Mail Enabled Users - Disabling account - stop mail?

pjrouse

Just revising for 70-284 and my reference book (MS Press Book) states that you can use mail enabled users as follows to give contracters email addresses in your organization:

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Create an AD user account and associated exchange mailbox in your org

Disable the user account but configure a mail forward the contracters personal external address

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Is this possible - i thought that when you disable a users account any mail coming in to the associated SMTP address is bounced??

Thanks

Paul

jmc724

Because the mailbox store is still available until you delete it...

pjrouse

I ask because where I work we tend not to disable user accounts after people leave (cus their mail bounces) - we change their passwords instead.

I understand the mailbox store is still there but if the account object is disabled - does mail not get rejected?

Your answer didnt really answer my question I'm afraid.

pjrouse

found this - sounds like i'm not the only one experiencing this issue:

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Articles/Print.cfm?ArticleID=40746

Troubleshooter: Receiving Mail from Disabled AD Accounts

Paul Robichaux
InstantDoc #40746
January 2004

We've disabled several Active Directory (AD) accounts for which we still want to receive email. Unfortunately, when we send test messages to these accounts, the messages generate nondelivery reports (NDRs). How can we fix this behavior?

Although you can't use disabled accounts to log on to the domain, these accounts should still be able to accept inbound email. The fact that some of these accounts won't accept email makes me suspect that you originally migrated these accounts from Exchange Server 5.5. Exchange 5.5 accounts that you migrate and then disable sometimes lose their ability to accept mail. The simplest cure is to open the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in, edit the user account's security properties, then remove and re-add the security descriptor for the SELF pseudo-account.


Reader Comments

Is there a particular setting that controls this behavior? Our entire domain was upgraded from Exchange 5.5, and whenever I disable ANY account, it results in bounced mail. Removing and re-adding the SELF account to (in our case) 900 accounts is ridiculous. And I haven't tested this yet, but I don't think this behavior is only occurring to migrated accounts. I think that even the newer accounts bahave the same way when disabled (although I'll be testing that theory in the very near future.)
Michael Koch -December 09, 2003

We have a new W2K domain and a new Exchange 2000 server environment. When we disable AD accounts all mail for those accounts bounce. The articels makes it sound like this is not normal. Do I really have to go in and modify the Exchange permissions for the SELF account every time? Shouldn't this be the default for Exchange 2000?
Nick Estes -January 22, 2004

I have the same probelm that once I disable an account 2 hours later when I send the user emails I get NDR. I never had Exchange 2003 and I can replicate this issue with every user even new one. How can we fix this behavior?
Gady Margalit -March 08, 2004

I was experiencing the same issue. Finally called Microsoft PSS; they have a tool called "NoMAS" that will fix the issue. Once I ran the tool the errors cleared up.
mattbrowncamden -December 01, 2004