SMTP Queue Problem

[kmagy]

Hi every body

I have exchange 2000, the messages are stacked in the queue, the queue folder have 96 MB of messages

Please help

 

[Davetoo]

Are the emails legitimate emails, i.e. are they yours?

I'm Certifiable, not certified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[AndyCLee]

Hi, sorry to jump on the back of your question kmagy, but I'm having exactly the same problems.

Almost all of the queues get stuck. Forcing connections doesn't help, unfreezing doesn't help...I've checked that we have reverse DNS set up and we're not on any black lists that I can find!!

Most of the emails in the queues are legitimate, some are spam. We are getting a spam filter soon!

I'm not sure what else to try.

Any help GREATLY appreciated.

 

[kmagy]

Hi lander251

Thanks alot, but this problem is from real life and it is not a book questiuon.
and Iam facing the same case AndyClee is speaking.

Thanks

 

[Davetoo]

First, it's lander215, not lander251.

Second, you're responding to my tagline. I'm guessing your new around here, so that's ok.

Now that we have an understanding on those two points, lets move on to the problem.

What OS and SP are you at? What SP/build on Exchange? Any special connectors? Have you protected your Exchange against relaying, i.e. read the FAQ's and followed the directions to not be a relay? Are the outbounds to all different sorts of domains, or particular ones?

I'm Certifiable, not certified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[Davetoo]

Also, what is the NDR when the emails timeout?

I'm Certifiable, not certified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[AndyCLee]

I'll take this one...

OS - Windows 2000 SP4

Exchange version: 2000 not sure what SP - how can I find out?

No connectors are set up

According to the results from tests I've done on the web, we are not an open relay

The outbound emails are to all sorts of domains.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Davetoo]

Open SM and cruise down to your Servers tab, it'll give you all the details in the right window.

Was it working and suddenly stopped? or are you having trouble getting it to work at all?

If it was working and now stopped, have you done anything to your network? Changed ISP's? Added/changed firewalls?

If not, check that you're pointing to the proper DNS server from your Exchange server.

I'm Certifiable, not certified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[AndyCLee]

The Exchange Server details are:

Version 6.0 (Build 6249.4: Service Pack 3)

Was it working and suddenly stopped?

I'm the new network admin here. They've been having problems for a while (had no admin as such for a while either). The server was a spam relay a while ago. Problems seem to have started since then apparently. But we're not on any black lists.

Some settings may have been changed to stop it being a spam relay....any ideas what?

 

[Davetoo]

Look in the FAQ section of this forum and you'll find links to preventing an open relay.

I'm Certifiable, not certified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[AndyCLee]

I'll have a look, thanks. Just not sure I'm gonna realise if any of those settings will cause these problems.

Thanks anyway.

 

[tyrobert]

Check this:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=310380

And also check the related articles at the bottom...your problem might go further than you just being an open relay.

 

[Davetoo]

What you should be checking for is to make sure that only the settings indicated are done, and that you don't have anything different from what they say to do. I thought that to be obvious, sorry.

I'm Certifiable, not certified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[AndyCLee]

I've looked in the FAQ section and followed the instructions to ensure we're not an open relay. All the settings are correct.

I've also looked at your link tyrobert, thanks. Unfortunatley, they all keep pointing to being an open relay server, which I'm sure we're not. I'm doing another test with ORDB.org, which should run tonight, to see if we are an open relay.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions so far

 

[AndyCLee]

Just looked back at your previous message lander215, the NDR when the emails timeout is:

Could not deliver the message in the time limit specified. Please retry or contact your administrator. servername.domain #4.4.7>

 

[Davetoo]

Is it your "servername.domain", or the server of the recipients server? A 4.4.7 usually indicates problems on the recipients end. Try contacting one of them to see if they've blacklisted your server.

And have you checked the DNS settings on your Exchange server? It should be pointing to your domains DNS server, which in turn should have forwarders to your ISP's servers.

I'm Certifiable, not certified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.

 

[AndyCLee]

The servername.domain is our servername and our domain.

Surely there can't be this many problems all on their end's?!?

The DNS settings are...

primary DNS - our internal DNS server
secondary DNS - the external one

Shouldn't this work the same as the setup you explained?

 

[peterpark]

You need to determine whether these are legitimate emails or others using your server to relay. Open SM, scroll down to the SMTP protocol queues, enumerate all the queues and see where the messages are sent from. If from your own users, then you are not an open relay. If from other users, then you are relaying emails for others.

 

[AndyCLee]

Thanks for the suggestion peterpark. I looked at all the queues to see where the emails were originating from and they are all coming from internal addresses. They were actually all, apart from about 4 or 5, from the postmaster.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

 

[Davetoo]

If they're all from the postmaster, then odds are it's all NDR's for spam.

I'm Certifiable, not certified.
It just means my answers are from experience, not a book.