Exchange 5.5 message delivery delay

[chrisbrozek]

Our site has Exchange 5.5 SP4 on a Windows 2000 server in a NT domain. Messages sent to on on site mailboxes that get forwarded to off site accounts take sometimes 12 hrs or 1 day or longer to be delivered. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, what was the solution to this problem?

 

[Martin911]

Try to verify your outbound queue if the message are there i had a similar problem due to RNDR attack try to clear the originator <> if its the problem your having.

 

[chrisbrozek]

Thanks for the suggestion. Outbound Message Queue is empty. I don't receive any delay notification messages either. Wierd behavior.

 

[Dyadmin]

it could depend on the ISP... maybe the email you are delivering/forwarding has a mail server that's slow. I've had that happen and there is nothing you can do, its beyond your reach. Check to see if your mail server forwardd the email off site right away...if it does the problem is not you.

 

[chrisbrozek]

I've considered that as a cause. However, when sending messages to my own off-site accounts as tests, there are no messages stuck in the queue but also no Event Viewer log items indicating SMTP connections have been made. I have the Message Transfer, SMTP Interface Events, and SMTP Protocol Log Logging items set to Maximum. All other Diagnostic Logging are set to Minimum. I've restarted the IMS just to make sure the changes were applied. If mail is being sent out I think a log item would be created?

 

[chrisbrozek]

Just to verify connectivity, I tested and could telnet to port 25 on external mail servers from my mail server. I do have a Double Check Spam/Virus filtering server on my LAN now. I beleive that may explain why I don't see SMTP connections on my Event viewer any more. The message delay problem existed before installing the Double Check appliance.

 

[chrisbrozek]

After restarting the Exchange services, I tested outbound email services and all is working well on my end. It's amazing what a reboot/restart will do! Thanks for your posts on this thread.