Exchange Accessible on the internet

dave2011

hey everyone

Just thought I would kickstart my first post with a question.

I'm currently studying for the 70-662 exam and I was wondering In a home lab environment how could I go about making my exchange server accessible through the internet Im guessing this are the things I have to do if im correct:

get a public IP from ISP
configure home router to allow port forwarding
create the neccessary records in DNS For the Exchange server

Im new to exchange so I dont have that much info on it any help would be appreciate alot.

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undomiel

For purposes of a home lab I wouldn't recommend going that far. Most likely port 25 is being filtered on your ISP anyhow. But you are correct, you would need to configure external DNS with an A record pointing home and an MX record directing mail to it. Don't forget to open port 25 to your server. If port 25 is being filtered though for external tests you'll need to open a different port, which will make your MX records useless for receiving e-mail. It would be better to just replicated that all in a virtual environment in your lab instead.

dave2011

thanks for your response.

I understand I have just purchased the exchange 2010 training from Trainsignal and thought I could follow as much possible even though its not good to do that in a home environment I just wanted to get a feel of it.
if you have any site links that could point out to me how do that I would appreciate it.

jibbajabba

You're pretty much asking a 'how long is a piece of string' question. Quite vague to be honest. You need a link to do what exactly ? Just for the 'accessible from the Internet' part?

Question is, how do you want to access 'it' from the Internet.

For example

1. Do you want Outlook Webapp access
2. Do you want Outlook access
3. Do you want to be able to send / receive emails over the Internet?

For 1: you pretty much have to enable http/https on your home router, if OWA is all you want to access
For 2+3: that requires multiple DNS entries, at least two.
a. something.domain.com (i.e. mail.domain.com) - used for the client access (mapi/pop/imap)
b. autodiscover.domain.com - used for Outlook

This would not just require your server to be accessible, so all necessary ports forwarded, but also a SSL certificate with subject alternate names (SAN)... Plus a static IP obviously. A domain too - but that is common sense really

So depending on your ISP you you may not just have the cost of a domain and SSL certificate but also a static IP (if chargeable).

I'd say, learn to walk before you run. You don't need to have the server accessible from the Internet in order to study for the exam. Start to study and use your lab. During your studies you will quickly realise that you can achieve anything through a lab. If studied properly, you should even be able to use Internet functions in the lab. If you got a domain controller, DNS and Exchange server, who says a virtual machine in your lab cannot pretend to sit on the Internet. Since you will require your own domain controller anyway (which in essence requires a DNS server), you may as well configure your own DNS to act as an ISP. Make up domains, create MX records and simply use a workstation / virtual machine as 'internet'... All it needs is access to that DNS server.

If during your studies you still miss the real thing then you can still consider the cost and go for it or not,

During my studies I started to love it to such an extend that I rented a virtual windows machine, bought certificate and configured my private domain so all my private email is now running of an exchange server.

swagger77

dave2011 wrote: »

hey everyone

Just thought I would kickstart my first post with a question.

I'm currently studying for the 70-662 exam and I was wondering In a home lab environment how could I go about making my exchange server accessible through the internet Im guessing this are the things I have to do if im correct:

get a public IP from ISP
configure home router to allow port forwarding
create the neccessary records in DNS For the Exchange server

Im new to exchange so I dont have that much info on it any help would be appreciate alot.

I did the following while studying:

1.Bought a domain name
2.registered a dyndns account (I have dynamic IP from my ISP)
3.changed the domain dns server to use the ones provided by dyndns
4.configured my router to update my ip to dyndns (built in function of most routers)
5.created domain environment in Hyper-v
6. installed an ex2010 machine and joined my domain.
7.configured the send connector on the exchange server to relay outgoing emails thru my ISPs smtp server ( they block using your own)
8. made required port forwarding in my router

Im sure I forgot some steps, but I think its good doin this, makes you learn

dave2011

hi

thanks for the reply swagger to be honest I purchased the Trainsignal Exchange Server 2010 video training and im trying to follow it as closley as possible if theres any links or tutorials that teach you how to do numbers:
2.
3.

that you described that would be awesome thanks again.

swagger77

dave2011 wrote: »

hi

thanks for the reply swagger to be honest I purchased the Trainsignal Exchange Server 2010 video training and im trying to follow it as closley as possible if theres any links or tutorials that teach you how to do numbers:
2.
3.

that you described that would be awesome thanks again.

Hi!

For number 2:
Goto: DynDNS.com - Support -- Custom DNS

You will have to purchase this service from them to be able to use your own domain name (cheap)

you can then setup A-Records and mx records for your domain in the control panel for your account at DynDNS.

For example: mail.yourdomain.com, [mailservername].yourdomain.com and so on...

they have an FAQ.

For number 3:

When you register a domain name at for example godaddy.com, you log in to your account there and change the dns servers for your domain to the ones provided by DynDNS.com.

Lamini

@swagger - looking for a threads like this. Thanks. Wasnt too far off target after all as I'm an exchange noob myself

its one thing say "i got mail working in my... lab". its another to go live, send email to real people and real devices... using pop3, ssl, interoperate with other technologies. Its a nice reality check when youre living in virtual machines.

thanks for the info's!