -- which is what I am now trying to figure out.

 

[58sniper]

That's not true. Exchange isn't set like that by default. By default, it will send to any domain - regardless of whether it's local or remote. Of course, local means that it's authoritative for the SMTP domain - it is listed in the recipient policies.

Pat Richard MVP

 

[MSR63]

Are you calling me a liar!! Just kidding....

That just goes to show you - you can't believe everything you read.

I am almost willing to bet that the remote site is not allowing smtp..so I have to wait until Australia wakes up today (which is Thursday for them) and see if that is indeed the issue.

Thanks for your assistance

 

[58sniper]

You would be able to tell just by a telnet session whether all sides are working correctly.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/153119/

If it doesn't work, it could be at the destination side, or it could be firewall issues in between.

Pat Richard MVP

 

[MSR63]

FYI -- we are pretty sure we have found the answer.

My AIX guy was sending test from username@servername
when he added .domainname at the end of it - we started recieving the test from the AIX server

username@servername.domain.com

We havn't had confirmation from our co-workers in Australia yet be we are pretty sure that fixed the issue.

Thanks for your assistance!!