Non-Delivery Messages 1

[proudusa]

I'm getting non-delivery for e-mails being sent out of outlook 2000 which are configured with an external POP/SMTP server in their properties. Mailboxes are stored on an Exchange 5.5 server. The server is used to store mail and do collaborative work but does not have IMS (SMPT).

Clients are able to receive e-mails but unable to send. They get: Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: test
Sent: 5/16/2003 3:22 PM

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

'user@test.com' on 5/16/2003 3:22 PM
No transport provider was available for delivery to this recipient.

On the client side i'm seeing:

win98/ME: After exiting outlook following non-delivery receipt you get an error: MAPISP32.exe caused an invalid page fault in module rtfhtml.dll

Windows 2000: After exiting outlook following non-delivery receipt you get an error MAPISP32.EXE. The instruction at "....." referenced memory @ "...". The memory could not be read.

Have tried KB 318658 and KB 813741 with no luck. Problem must be central as it's all outlook clients that cannot send. Could be:

E-mail provider (says nothing going on there)
Firewall blocking (nothing has changed i'm not seeing anything specific logged)
Exchange server (only stores the mailboxes with mail and not used as SMTP or POP/IMAP server)

Please advice or point in right direction.

 

[proudusa]

Well,

The problem is definitely on the exchange server side though the actual problem i'm not sure.

I setup a linux firewall to test and still got the problem.
I created a personal folder and used that to send/receive e-mail and no problems were seen.

Unless someone has seen this before, i'm looking at bringing up a new exchange server and moving everything over. I've done this before so at least have the experience but what a pain.

 

[brontosaurus]

so, these clients are configured with both an exchange server and a POP3 server? is it possible that you're using Microsoft Exchange Transport as the primary delivery mechanism instead of Internet Mail?

 

[Marcs41]

If you configured outlook 2000 to use external POP/SMTP, then the problem you are posting here is not an Exchange issue.
But, like brontosaurus already asked in a way, do you have 2 profiles, one for Exchange and one for POP3? You cannot configure both at the same time?

Your post is confusing on that part, as you state the mailboxes are on Exchange, but the clients are configured for EXTERNAL POP3/SMTP ????

Marc
[sub]If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all. Please specify details.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC![/sub]

 

[proudusa]

Marc,

As i'm not a true Exchange guru if you will i started looking internally to make 100% sure the issue is external. The Outlook clients are configured to look outside for their POP and SMTP servers (internet mail) and then have that mail stored centrally on the Exchange Server. The exchange server is only for storage and for internal groupware functionality. That's the way it was set up prior to my arrival.

What threw me off a bit is i was getting NDRs immediately after sending an e-mail when the Exchange mailbox was set as the delivery location. When I changed delivery to a personal folder on local system the mail was sent without an error. However, I did notice that although the mail was being sent with no NDR it was never delivered.

I did not believe that the server had anything to do with this but since i am not an expert on exchange i needed to make 100% sure. I did go ahead and set up another server anyway in the same site and moved my mailbox over. No NDR was seen this time but again the mail was never delivered.

I'm speaking with our ISP as apparently they may have hardened their servers and limited the number of people you can send to at one time. Our company recently started sending e-newsletters to clients in bulk.

 

[Marcs41]

Exactly HOW do you get to store the POP mails on the server?
The only way the server is going to accept you to SEND mail through it, is to put Outlook in Corporate mode (Exchange Mode). IF you do that, you cannot get POP3 mail at the same time.
Are you perhaps using IMAP to connect to the Exchange?

 

[proudusa]

Outlook clients are running in Corporate Mode. The exact settings on the client side are the following:

Under outlook properties in the services tab you have:

Internet E-mail information service and Microsoft Exchange Server information service.

Internet Mail - Servers Tab: Incoming mail server=external
provider
Outgoing mail server=external
provider

Exchange Server IS has the name of the exchange server, the name of the mailbox.

Under outlook properties in the delivery tab you have the mail delivery set to the internal mailbox. Under where it says recipient addresses are processed by these information services in the following order: Internet e-mail, Microsoft Exchange Tranport, ME remote transport.

When the clients recieve the mail it sent over to the mailbox instead of storing in a local personal folder.

 

[proudusa]

Well the problem seems to have been two-fold.

On one side, the ISP changed SMTP servers without informing us and that was preventing messages from being delivered. The other appears to be the Exchange server.

As i had mentioned above, moving my mailbox to a new Exchange server in the same site stopped the NDR messages. The mail was leaving but not arriving at its destination. This was due to an incorrect smtp server being used (after isp changed their server location).

