EstimatorOne
Programmer
I have setup my email server and I can recieve email no problem. However, I can't send emails out. Does anyone have any idea what would be causing this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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Problem with email server setup.
- Thread starter EstimatorOne
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- #3
EstimatorOne
Programmer
I'm just using what came on the cd. I installed enterprise edition. let me know if you need more info.
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- #5
OK, so you have installed SMTP from the Windows Server 2003 CD. The fact that you can receive mail leads me to belive that the SMTP is working. You probably have your DNS misconfigured.
Is this the only server in your network? Is it your DNS server?
Verify the following:
On the server NICs, make sure the only DNS servers listed are Internal DNS Servers (such as its own IP).
In your DNS server, make sure that the ISP DNS are configured ont he Forwarders tab in the DNS Snap In.
Make sure that your clients are configured to use the server as their SMTP server. Verify that the clients have relay rights in IIS security on the Virtual SMTP Server.
You can test outgoing mail directly from the server using CDO. That will eliminate the clients from the troubleshooting for the moment.
I hope you find this post helpful.
Regards,
Mark
Is this the only server in your network? Is it your DNS server?
Verify the following:
On the server NICs, make sure the only DNS servers listed are Internal DNS Servers (such as its own IP).
In your DNS server, make sure that the ISP DNS are configured ont he Forwarders tab in the DNS Snap In.
Make sure that your clients are configured to use the server as their SMTP server. Verify that the clients have relay rights in IIS security on the Virtual SMTP Server.
You can test outgoing mail directly from the server using CDO. That will eliminate the clients from the troubleshooting for the moment.
I hope you find this post helpful.
Regards,
Mark
- Thread starter
- #7
EstimatorOne
Programmer
Still having no luck with this – we think we are missing something very simple.
We believe that we have the SMTP and POP configured properly we two reasons.
a) we can receive emails sent to us, (using the POP3)
b) we can send emails within our own domain name (ie @test.ca) and receive it by other users of the same domain (@test.ca)
However
c) we cannot sent mail from our domain (@test.ca) to other people’s domains (ie: @yahoo.com, @rushcomm.ca)
In trying we are given the following error message:
“The following recipient(s) could not be reached:
'notrealaddress@gmail.com' on 12/27/2005 12:10 PM
550 5.7.1 Unable to relay for notrealaddress@gmail.com”
To answer your server questions:
>>Is this the only server in your network? Is it your DNS server?
There are really two servers on our physical network – however, they are on two different domains and there is no connection between the two. Our broadband gateway routes all email traffic to this server anyway. The other server is not used for email.
>>On the server NICs, make sure the only DNS servers listed are Internal DNS Servers (such as its own IP).
Just checked and changed my own setting – on TCP/IP, Properties, rather than auto detect DNS, I changed it to itself (192.168.2.110) on our local network.
It’s the only DNS currently listed.
>>In your DNS server, make sure that the ISP DNS are configured ont he Forwarders tab in the DNS Snap In.
Added both DNS addresses of our ISP to the forwarder.
>>Make sure that your clients are configured to use the server as their SMTP server.
Pretty sure this works as I can receive incoming. And send and receive emails as long as I stay within the same domain.
I can send to mail@test.ca from jim@test.ca but I can send to bob@yahoo.com from mail@test.ca
>Verify that the clients have relay rights in IIS security on the Virtual SMTP Server.
Set for anonymous access on the Access Control
Set for “Only the list below” and “Allow all computers which successfully authenticate to relay regardless of the above” on the Relay tab.
Any suggestions on what we are missing?
Thanks
We believe that we have the SMTP and POP configured properly we two reasons.
a) we can receive emails sent to us, (using the POP3)
b) we can send emails within our own domain name (ie @test.ca) and receive it by other users of the same domain (@test.ca)
However
c) we cannot sent mail from our domain (@test.ca) to other people’s domains (ie: @yahoo.com, @rushcomm.ca)
In trying we are given the following error message:
“The following recipient(s) could not be reached:
'notrealaddress@gmail.com' on 12/27/2005 12:10 PM
550 5.7.1 Unable to relay for notrealaddress@gmail.com”
To answer your server questions:
>>Is this the only server in your network? Is it your DNS server?
There are really two servers on our physical network – however, they are on two different domains and there is no connection between the two. Our broadband gateway routes all email traffic to this server anyway. The other server is not used for email.
