SBS 2003 / Exchange email problem

Currently I have about 40 users using pop3 mail on a p2p network. I purchased SBS 2003. I want to start moving clients onto the new 2003 network.

My problem / question is regarding email. I have added all the current users account to the 2003 box. I have setup a test account on the new 2003 domain. When I send out an email to the current corp users (who are not yet joined to the domain ) , the email stays on the server and doesnt get sent out to the pop3 account who are not yet on the new domain. I understand why this is happening, it's because the users has an account on the Exchange box, so Exchange doesnt send it out via smtp. But the user isnt connected to Exchange yet, so the users dont get the emails. How do I get around this? I will be unable to upgrade all users at once to the new domain.

My thought was to get everyone on the new domain, and just not setup their Outlook to point to the Exchange server until everyone is on the new domain. Once that is done and everybody is authenticating to the new server, I could utilize the pop3 connector service on Exchange and point everyone's Outlook client to the Exchange server.

Or, can I have Exchange send all internal email out to our ISP's smtp server, then back to us? If so how do I do that?

I hope I explained myself well enough.

Any other thoughts or ideas to help get around this?

Mike, here you go:

First, about that immediate issue: exchange 2k3 uses itself as a SMTP server by default. However... Let's suppose that you just defined your local server as "company", and a couple of users named "user0"..."user1..."
If mail is sent, exchange immediately performs a search for the recipient inside your domain, if it fails finding this particular user on your domain, it will use "company.local" SMTP to rout is outside. The message will arrive to its destination, as - "[email protected]" - which is NOT an email address one can reply to! The solution to this problem is editing your user's "email addresses" found in the user's properties on the server. Simply add a new SMTP (with the correct mail address from your ISP provider) - "[email protected]", and then set it as the primary SMTP address. Now your mail will be sent with the proper ".com" and not the ".local".

Second, I would strongly advice against the MS POP3 connector. It only downloads mail from your POP3 server once (max) 15 minutes which is very inconvenient - trying to "send & receive" won't rush it! And if your employees are working with their mail 24-7, I hardly think they are willing to wait 15 minutes for a mail, they need to respond to in 5 or 10 minutes.
I also suppose that you guys have a broadband connection of some type, therefore, I think the best way to manage user's mailboxes is to define a POP3 account in addition to their exchange mailbox.
POP3 connector also slows the internet connection speed when performing its POP3 mail extraction for all of your users. A huge mail message sent to a specific user when POP3 connector isn't used, will also slow down your internet, but just imagine what will happen if 4 users received 4 large mails during those 15 minutes and your POP3 connector starts extracting & routing...

Sneakers, thanks for the info.

The pop3 connector is definetly not going to be a long term thing. I was originally just going to use it until I had time to get the email off of the ISP server, and bring it in house. But now I dont think im going to use it at all.

I think I will do what you suggested though, and use a pop3 with their exchange account.

Thanks!

Mike

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sneakers

Mike, here you go:

First, about that immediate issue: exchange 2k3 uses itself as a SMTP server by default. However... Let's suppose that you just defined your local server as "company", and a couple of users named "user0"..."user1..."
If mail is sent, exchange immediately performs a search for the recipient inside your domain, if it fails finding this particular user on your domain, it will use "company.local" SMTP to rout is outside. The message will arrive to its destination, as - "[email protected]" - which is NOT an email address one can reply to! The solution to this problem is editing your user's "email addresses" found in the user's properties on the server. Simply add a new SMTP (with the correct mail address from your ISP provider) - "[email protected]", and then set it as the primary SMTP address. Now your mail will be sent with the proper ".com" and not the ".local".

Second, I would strongly advice against the MS POP3 connector. It only downloads mail from your POP3 server once (max) 15 minutes which is very inconvenient - trying to "send & receive" won't rush it! And if your employees are working with their mail 24-7, I hardly think they are willing to wait 15 minutes for a mail, they need to respond to in 5 or 10 minutes.
I also suppose that you guys have a broadband connection of some type, therefore, I think the best way to manage user's mailboxes is to define a POP3 account in addition to their exchange mailbox.
POP3 connector also slows the internet connection speed when performing its POP3 mail extraction for all of your users. A huge mail message sent to a specific user when POP3 connector isn't used, will also slow down your internet, but just imagine what will happen if 4 users received 4 large mails during those 15 minutes and your POP3 connector starts extracting & routing...

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What would you recommend as an alternative to the MS POP3 connector??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by NEPATEC

What would you recommend as an alternative to the MS POP3 connector??

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I just did :rolleyes:

Configure a POP3 account in each and every one of your exchange stations.

What would you suggest as a way of downloading email from a POP catchall account at an ISP's to SBS 2003 server with exchange mailboxes if the MS SBS POP3 connector is not recommended, and how would you set it up

I would disagree with what was said above, that hosting the email on the server is a much better setup. For small businesses with a standard DSL line, this is certainly NOT a good setup. Email technology is in a really convoluted state right now, where you've got every mail host out there changing their policies, many of them beginning to reject email based on IP. I've been using a static IP at my office for years and using a secure server on my internal network as an SMTP server for my personal use. Recently, I've been getting many boucebacks from mail servers, large and small, because my IP wound up on some "residental bloc".

As far as hosting the emails externally, this alleviates headaches for small businesses when their mail server or internet access goes down, which invariably happens. Having their email hosted externally allows them email redundancy for a small monthly fee, instead of having to pay for redundant DSL lines and mail servers.

Small businesses cannot afford the overhead of the headache of hosting their own email. That is why the POP connector was put in in the first place. It is a very nice tool, and I would really like to know a workaround to the 15 minute rule, or another good utility to take its place that will check more frequently.

Is there anything preventing you from setting up accounts on the SBS server just for mail? Meaning, you don't have to make them join the domain yet (and fool around fixing their profiles) but, you could create an account in SBS and setup an Exchange mailbox, then add the Exchange account in outlook for ALL your users. If your mail server is setup correctly (SMTP traffic actually flows in and out the way it should), there's no reason not to use it (other than the one mentioned in the above post).

I have to agree with tk421 though. I see a lot of bounced mail even when the customers are on a static business line. It appears though, that setting up your DNS correctly will fix some of this. Some spam/SMTP filters do a reverse DNS lookup and see a mixmatch of IP and hostname will reject email. But, if the hostname matches (mail.yourdomain.com matches the IP of the SMTP server the mail is coming from) the mail will flow. Most of this bounced email crap is spam prevention.

Another option to using the ISPs server to HOST your mail is to ask them if they will allow you to relay mail THROUGH their server. If you run a valid business (not spam) some ISPs will do this for you. In this case the destination server will almost always pass email because it's coming from a big (relatively speaking) ISP.

dear PC-Mike, I am new to this board, but have a very similar project with yours. Would you mind take a look at my questions at http://forums.windrivers.com/showthread.php?t=56700

I do appreciated your help !!

ttxn;~)

Is there nowadays a got alternative for MS POP3 connector?

And I don't mean setting up all the mailaccounts on every machine, because it happens that some mail-accounts need to be shared over multiple mailboxes.

If someone nows a good sollution, please let me know.

TIA

Ep.

I've been using POPCON software for years. It allows the specification of very low time intervals between POP3 checks.
Check it out at:

http://www.christensen-software.com/popcon.htm