Mail Domain Problem

[IanRitchie]

I have a client with Small Business Server 2003. They have about 10 staff at the office running SBS and another 30 or so who work remotely and never visit the office (or even the area!)

Their email domain (yyy.org.uk) is handled by an external company on a POP3 mail server so the exchange server gets the mail from it via the POP3 connector only for the 10 internal users; the rest of the team get their mail via POP3 direct from the POP mail server. Mail is sent via SMTP as normal.

The problem arises when an internal member of staff wishes to email an external member; what we need is for exchange to send these emails out via SMTP but of course it thinks it is the sole repository for yyy.org.uk, and as there is no user set up internally with that email address it returns a NDR.

One solution, I know, is to handle the mail entirely within the exchange server but we would have to provide 30-ish VPN connections for all of the external people to get their mail – the project director is not happy for them to work with webmail.

Sorry for the length of this post but I had to explain it properly; can anyone propose a solution for me?

TIA

 

[primate]

Use RPC over HTTP, full Outlook Client, no VPN needed.

 

[IanRitchie]

Aren't there security issues doing that?

 

[primate]

What do you mean by "Security Issues"?

There are security issues with anything!

IMO there are serious security issues with having corporate email delivered to users via POP3 and then having it sat in .pst files over which you have no control or any ability to backup. With a centralised Exchange infrastructure you can manage the configuration and security more closely.

If I was going to do it, and there is quite a good chance I will be using it, I would run RPC over HTTPS, with a front-end Exchange server acting as an RPC Proxy server in my DMZ - also providing OWA and OMA services so my users can get their email anywhere.

I already use SSL VPN's in the form of Secure Gateway from Citrix - yes there is a security risk, but I've worked to minimise it in the context of my budget and my network.

DMZ's aren't massively expensive to set up and a suitable server to run the Front end (with RAID1 for example) would be about £1K, or less if you get something second hand off e-bay.

Here's a link to the ever helpful MSExchange.org site with a guide how to set it up

http://www.msexchange.org/tutorials/outlookrpchttp.html

 

[IanRitchie]

Thanks for that, I've looked into it and it could be the answer.

 

[primate]

Glad I could help