What i'm a little unclear on: The Exchange server is not configured as the pop/smtp server for the outlook corporate clients. As i mentioned, POP and SMTP are external. What would cause these NDRs? Does IMS or MTA still get involved?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Marcs41]

Your first post:
"They get: Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.
Subject: test
Sent: 5/16/2003 3:22 PM
The following recipient(s) could not be reached:
'user@test.com' on 5/16/2003 3:22 PM
No transport provider was available for delivery to this recipient"

They get that error from where or what?

 

[proudusa]

The message looks to be from the Exchange server as the NDR was received immediately after trying to send the message.

 

[Marcs41]

IF it is from the Exch server, then it looks as the Outlook is sending it through the server and not via SMTP. Check the outlook default settings.

Marc
[sub]If 'something' 'somewhere' gives 'some' error, expect random guesses or no replies at all. Please specify details.
Free Tip: The F1 Key does NOT destroy your PC![/sub]

 

[proudusa]

Marc

For Exchange to act as your SMTP server it would have to be configured this way within the exchange admin wouldn't it? and then have the outlook clients pointing to the exchange server as their SMTP?

The only configuration in Exchange is for the mailboxes.

Outlook's settings have POP (e-mail provider's server) and SMTP (ISP's smtp server). Once i changed the SMTP to the new one at our ISP the mail was delivered properly.

I haven't worked with Exchange long and kinda fell into the man of all hats situation.

Thanks

 

[Marcs41]

yes, that is why i asked how outlook was configured by DEFAULT. If the default is exchange, outlook will NOT use it's own SMTP configuraton and since the server is not configured for SMTP, it will fail.
Setup an outlook profile WITHOUT the exchange configuration and test it that way, because you are running in circles like this.
Don't forget, we cannot 'see' anything, just go by what you post.

 

[proudusa]

Marc

Nothing has changed in terms of configuration on the client or server side when this stopped functioning. Once the smtp server of the ISP was changed to the new one, and the Internet-mail service was used without Exchange the mail does go out and get received. Only when the exchange server mailbox is listed in delivery does the NDR get received.

I configured the second Exchange server that i just set up to test the same way, without IMS. With outlook configured the same way.

Apparently, IMS (or MTA) is responsible for telling the recipients (mailbox) to look outside for their pop/smtp. That's the only thing i can think of as to why the NDRs are handed out. Instead of redirecting the mail properly to the outside it bounces since there is obviously no IMS configured with SMTP on the Exchange side.

 

[Big0]

I will suggest you checkout either of these two sites spews.org, and RSS.org to find out if your IP is being blocked for Spam/openRelay.

 

[Marcs41]

Big0, the "No transport provider was available for delivery to this recipient" error has nothing to do with blocked list.

 

[Marcs41]

proudusa,

I think a review of you setup may be in order. The way you work may actually work, but it so difficult for us her, from a distance to see the total picture.
I would suggest to install a POP3 retriever like PopCon or PopBeamer or any other to have the server collect the mails, since they end up there anyway.
That way, users only use the server to send and receive.

 

[proudusa]

Marc

Thanks for the reply. I have been in the process of reviewing the set up of Exchange or alternatives as true smtp/pop(or imap) mail servers. I don't like the way they previously configured e-mails as allowing the clients to retrieve individually leaves too many doors open. I'll take a look at PopCon or PopBeamer as add-ons to the Exchange server.

Once i brought up another server and moved the mailboxes the problems was resolved. It will work for now until i set up a central e-mail server.

 

[Marcs41]

Good for you.
I personally use PopCon, it allows multiple POP accounts.
Others do to, but I am happy with this one for a long time already.
It also has an Anti-Virus option if you want.

 

[mikewy]

proudusa
I just encountered the *exact* problem you describe. Exact same set up with C/W & Internet e-mail on the Outlook 2000 clients. Been running fine for 18 months. Suddenly, at noon on May 19, all our clients started getting the NDR messages with the no transport provider etc. I find it really interesting that you and I are having the same exact problem within days of each other (these kind of coincidences always make me suspicious). I still haven't found a resolution either, and it looks like I will have fix it the same way you did - move it all to another server. Maybe I missed it in your other posts, but I didn't see what OS your Exchange server was running on. My Exchange 5.5 is running on a Win2K server. I'm curious if yours is the same.
If I do come up with anything else, I'll get it posted here for you to look at.
Thanks

Mike