>>On the server NICs, make sure the only DNS servers listed are Internal DNS Servers (such as its own IP).
Just checked and changed my own setting – on TCP/IP, Properties, rather than auto detect DNS, I changed it to itself (192.168.2.110) on our local network.
It’s the only DNS currently listed.
>>In your DNS server, make sure that the ISP DNS are configured ont he Forwarders tab in the DNS Snap In.
Added both DNS addresses of our ISP to the forwarder.
>>Make sure that your clients are configured to use the server as their SMTP server.
Pretty sure this works as I can receive incoming. And send and receive emails as long as I stay within the same domain.
I can send to mail@test.ca from jim@test.ca but I can send to bob@yahoo.com from mail@test.ca
>Verify that the clients have relay rights in IIS security on the Virtual SMTP Server.
Set for anonymous access on the Access Control
Set for “Only the list below” and “Allow all computers which successfully authenticate to relay regardless of the above” on the Relay tab.
Any suggestions on what we are missing?
Thanks
- Thread starter
- #9
EstimatorOne
Programmer
No they can't be blocking prot 25 as we are doing all our testing off site of the server and therefore it has to be going through our ISP.
OK, back to DNS.
If you are trying to send mail to Yahoo, you will not be able to if you do not have a Reverse DNS entry in PUBLIC DNS. Your server IP and domain name need to be able to resolve from an RDNS lookup.
Go to and verify that your server MX IP resolves to your domain name without error when doing a Reverse Lookup. If it does not, then your test is invalid as without the RDNS lookup you will never be able to send to Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, MSN and an ever growing number of domains.
I hope you find this post helpful.
Regards,
Mark
If you are trying to send mail to Yahoo, you will not be able to if you do not have a Reverse DNS entry in PUBLIC DNS. Your server IP and domain name need to be able to resolve from an RDNS lookup.
Go to and verify that your server MX IP resolves to your domain name without error when doing a Reverse Lookup. If it does not, then your test is invalid as without the RDNS lookup you will never be able to send to Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail, MSN and an ever growing number of domains.
I hope you find this post helpful.
Regards,
Mark
- Thread starter
- #11
EstimatorOne
Programmer
PASS
Reverse DNS entries for MX records
OK. The IPs of all of your mail server(s) have reverse DNS (PTR) entries
I assume this means that we passed this test. Anything other suggestions that we can try.
Thank you very much for your help.
Reverse DNS entries for MX records
OK. The IPs of all of your mail server(s) have reverse DNS (PTR) entries
I assume this means that we passed this test. Anything other suggestions that we can try.
Thank you very much for your help.
Do you or your ISP control the firewall? Need to watch the firewall logs.
smtp test
smtp test
- Thread starter
- #14
EstimatorOne
Programmer
Slick007
We control the firewall and all is well there.
I have looked at the link you posted and i can connect to the smtp server but all the test i cannot perform as it gives me "500 5.3.3 Unrecongnized command".
I am expected to get this as i have the telnet service disabled.
Mark
I know our ISP is not blocking traffic on port 25 as i set my FTP server to use port 25 and it works fine.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Anything else anyone can think of?
We control the firewall and all is well there.
I have looked at the link you posted and i can connect to the smtp server but all the test i cannot perform as it gives me "500 5.3.3 Unrecongnized command".
I am expected to get this as i have the telnet service disabled.
Mark
I know our ISP is not blocking traffic on port 25 as i set my FTP server to use port 25 and it works fine.
Thanks for the suggestions.
Anything else anyone can think of?
- Thread starter
- #16
EstimatorOne
Programmer
No it's not a PIX firewall. But i can't be the firewall case it works fine.
- Thread starter
- #19
EstimatorOne
Programmer
Seaspray0, could you clearify exactly what you are talking about and how to go about it?
Thanks
Thanks
To send an email to nospam@widget.edu (not a real domain) your email server has to find the IP address to widget.edu's email server (an MX record in DNS). Your dns server will not have this record; it must forward the request to your ISP's dns server to have it resolved. If you still have the default installation, then your dns server contains a root zone (the "." zone) that makes it think it is the almighty internet. You must delete the root zone and then your dns will allow you to create a forward in the dns settings to your ISP's DNS server.
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