Exchange SMTP Problems

[TheStressFactor]

Hello all,

I have my exchange server up and running. I am currently testing it with one Outlook account that I am using.

When I send an outside email to a yahoo account it stays in the queue. When I send from my yahoo account I receive the following:

209.235.240.9 does not like recipient.
Remote host said: 553 sorry, that domain isn't in my list of allowed
rcpthosts (#5.7.1)
Giving up on 209.235.240.9.


I have no idea what is wrong....can anyone offer insight or info on this problem? It will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Pat

 

[brontosaurus]

did you check the message restrictions on your SMTP virtual server?

 

[TheStressFactor]

Hey Bro,

Thanks for the reply. I did check the settings and everything seems fine. What I noticed is that I cannot surf the net either?

This led me to believe there was a hardware problem...changed over to a second nic in the server that was not being used which did nothing, changed the cat 5 cable and the port it was plugged into which did nothing, verified the correct ip settings and triple checked the correct gateway settings.

Every other server and client can access the internet but this one. I can ping all internal ip's by name and ip as well.

Can anyone offer any suggestions as to what can be possibly messed up with this box...any help would be very much appreciated.

Patrick

 

[brontosaurus]

it seems like you're having a DNS issue, although I know you said that you checked everything. From the exchange server, try to ping

http://www.yahoo.com

either by name or IP address. When you try by name, do you get a "host unknown" error, or an attempt to ping with a "request timed out"? If either one works, please let me know...

 

[TheStressFactor]

weird stuff going on..did what you sggested and it timesout..actually any ip or hostnae i ping i cannot get..they all timeout...what do you think it is?

 

[brontosaurus]

well, if they're timing out when you try by hostname, then it's not DNS, it's a basic connectivity problem. The reason i asked you to try YAHOO is they don't block ICMP, which I can't say for the other sites you tried...so if you tried to ping

http://www.yahoo.com

and got a "request timed out", you've got (as i said) a basic connectivity issue. From the exchange box, can you ping the GATEWAY?

 

[TheStressFactor]

Hey bud..tried yahoo.com...and it timed out...i can ping my gateway fine from the exchange box

 

[nahuahc]

just for clarification,
1. you cannot ping

http://www.yahoo.com

or you cannot even ping its IP addr:

ping 66.218.71.87

<which is ip addr of

http://www.yahoo.com>

2. can you do nslookup

http://www.yahoo.com?

3. how many DNS servers do you have in your domain? it may be possible that if you have more than 1, the DNS server to which your exchange server is pointing to is not doing forwarding? can you confirm this? ( go to DNS mmc and check if forwarding is enabled)

 

[TheStressFactor]

hello mira..thanks for the reply

I cannot ping

http://www.yahoo.com

by name or ip address. Both give me the request time out.

I can successfully do an nslookup on

http://www.yahoo.com.

I have one dns server. Forwarding is enabled.

Patrick

 

[brontosaurus]

what other pieces are there in your network puzzle? it seems like the exchange server is being blocked somewhere after the gateway....

 

[TheStressFactor]

in front of the firewall i have a cisco router...thats about it...then it goes out to the net

 

[brontosaurus]

so it goes: Exchange Server --> Router --> Firewall? And I'll assume the gateway address you're entering is the inside interface of the router? Do a traceroute to

http://www.yahoo.com

and tell us where it times out....

 

[TheStressFactor]

Hi Bronto...you have the layout correct...however when i do a tracert it just gives me the request times out for each attempt....if i tracert out the firewall our router it reaches right away

 

[brontosaurus]

so from the exchange server, when you do the trace, the next hop is the router/gateway, and that times out? You said you can ping the gateway, though? That seems odd, you should at least be getting to the gateway without timing out...are you able to check the router config and/or syslog messages?

 

[TheStressFactor]

OK...i got it actually...i had something screwed up on my firewall...ok new scenario...i can send out using outlook but cannot receive mail...if i reply back to the test mail i send i get it at my old novell email client not my outlook inbox..any suggestions?

 

[brontosaurus]

assuming your NAT'ing at the firewall...
do you have a STATIC entry that points the outside IP address to the internal exchange server on port 25?

 

[TheStressFactor]

the static entry is there

when i send my mail from an outside yahoo or aol accoubti am getting this error message

553 sorry, that domain isn't in my list of allowed rcpthosts

What should I change in Exchange to allow mail to come in?

 

[brontosaurus]

that sounds like a relay issue, what's the relay setting on your SMTP virtual server?

 

[TheStressFactor]

Hey Bronto..thanks for all the help so far...

This is what I have:

Under select which servers may relay through this virtual:

All except those listed below.

And I have nothing listed in the box.

Any ideas?

Patrick

 

[brontosaurus]

Hmm...would you mind giving me a mailbox name that I can send to?