Email stuck on the server

[huw84]

Hello,

I have a dell poweredge server

Yesterday i was changing the settings for remote access in the server and the router and i have now stopped the email!

The email is definatly getting through to the server, but then it won't go through to the outlook accounts.

Any help on this would be very useful!

 

[smah]

There is no way that anyone can help with the info has been provided. Some additional information might be useful - like router info, operating system, mail server software, etc.

 

[huw84]

Sorry, am new to getting information from forums,

I windows SBS on a dell poweredge server, the email is collected from a pop3 account and forwarded on to outlook through exchange on the server.

The router is a belkin 54G router, I was changing the settings for the virtual servers when the email went down, but i don't see how this would affect the email. But it is the only thing that i did near the server at the time the eamil went down!

 

[smah]

That is very likely the cause. 'Virtual servers' is a port forwarding setup on the router that allows data to be passed from the public (internet) side of the router to the apropriate machine on the inside (private side) of the router. This sounds like a problem with the router setup, not the server.

 

[huw84]

Thats what i thought at first but then i realised that the email is still getting through the router into the server, its just not getting forwarded into the outlook accounts.

I can see the mailbox sizes through the server and this is smaller than the actual amount in the mailboxes in outlook!

 

[jkupski]

I can see the mailbox sizes through the server and this is smaller than the actual amount in the mailboxes in outlook!

Unless you see steady growth, this really doesn't mean anything. Exchange supports deleted item retention (default is 7 days, IIRC) so what you see at the client isn't really all items in the mailbox.

Also, generally speaking, mail isn't stored by outlook (exceptions being "offline" mode in versions of OL older than 2003, and "cached exchange mode" in OL2003) but is stored on the exchange server. Outlook makes a MAPI connection to the server and displays the data locally.

Reviewing the situion: You made a change to the router (and "remote access" on the server... I am guessing this is ISA?) now your users cannot receive email. The evidence does not point at either Outlook or Exchange, but at the changes you just made.

Easy test: attempt a manual connection to your exchange box from the WAN side of your router.

telnet <the address listed in your MX record> 25
HELO example.com
MAIL FROM: user@example.com
RCPT TO: <local email address>
DATA
<some text>
QUIT

After the first command, you should receive output along the lines of

220 <your host name> Microsoft ESMTP MAIL Service, Version: <some version> ready at <date, time, timezone>

If not, it's a network issue. Now try from the LAN side. If this works, you know your problem is almost certainly with your router. If not, you screwed up the configuration on the server. In either case, roll back your changes--you both knew what you were doing and took notes, right? If the answer to either of those questions is no, you've learned several important lessons, I think...

If indeed you can talk to the exchange box and mail is successfully delivered to your store, you should probably seek help in one of the MS Exchange forums on this site (there are three, I think--pick the appropriate one for your Exchange version.)