Exchange 2010 blank emails 1

[ryanak]

I am having an odd issue where critical emails from a single source are coming through blank.
The server is Windows SBS 2011 with Exchange 2010 SP2 Rollup 4.
These emails pass through the spam filter service with a size of 2806 bytes. By the time they get to the user they are 738 bytes. It does not matter if they use Outlook (2007 and 2010) or OWA. If the users send to their old email addresses (which is a pop server) the email comes through without issue.
We are using GFI Vipre Antivirus (currently set not to scan email) on the workstations and server (exchange currently set as an exclusion). I have disabled all of the Exchange Spam filters.
I also had them send the message to me (I am running Exchange 2010 Standard with SP2) and the message was also blank.
Below is the header from the message as it was sent to me (personally identifiable information has been edited).

Received: from SPAM FILTER(xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) by
MY EXCHANGE (xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx) with Microsoft SMTP Server id 14.2.318.1;
Thu, 23 Aug 2012 10:04:17 -0800
SPAM FILTER ID: xxxxxxxxx (0.0)
Return-Path: <SENDING USER>
Received: from
SENDING MAILSERVER ([XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX]) by
SPAM FILTER [(XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX)] with ESMTP via TCP; 23 Aug
2012 14:03:40 -0400
Received: from sENDING DOMAIN (XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX) by SENDING EXCHANGE SERVER
(XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX) with Microsoft SMTP Server id 14.1.355.2; Thu, 23 Aug 2012
11:03:39 -0700
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2012 11:03:36 -0700
Message-ID: <SENDER MESSAGE ID>
From: <SENDING USER>
To: <ME>
Subject: Dispatch Forms
X-VMS-To: ME
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-AuthSource: MY EXCHANGE NAME
X-MS-Exchange-Organization-AuthAs: Anonymous


I have checked this forum and was unable to find the answer (if I missed it, please provide a link)
Other solutions I have checked are:

http://www.outlookforums.com/thread...mail-body-outlook-but-typically-viewable-owa/

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2253312

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2616124

none of these provide me a solution that works.

Thank you.

 

[Zelandakh]

If the message is blank, look at the Internet header, is the email text in there?

 

[ryanak]

Zelandakh,
No, there is no message in the header. What is posted is the full header (personally identifiable information has been edited out).
When I receive the email, there is no other information.

 

[Zelandakh]

Is the spam filter service an external company or a product / appliance that you control? If that is changing the size then it is set to strip something and you need to look there.

 

[ShackDaddy]

I've seen this before on a server that had Vipre Mail Security installed and then uninstalled. It's almost always caused by a SENDING server. To resolve the issue, strangely enough, we configured the server to use a smarthost, and for some reason the blank emails were not generated by the sending server when using a smarthost.

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net
TrainSignal.com

 

[ryanak]

Zelandakh,
The spam filter is an external service, but the issue existed before that was put in place. The spam filter support also confirmed that it leaves their server with the proper size.

ShackDaddy,
I can certainly contact the sender's IT Support and see what adjustments can be made on their side. My only problem with this answer is that the email works fine when sent to non-exchange email servers (their old POP servers, hotmail, gmail).

 

[ryanak]

So the good news is ShackDaddy was correct. The sender was the cause of the problem. The application they use to send out these emails was putting a <NULL> statement after the header information. Exchange 2010 parses <NULL> statements and stops the transmission of the email. It sees <NULL> as the same as the End of Message statement. The sender is updating their application. I should know by next week if the issue is resolved.

 

[ShackDaddy]

Thanks for posting back to us with what you found--that helps everybody!

Dave Shackelford
ThirdTier.net
TrainSignal.com