New Installation

[ElijahBaley]

Hi

I am to install Exchange Server 5.5 and need some advice as to the precedure for changing from a POP3 based system (ISP hosted)to SMTP.

We have a NT network and connect to our ISP via a ISP configured router through a 256k leased line.

My first concern is our internal IP range, we have a private (non-legal) internal scheme, Our PDC (NT) has a static address of 10.10.10.5, it lists the default gateway as 10.10.10.1 (router installed by ISP) it runs DHCP and hands out addresses in the range 10.10.10.10 - 10.10.10.99 our client computers access the internet simply by addressing the PDC through the LAN (no proxy/no scripts) which then I assume addresses the gateway and passes the request out through the router, through our leased line to our ISP's DNS server's.

We have a BDC 10.10.10.6 and it is my intention to set-up what will become our Exchange server as a Member server with the address 10.10.10.7

OUTBOUND MAIL

Now this is where it gets a bit tricky, it seems to me that in order to configure the Exchange server for outbound mail all I need to do is to set-up the Internet Mail Service to forward all messages to host (ISP DNS server) which should not be a problem as long as I set-up the default gateway on the member server to point to the router (10.10.10.1)

INBOUND MAIL

Now this is where it gets very tricky, at some stage we are going to have to switch from POP3 to SMTP and this is where my knowledge breaks down a bit - I believe that with POP3 we reach out and negotiate the retrieval of mail and that with SMTP the ISP directs it to a address - my big question is "will the ISP be able to direct the SMTP stream to our member server, internal address 10.10.10.7 ?"

Does any of this make sense, am I on the right track, will it all go horribly wrong on D-Day ???

I could really use some quality advice on this subject - there is no particular urgency as I do not expect to go ahead with this for a few weeks.

Thanks for any advice,

gjdf1

 

[blair99]

I am assuming that you are using a firewall. If you are not, then I recommend getting one as this is the first step in securing your company. The ISP will point to the outside NIC on your firewall, which will be an Internet number. At this point, the firewall will cross reference what is allowed to come through to your internal network and if SMTP is allowed, the message will be transferred to your member server with Exchange.

 

[gignactw]

I have just recently done this myself. Set up a firewall that uses NAT (Network Address Translation). There should be some kind of inbound mapping where you specify the TCP/IP port for SMTP :25 to map to the IP of your exchange server 10.10.10.7. Your ISP static IP will then just redirect any information that comes in on port 25 to the Exchange Server. If you have a domain name setup on the ISP static IP, you can set that any http (Port 80) requests go to a different system also. I currently run both, SMTP and POP3. The staff here also can check thier messages from outside the system.

Tom Gignac

"All the parts should go together without forcing. You must remember that the parts you are reassembling were disassembled by you. Therefore, if you can't get them together again, there must be a reason. By all means, do not use a hammer."
--IBM maintenance manual, 1925