Exxhange 5.5 permissions & authentication question

[BigAde]

Hi

Not really an Exchange guru, so hope someone can help...

We have a mostly Windows 2000 environment, with Active Directory, but for the moment we still have Exchange 5.5 which sits on a number of different NT servers on different sites. These NT servers exist on the same domain as the rest of the Win2K servers.

I don't really understand how the whole permissions/notification thing works. Basically, whenever I
need access to a mailbox, I use Exchange admin and connect directly to the user's home server to grant my Win2K active directory account permissions to their mailbox. I then use Exchange admin to replicate the directories between sites.

All well and good, but even though I remote-control the same Exchange NT server, sign on to the Win2K domain as myself and setup an Outlook profile for their mailbox, it still can take several hours before the permissions filter their way through and allows me access.

So I guess my question is, how do the permissions work on Exchange 5.5; how and where does it look up the permissions/authenticate me; and how can I speed it up?

I can supply further information if this helps!

Hope someone can help... as this is bugging the heck out of me!!!

 

[fuego007]

My guess would be that you have multiple Backup Domain Controllers on your system. What usually happens when this is true, is that your workstation is getting its authentication from one BDC or the PDC while the Exchange server is using a different one. Until all the domain controllers have synchronized, you will be unable to log into the mailbox. You can speed this up by forcing synchronization through Server Manager. Select the PDC, then, from the first drop-down menu in the upper-left corner, select "synchronize entire domain".

I hope this is helpful.

 

[BigAde]

Thanks fuego,

I forgot to explain that our Win2K domain is running in native mode, so the NT BDCs are not going to be authenticating me - unless I'm missing something here!
The NT Exchange servers are all members of the same Win2K domain.

It is the Win2K active directory account which has got the permissions assigned. It is obviously correctly assigned, since after a few hours, I can access the account fine. I'm just trying to understand where these permissions are stored,how it authenticates me and why it takes so long for the changes to take effect.