XCON: Error Message Occurs When You Send Moderated Newsgroup Message to an SMTP Address

In Internet Information Server (IIS) 4.0, messages that are destined for a moderated newsgroup to an Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) address that exists on a separate host that is running an SMTP agent such as Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 may not be forwarded correctly.

If you post a message, you may receive the following error message from the client software:

This issue can occur because the IIS SMTP service (SMTPsvc) or Exchange Server 5.5 is not running on the same server as the moderated newsgroup.

To resolve this issue:

1. From the Microsoft Windows NT Option Pack 4 CD-ROM, install the Microsoft SMTP service on the newsgroup server (use the default settings).
2. Restart the server, and then start the SMTP service.
3. Start Internet Server Manager, and then open the properties of the default SMTP site.
4. Click the Delivery tab, configure the smarthost setting to match the NetBIOS name of the SMTP host, for example, the name of the Exchange Server 5.5 computer that has Internet Mail Service installed.
5. Click OK, and then open the default NNTP site properties.
6. Click the NNTP Settings tab, type the server name of the IIS server in the Default SMTP server for moderated groups box, and then click OK.
7. Stop both the SMTP and NNTP service on the IIS server, and then restart the services.

The server establishes and maintains an SMTP connection with the Exchange Server 5.5 computer to transfer messages. After the first message, it sends the RSET command to reset the connection; however, the session maintains the original EHLO command, but the IIS computer passes all the SMTP sequence commands. Exchange Server 5.5 does not allow multiple EHLO commands; therefore, you receive "503 Bad Sequence" messages.