You receive a "service did not respond to the start" error message and SMTP virtual server does not start

If you use the Microsoft Internet Information Server Management Console, you may notice that the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) virtual server has not started. If you try to start the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, also called the Internet Services Manager (ISM), you receive the following error message after a delay: Additionally, in the ISM status column for the SMTP virtual server, you may receive the following status message: Note On a Microsoft Windows Server 2003-based computer that has IIS 6.0 installed, you may also receive the following error message:

The registry entries that are used by the SMTP virtual server may be missing or corrupted.

Important This section, method, or task contains steps that tell you how to modify the registry. However, serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly. Therefore, make sure that you follow these steps carefully. For added protection, back up the registry before you modify it. Then, you can restore the registry if a problem occurs. For more information about how to back up and restore the registry, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

To resolve this issue, replace the missing or corrupted registry entries. To do this, follow these steps.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. In Registry Editor, locate the following subkey in the registry:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Rpc\ClientProtocols
   Make sure that the following values appear:

      Name            Type          Data
      ----------------------------------------
      ncacn_http      REG_SZ        rpcrt4.dll
      ncacn_ip_tcp    REG_SZ        rpcrt4.dll
      ncacn_nb_tcp    REG_SZ        rpcrt4.dll
      ncacn_np        REG_SZ        rpcrt4.dll
      ncadg_ip_udp    REG_SZ        rpcrt4.dll
   					

4. If any of the values that are listed in the table are missing from your registry, you must add them. To add a value, follow these steps:
   1. On the Edit menu, click New, and then click String Value.
   2. Type the name, and then press ENTER two times.
   3. In the Edit String dialog box, type rpcrt4.dll, and then click OK.
   4. Repeat steps a through c for each missing value.
5. On the Registry menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.
6. Restart your computer.

We strongly recommend that all users upgrade to IIS 6.0 installed on a Windows Server 2003-based computer. IIS 6.0 significantly helps increase Web infrastructure security. For more information about IIS security-related topics, visit the following Microsoft Web site: