SMTP / DNS

I'm trying to setup my own exchange server at home, and I'm setting up the features I want one-by-one.

So far, I'm stuck at 2 issues that I don't know how I should go about...maybe someone who's familiar can help me out.

I can't send Internet mail from an exchange account....ie myaccount@mydomain.com can't send to me@yahoo.com, I thought the SMTP virtual server was configured and I configured it to use external DNS server (IP of a Win2k3 DNS server which has DNS forwarder to my ISP), NSLOOKUP on the exchange box can communicate with yahoo.com, but mail still doesn't work. I've tried to add a SMTP connector, and setup using the Internet mail wizard....

I *think* this could be a DNS issue, but I am not sure what could be wrong. The way my DNS work right now is like this:
domain.com uses ns1 & ns3 from zoneedit which has A record pointing to my IP (cable connection), I have a dynamic IP client which will update zoneedit so A record is always (more or less) up-to-date. I have 2 internal DNS servers which does not transfers zone external (ISP won't accept them anyway), one is for domain.lan the other is for domain.local which are AD-integrated zones and are also win2k3 domain trees. They both have DNS forwarder to my linux gateway which can do DNS proxy, all DNS resolution work. This is where the SMTP question comes...do I need the SMTP connector? Or should I simply add an external DNS in the SMTP virtual server? If I add the IP of one of the DNS servers, would this work? Or should I use the IP of the DNS proxy? Or does it actually have to be the DNS server with the ISP? I have a single exchange 2k3 enterprise server setup on a win2k3 enterprise box.

The second issue maybe slightly simpler...when I want to add another exchange account, I've been adding them as user objects in AD, however they can not login through OWA unless they've logged in at least once in the domain other they will get a error 500...is there a workaround for this problem?

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Silver Bullet

I did this last night on my lab trying to get ready to start working some scenarios for 70-284. If your ISP is like mine and most others then they block port 25. One way to get around it is to setup a "Smart Host" in your default SMTP virtual server and set it to the SMTP server of your ISP. The setting for the smart host is in the properties of the "default SMTP virtual server" > delivery tab > advanced.

Not sure about your second issue. I will try to duplicate it though when I get a chance.

Mishra

"The second issue maybe slightly simpler...when I want to add another exchange account, I've been adding them as user objects in AD, however they can not login through OWA unless they've logged in at least once in the domain other they will get a error 500...is there a workaround for this problem?"

Try creating the account, sending them 1 email, then logging in with the new account in OWA.

geezer301

"http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb124619(d=printer).aspx"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>dnsdiag yahoo.com -v 1
yahoo.com is an external server (not in the Exchange Org).
No external DNS servers on VSI. Using global DNS servers.
Created Async Query:

QNAME = yahoo.com
Type = MX (0xf)
Flags = UDP default, TCP on truncation (0x0)
Protocol = UDP
DNS Servers: (DNS cache will not be used)
10.1.1.1

Connected to DNS 10.1.1.1 over UDP/IP.
Received DNS Response:

Error: 0
Description: Success
These records were received:
yahoo.com MX 1 e.mx.mail.yahoo.com
yahoo.com MX 1 f.mx.mail.yahoo.com
yahoo.com MX 1 g.mx.mail.yahoo.com
yahoo.com MX 1 a.mx.mail.yahoo.com
yahoo.com MX 1 b.mx.mail.yahoo.com
yahoo.com MX 1 c.mx.mail.yahoo.com
yahoo.com MX 1 d.mx.mail.yahoo.com
yahoo.com (Record type = 2) Unknown record type
yahoo.com (Record type = 2) Unknown record type
yahoo.com (Record type = 2) Unknown record type
yahoo.com (Record type = 2) Unknown record type
yahoo.com (Record type = 2) Unknown record type
yahoo.com (Record type = 2) Unknown record type
yahoo.com (Record type = 2) Unknown record type
e.mx.mail.yahoo.com A 216.39.53.1
f.mx.mail.yahoo.com A 68.142.202.247
f.mx.mail.yahoo.com A 209.191.88.247
g.mx.mail.yahoo.com A 206.190.53.191
g.mx.mail.yahoo.com A 209.191.88.239
a.mx.mail.yahoo.com A 209.191.118.103
b.mx.mail.yahoo.com A 66.196.97.250
c.mx.mail.yahoo.com A 216.39.53.3
c.mx.mail.yahoo.com A 68.142.237.182
d.mx.mail.yahoo.com A 216.39.53.2
ns2.yahoo.com A 68.142.255.16
ns1.yahoo.com A 66.218.71.63
ns3.yahoo.com A 217.12.4.104
ns4.yahoo.com A 68.142.196.63

Processing MX/A records in reply.
Sorting MX records by priority.

Target hostnames and IP addresses

HostName: "g.mx.mail.yahoo.com"
206.190.53.191
209.191.88.239
HostName: "e.mx.mail.yahoo.com"
216.39.53.1
HostName: "f.mx.mail.yahoo.com"
68.142.202.247
209.191.88.247
HostName: "a.mx.mail.yahoo.com"
209.191.118.103
HostName: "c.mx.mail.yahoo.com"
216.39.53.3
68.142.237.182
HostName: "b.mx.mail.yahoo.com"
66.196.97.250
HostName: "d.mx.mail.yahoo.com"
216.39.53.2

C:\WINDOWS\system32\inetsrv>telnet e.mx.mail.yahoo.com 25

421 Message from (71.12.222.126) temporarily deferred - 4.16.50. Please refer to
http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/mail/defer/defer-06.html

Connection to host lost.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Can you telnet <any-yahoo-mailhost> port 25 from your exchange server host ?

BCarderMA

By any chance, when you set up the users, did you enable the option to have users change their password at next logon? I've seen issues where that would screw with OWA. Uncheck that option, change the password if needed, and try again.

bighornsheep

Mishra wrote:

"The second issue maybe slightly simpler...when I want to add another exchange account, I've been adding them as user objects in AD, however they can not login through OWA unless they've logged in at least once in the domain other they will get a error 500...is there a workaround for this problem?"

Try creating the account, sending them 1 email, then logging in with the new account in OWA.

Wow, this is great, it solved the problem flawlessly! I went to back to play around the option for "change password on first login", it didn't matter, it will return the same error. I also read about InetOrgPerson object, which I also tried, it didn't solve the problem either. But sending the user an email did!

Now the question is...how do I setup a "welcome" email for every new user?

---

The first part about the external mail problem I was also able to resolve. It turns out there's a number of things that could be problematic if you are trying to run exchange at home. For the most part, using the smarthost option will solve the problems. Thank Silver bullet!

And thanks to geezer for the thought about telnet, I am able to telnet to my smtp server on port 25, but the problem is actually with PTR which fails because my ISP blocks the zone transfers. For others who want to read more about the details of what I am talking about, please see:

http://www.sbslinks.com/DNS_Smarthost.htm

taktsoi

I am seocnd to the smart host. My exchange box only works with a smart host authentication. Almost ALL ISPs now block outgoing 25. There is no way to bypass unless you use the smart host or any mail relay from third party as a solution.

MAN, you beat me only few minutes....

Mishra

bighornsheep wrote:

Mishra wrote:

"The second issue maybe slightly simpler...when I want to add another exchange account, I've been adding them as user objects in AD, however they can not login through OWA unless they've logged in at least once in the domain other they will get a error 500...is there a workaround for this problem?"

Try creating the account, sending them 1 email, then logging in with the new account in OWA.

Wow, this is great, it solved the problem flawlessly! I went to back to play around the option for "change password on first login", it didn't matter, it will return the same error. I also read about InetOrgPerson object, which I also tried, it didn't solve the problem either. But sending the user an email did!

Now the question is...how do I setup a "welcome" email for every new user?

http://www.sbslinks.com/DNS_Smarthost.htm

I don't think there is a builtin way of solving this. I would either write yourself the welcome email, save it in a folder, and just call up the email and replace your TO: with the new user and send it.

Or you can be a little more tricky and write yourself a easy quick script that sends an email using blat. The script could simple ask "What email address would you like to send your welcome email to?" then type in test@test.com and hit enter and it uses blat to send the email.

bighornsheep

Mishra wrote:

I don't think there is a builtin way of solving this. I would either write yourself the welcome email, save it in a folder, and just call up the email and replace your TO: with the new user and send it.

Or you can be a little more tricky and write yourself a easy quick script that sends an email using blat. The script could simple ask "What email address would you like to send your welcome email to?" then type in test@test.com and hit enter and it uses blat to send the email.

Right after I wrote the post, I just recall seeing a "reporting" function in Exchange System manager, I wonder what kind of information will be in the report...if it contains anything about new accounts, I might be able to write a perl script that parse the addresses and auto respond with a generic message....hmm, another mini-project that I can think about...

sprkymrk

You could simply use this query in Active Directory to find all users that have never logged in, then your script (VBScript would be my preference) could send an email to these users:

(&(objectCategory=person)(objectClass=user))(|(lastLogon=0)(!(lastLogon=*)))