change from POP3 mail to SMTP feed

[fruitloopy]

We have a headoffice where the SBS 2008 server is based, 7 pc's connected directly to it within the office and 4 branch offices in remote offices. All the users in remote offices were getting their emails via POP3 mail but I have finally finished in changing all these users to connect to the Exchange Server via RPC over HTTP.
At the moment the SBS server is using the POP3 connector to get all users email but the domain name provider can happily change the A and MX records to give a direct SMTP feed.

I am struggling to find a good guide to get a nice smooth transition from POP3 to SMTP with minimal disruption. I understand some of the process but specifically I would like to know what I need to do on the SBS server to make it happen.

I am planning to ask the domain name provider to change the records on Friday afternoon so changes can propogate over the weekend.

Any help is much appreciated.

 

[happyhacker]

Did you do it. There seems to be plenty of advice by Googling e.g.

http://www.amset.info/exchange/pop3-smtpswitch.asp.

It seems it is a bit of a Big-Bang because you have to individually switch client email clients from POP3 to the Exchange mailbox for that user (already created by you). Then you have to go round each user and do the same. At that point it seems emails are blocking up on the ISP so then the MX record has to be pointed to your server at myserver@mydomain.org.

Let me know if this reasoning is right and any problems you had?

Which email protection have you installed first (remember that once you swap to SMTP for incoming mail you are unprotected I think and there are other things that need to be in place e.g. NDR, Tarpitting, reverse DNS (still trying to understand these!

Thanks for your time.

 

[JackOfSomeTrades]

Hi,
Maybe a bit late, but I'll stick my comments down anyway!

Leave Exchange pulling from POP3 (once you're running SMTP and there is no mail in the POP3 account, all it will do it download nothing... once the POP3 accounts no longer exist, exchange POP connector will error - but it won't break anything...).

Make sure there is an Access Rule for SMTP on Port 25 through your firewall (external to Internal) - and through any Backend Firewalls too.

No doubt you're running a basic firewall/router, therefore NAT your STATIC (ensure you have a Static public IP) to your SBS Server, 'opening' port 25 as part of the NAT rule.

This means you can receive SMTP e-mail.

Once all your user accounts are setup correctly (their SBS accounts have e-mail addresses that reflect your POP3 account), get your ISP/web host to make the change to your A and MX Records.

Once DNS starts to update (it very rarely takes the full 48 hours 'they' say it does, its usually pretty instant.
Once you can prove that e-mail is coming in through SMTP (more immediate delivery than waiting for the POP3 polling time), then you can wait a few days, then stop the POP3 connector on Exchange.

E-mail won't 'block up' with your ISP/Web Host, unless you're paying for a service that I can never remember the name of - Mail Relay or something - where basically, your MX record points to your ISP/Web Host, who will forward the mail straight to your SMTP Server by a local MX record in their DNS, so that if your server is uncontactable, mail will then sit on their server until your SMTP Server is back up.

Generally Small Businesses don't have this, so if you take your mail server down, e-mail that expires its TTL (Time to Live) will fail - TTL is usually around 12 hours - but I think can be upto 48, or possibly more.

Good luck...

Cheers, Mark

 

[fruitloopy]

Thanks for the advice everyone. The transition went very smoothly, much easier than I was expecting but I always prepare for the worst.

Just make sure all clients (in my case all running Outlook 2007) get their emails via exchange. At the time they were all using POP3 so I went through this process:

1. Open Outlook and do a send/receive to get all latest email.

2. Click File - Import/Export, export to file and choose Personal Folder file or PST. Click the Personal Folders at the top and put a tick in Include subfolders. Choose what to call it and where to save the PST, click next and choose a password if required. Then click Ok to create the PST.

3. Once done close Outlook and if required you can backup the Autocomplete email file. Go here for instructions on how to do this:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&so...4m11bAcpQ&sig2=9f2j1mhpKV-BhpTkSeXMDA&cad=rja

4. Now go to Control Panel - Mail. Click Profiles and delete the POP3 profile. Click apply and click new to setup your exchange email for this user.

5. Open Outlook and click File - Import/Export and work through the process to import the PST you created earlier. Outlook will now synchronise this data with Exchange so depending on the size and quantity of emails it may take some time. I was connecting most of my users via RDP over HTTP to the Exchange server so I left some of the users with large mailboxes to synchronise overnight.

6. Once you have everyone getting emails via the Exchange server you can start the POP3 to SMTP process as outlined by Jackofsometrades above. Your users wont know anything is different.

Thanks for everyones help.