Configuring Exchange 2003 for external access

[Jomercat]

Hi all,

Hope somebody can help.

I am totally new to the Exchange world. Could somebody explain how to configure an Exchange 2003 for external access? Pretend I have an external static IP addres of 69.0.0.1. Our E-mail is currently hosted by a company and I want to integrate our own mail server. I have been reading articles and watching videos, but no one mentions anything about configuring for external access, registration, etc.

1. Does it need to be registered.
2. How do I let the world know that my Exchange resides at IP address 69.0.0.1.

Thanks in advance

Jose.

 

[nsantin]

You don't need an ISA server to receive external mail.

Assuming you are behind a firewall then setup NAT or Port Forwarding to direct SMTP traffic (port 25) to the exchange server.

Then you need to create/update an MX record for your domain. Im assuming you are not hosting your own nameserver, therefore you need to contact whoever is providing your domain hosting and update your DNS zone to include the MX record to you local server. (some hosting companies will let you do this yourself via a web site i.e. Hostopia, etc)

You will also need a reverse DNS entry for the IP you use for the FQDN of your mail server. You will need to contact your ISP to do this.

 

[Jomercat]

nsantin,

Thanks also!

Pretend I want to host our Web site as well. In this case, where do I register the MX record in our Internal DNS server?

How about the addresses pointing to our domain. Right now they are listed as below when you go to Network Solutions and go to the WHOIS.


Domain servers in listed order:

AUTH1.DNS.Server.NET 220.XXX.XXX.XXX
AUTH3.DNS.Server.NET 220.XXX.XXX.XXX
AUTH2.DNS.Server.NET 220.XXX.XXX.XXX
AUTH4.DNS.Server.NET 220.XXX.XXX.XXX

Thanks.

Jose

 

[lameid]

Somewhere someplace someone somehow maintains the DNS records for your domain. Apparently the servers are listed above.

Just like the port for e-mail is 25, the port for the web is 80. You would forward traffic for port 80 to your webserver.

Generally speaking, you can talk to whoever is hosting your DNS to configure your DNS. Any good Windows Server book should cover the ins and outs of DNS and take 20-30 pages to do it. This is what you should look at as Windows DNS is slightly different than other implementations and discusses what is needed to run an Active Directory domain. This of course is only the DNS server on your LAN, the Internet DNS server can be much dumber.

 

[blakey2]

I agree with lameid.

Sort out who is hosting your EXTERNAL DNS record.
This will have 'A Name' records, 'C Name' records and 'MX records'.

Make the MX record point to 'mail.mydomain.com' where 'mydomain.com' is the name of your domain.

Then add an 'A Name' record called 'mail'.
Make the IP address for 'mail' the static IP address of your broadband connection.

If you want to host your own website, make another 'A Name' record called '

http://www'.

Also make this IP the static IP address of your internet connection.

In exchange 2003, you need to configure it to accept e-mail for domain(s).

If your network (LAN) domain is the same as your email address domain then you need do nothing. Else you need to update the 'default recipient policy' in the Exchange system manager.
Put your email domain name in here and tick the box that says 'This exchange server is responsible for all mail delivery to this domain'.

Make sure your AD user accounts have e-mail addresses associated with them. Add the required addreses.

Bang. Now you can receive e-mail.

NOTE: This is a very brief outline of what must be done. It does not take into consideration any firewalls etc.
Use this as a starting point.