Difficulty changing Exchange Username/Email Address 2

[wahnula]

Hello,

I recently converted my SBS2003SP1 Exchange server to be my Internet Email server through DDNS & email forwarding and all is well...except...I have one user, that when set up, I gave the username SteveP. Now the other Steve is gone and I want to change his email address to just steve@abc.com instead of steveP@abc.com. I have already changed his logon to simply Steve.

In Server Management>Users I right-click his account and modify the email address to steve@abc.com, but it reverts to steveP@abc.com. I am guessing I need to get into AD and change the info there? Why do the changes not "stick" in User Management?

Thanks

Tony

 

[ShackDaddy]

Under that user's properties, on the email addresses tab, uncheck the box that says "Automatically update email address according to recipient policy." That's what's resetting the address.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[wahnula]

Ah, the benefits of knowledge. Done in the sun, thanks ShackDaddy!

Tony

 

[wahnula]

Um...what exactly does "Automatically update email address according to recipient policy." and un-checking it do to my system? I trust you implicitly, but I am sure it is checked for a reason. Can I ever re-check it? Am I paranoid or what???

Thanks

Tony

 

[58sniper]

Unchecking the box means that the Recipient policy will no longer automatically update the account for email addresses. If you ever change your recipient policy, you'll need to manually update this account.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[wahnula]

Thanks Pat. Am I wrong, or is this fixing the symptom rather than fixing the problem? I don't foresee changing the Recipient Policies again, but I am a fastidious kind of guy, I like things neat, and don't like the fact that somewhere lurking inside my system is a reference to SteveP which I now consider bad (wrong) data. I think I would like all references to him gone from my system. Course of action?

Tony

 

[ShackDaddy]

Did you actually use the Rename wizard to rename that account? That's what you'd need to do to have the policy apply properly. I'd actually give him a fake last name for good measure. If you just went into the properties and changed the account login name, that won't do it.

But to be honest, all the policy does is autopopulate your domain's users with email addresses that match the policy.

It's unlikely that you'll change the external domain name for your users, but if you did, and this box was unchecked, the rest of your users would be given new email addresses, but this user would not.

And if you really don't care about that Steve account that much, it probably wouldn't hurt to make the address static. Especially since you won't be sending out notifications saying "Hey, you used to send mail to that guy Steve that doesn't work here anymore. Just to let you know, we've changed our mail domain, and his new address is steve@DCEF.COM."

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[58sniper]

You could also change the recipient policy to be more exact by using %g@domain.com (replace "domain.com" with your domain name)

The %g means to use the given (first) name.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[wahnula]

Did you actually use the Rename wizard to rename that account?

Yes. I will try again, I might have missed that setting the first time. I will be deleting a few recipient policies as I created many whilst trying to get DDNS sorted (thanks Pat for that tip). I will delete all but the two SMTP policies I need and the one X400 policy.

I appreciate both of you guys, always willing to help bring me along. Maybe in a year or two it will be me joining you in helping others.

Tony

BTW if I really hated SteveP I would put his home phone in one of those mortgage spam websites!

 

[wahnula]

There is no option in the "Rename User" wizard to re-name an email alias. It is a one-pane wizard that makes a point of telling you it will not rename the email alias.

After sniffing around the user Properties I found the old email alias, changed to new, rechecked the "Update" box and all is good.

You could also change the recipient policy to be more exact by using %g@domain.com

Since SBS has a filter : " mailnickname=* " in Recipient policies I think that handles that task, still a great tip, thanks all.

Tony