SMTP Connector

LukeQuake

This may sound like a bit of a simple question and probably requires a short answer, but I'll be honest, I'm not sure how to do this!

Within Exchange Server 2003, where do you specify the details of the external SMTP server from which you wish to download mail from?

Danman32

Usually with an Exchange server, you don't download anything. Instead, the sending server resolves your domain to your IP through a DNS MX/A record pair, then connects to your server and sends you the mail.

There is (or was) a mechanism using ETRN where a mail server (exchange) could tap the mailbag server (ISP or MSP) to send queued up mail.
Another method that I highly discourage is POP3 forwarding. This is available in the Exchange that comes with SBS, but not the standalone. POP3 forwarding means that Exchange retrieves mail from an external POP3 mailbox. This is like a country postoffice having the mail delivered for the town through a postoffice box of another town. Not very efficient and quite ambiguous, especially if you only have one POP3 mailbox for your entire organization.
These were necessary for dialup accounts, but quite unnecessary today with broadband being commonly available, even with static addresses.

But perhaps you were asking how to configure Exchange to receive SMTP mail and you have a full time connection to the internet.
First, assuming you have your LAN NATed to the internet with a single public IP address, you have your router/firewall forward port 25 traffic to your exchange server. Next you have your DNS domain name provider set up an A record for your public address that represents your exchange server, and also an MX record for your internet domain pointing to the A record I just mentioned.
Then, assuming your AD domain is different from your internet email domain, you add (do not replace) the internet email SMTP domain to your default recipient policy email address. If AD domain is the same as the internet mail domain, then the address is probably already there.
You can find Recipient Policies under Recipients in Exchange System Manager.

Danman32

I just read the title of this topic, so it seems more info is warranted.

The SMTP connector is for sending SMTP mail, not for receiving. If you only have on virtual SMTP server in your organization, and your environment is basic, then the connector is not needed.
The connector(s) allow you to specify which virtual SMTP server to use under different conditions (mail domain, time restrictions, mail size, etc), and how to utilize the VSMTP servers. For example, some domains you send to you want to forward through your ISP, but the rest you want to do the lookups yourself.

The virtual SMTP server can be configured to use a smarthost without configuring an SMTP connector. That field is in the advanced button under the delivery tab of the properties of the default (or any) VSMTP object.