Exchange Mail Forwarding Help Needed

[Aytee]

We have Exchange 5.5 on a Win Business 2000 server. Here's the problem.
I want to forward email from an Exchange mailbox to an external email address (so that it can be picked up on the road).
So I go through the standard Active Server Dir route and add a contact as per MS instructions on the support.microsoft.com website. Then I set this contact as the mail forwarding addy for the correct company user.

Now the problems start. Everytime someone sends an email to the Company User's email account they get a message as followsExternalemail.co.uk refers to the addy I'm trying to forward to).

"Final-Recipient: rfc822;User@externalemail.co.uk
Action: failed
Status: 5.5.0
Diagnostic-Code: smtp;550 <sendername@senderdomain.com>... Not permitted
X-Display-Name: XXXXXXXX (Exchange Contact Name)"

This seems strange to me as the sender is getting a delivery error message from the forwarding address email, NOT the Company Exchange Server.

Two final things:
1) The external email comes into the User's Company Exchange mailbox as normal.

2) Mail senders keep ringing up saying that mail they send us is not getting through as they are getting an error message. They do not look at the message closely to see that it is generated by a forwarding address not the mailbox address!

Can anyone help me to resolve this problem please.
P.S. I inherited this system and am still learning about it, so be gentle with me

 

[blakey2]

Hi Aytee,

Could be wrong here, so take this with a grain of salt. When running exchange 5.5, you forward email to external clients from within Exchange Console, not through AD.

So open exchange console/admin and create a new cusotm recipient. Select an 'Internet Address' or whatever it is called. Enter the email address you want mail to be forwarded to.

Now enter the properties of the user/recipient whose mail is to be forwarded. This again is done from within exchange admin console. Click on the 'Delivery Options' tab and select the field for an extra recipient.

Enter the custom recipient details in here and you should be a happy camper. - Note: there is the option to forward all mail to only this address, or to forward a copy of the mail. Select the desired option.

NB: I do apologise about the lack of clarity in the response, but am writing all from memory.

Cheers.

 

[Aytee]

Hi Blakey2,
Thanks for the reply. Now I'm going to ask a really dumb question, so brace yourself...
Where TF do I find Exchange console/admin.
When I do Start/Programs/Microsoft Exchange the only menu items I have are:
Active Directory Clean Up Wizard
Active Director Users and Computers
System Manager
Migration Wizard

System Manager does have menu tree items relating to Recipients (with things like 'Recipient Update Service' and 'Recipient Policies') but I do not see an option to add a custom recipient.

Can you help me any further?

Cheers

 

[blakey2]

Hey Aytee,

Running on NT4 and did not install exchange, but I assume it should be the same setup.

Start->All Programs->Exchange Server->Exchange Server Administration

Otherwise, the actual admin program/console is located in the bin directory of where exchange was installed to. The file name is: admin.exe

Thus the full path for me is: e:\exchsvr\bin\admin.exe

Hope this helps - Chris.

 

[Grenage]

Hi Chris,

It sounds like your mail might not be being forwarded due to an exchange rule, which is nice and easy to check.

Open Exchange Administrator,
Open Site followed by "Connections",
Open the "Internet Mail Service" properties,
Click on the "Internet Mail" tab,
Click on "Advanced Options".

There should be a rule/tick box with "Disable automatic replies to the internet". If this is ticked I do not believe any messages from an external source will be forwarded automatically.


Carlsberg don't run I.T departments, but if they did they'd probably be more fun.

 

[Aytee]

Thanks for the replies both,
There must be something amiss here.
Blakey2 - Path to exchange admin does not exist.
I do have lsadmin.exe in the location you suggest. But when I run it, it asks for a server name and when I put in our server name I just get an Exchange Connectivity Admin - Overview screen. No options to change any settings or alter anything.

And Grenage - there is no 'Internet Mail Service' to be found. No servcie of this name is running in the Services List.
As above no Exchange Admin either (only Exchange System Manager)
There is an option to turn off Auto Non-Delivery Replies in Exchange/System Manager/Global Settings/Internet Mail Format but I assume this turns off this setting for everyone with an Exchange Mailbox? Doesn't sound like the right one anyway!

Any more thoughts?
Cheers

 

[grar]

Hi,
you can install MS Exchange Administrator localy, on you workstation. Just put the cd with MS Exchange install and run installation file called servermin.exe (or some like that, it is important to run the file with the "min" in the name, not "max"). It will install MS Exchange admin on your workstation

cheers

 

[prairieseahorse]

Hi, can you confirm that you are running Exchange5.5 and not Exchange2000 or Exchange2003? I'm a little suspicious because of the contents of your Start/Programs/Exchange.
"System Manager" is a component of the later versions of Exchange.

If you are using Exchange2000/2003, check this link for instructions on setting up forwarding to a mail-enabled contact.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;281926