How to use SMTP connectors to connect routing groups in Exchange 2003

You can use a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) connector to connect a computer that is running Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 to SMTP computers that are not running Exchange Server, such as computers on the Internet. You can also use an SMTP connector to connect Exchange Server routing groups in scenarios where routing group connectors are not suitable. For example, you can use an SMTP connector if the link between the routing groups is not permanent or if the link has to traverse the Internet. SMTP connectors are slightly more complex to configure than routing group connectors and do not automatically pass on Exchange Server link-state information. Routing group connectors are simpler to use because they have few parameters to configure. When you connect two routing group connectors, the connection works automatically and reliably. With SMTP and X.400, you have to make sure that the connector is configured correctly at the source and the destination; however, you can use routing group connectors only to connect routing groups. Routing group connectors cannot connect a routing group to a mail system that is not running Microsoft Exchange Server.

Note We do not support the following configurations:

• Putting a server that is not an Exchange Server computer between the Exchange Server computers within an Exchange organization.
• Filtering the communication between Exchange Server computers within an Exchange organization.

For more information about how to use routing group connectors in Exchange 2003, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Note This article does not describe how to configure an SMTP connector to deliver mail to the Internet.

For more information about how to configure the SMTP connector in Exchange 2003, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Requirements

The following list outlines the recommended hardware, software, network infrastructure, and service packs that you must have:

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 2 (SP2).
• Microsoft Active Directory directory service.
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003.
• At least two routing groups. Each routing group must contain at least one computer that is running Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server or later.

How to Add the SMTP Connector

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.
2. Right-click the Organization Name (Exchange) icon at the top of the tree in the left pane, and then click Properties.
   
   In this step, Organization Name is the name of your Exchange 2003 organization.
3. Click Display administrative groups, click Display routing groups, and then click OK.
4. Restart Exchange System Manager, expand Administrative Groups in the left pane, and then expand the administrative group that you want to configure.
5. Expand the Routing Groups container, and then either create a new routing group or double-click a preexisting routing group.
6. Right-click the Connectors container, point to New, and then click SMTP connector.
7. Type a name for this SMTP connector.
   
   Microsoft recommends that you use a descriptive name, such as SMTP Connector for Paris and Boston Routing Groups.
8. Typically, SMTP connectors use the Domain Name System (DNS) protocol to deliver mail across the Internet. However, if you are using this SMTP connector only to link two Exchange routing groups, click Forward all mail through this connector to the following smart hosts, and then type the fully-qualified domain name of the bridgehead server in the other routing group.
   
   If you do not click this option, you receive a message that states that you must specify a smart host.
9. Under Local bridgeheads, click Add, click the SMTP virtual servers that you want to act as local bridgeheads for this connector, and then click OK.
10. Click the Connected Routing Groups tab, click Add, and then select a remote routing group that you want to connect to.
11. On the General tab, select the administrative group and the routing group combination that you want to connect to.
    
    Note For Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 sites, you must add the name of the site manually.
12. Click the Routing Address tab, and then confirm that the e-mail domain is correct for the remote routing group.
13. Configure a cost.
    
    You can configure a cost from 1 to 100. Microsoft recommends that you configure a cost that reflects both the physical cost of delivery and the relative preference of using this connector over any other connector. By default, SMTP connectors are assigned the cost of 1. Assigning the SMTP connectors the value of 1 makes the SMTP connectors the most likely connector to be used. However, you may have routing group connectors, including X.400 or other connector types. Therefore, configure the cost of this link according to the relative expense of using it.
14. Click OK, and then click OK.
    
    Note You must create the SMTP connector in the remote routing group manually.

How to Configure the SMTP Connector

After you create the SMTP connector, configure the settings that you want to use:

1. Click Start, point to Programs, point to Microsoft Exchange, and then click System Manager.
2. Expand the Exchange 2003 hierarchy in the left pane until you locate the Routing Groups container.
   
   If the Administrative Groups container appears, the Routing Groups container is in the corresponding administrative group.
3. Expand the Routing Groups container, and then double-click the routing group that contains the SMTP connector that you want to configure.
4. Right-click the SMTP connector that you want to configure, and then click Properties.
5. If you are routing any other mail types over this connector, click the Address Space tab.
   
   If you are using this SMTP connector to route all messages to the Internet by using another Exchange routing group or site, add an address space of the SMTP type that has a wildcard character (*) for an address. To do so:
   1. Click Add, click SMTP, and then click OK.
   2. Type an e-mail domain, and then type a cost.
      
      Note For the e-mail domain, type your own domain name if you want to use this connector to connect to another routing group, and then type the wildcard character to specify all domains.
   3. Click OK, and then add more address spaces if there are multiple address spaces in the domain.
6. Click the Delivery Restrictions tab, and then configure the users who can send mail by using this connector.
   
   By default, all messages are accepted. To prevent users from sending mail by using this connector, add these users to the Reject messages from list. Alternatively, click Rejected, and then add users to the Accept messages from list.
7. To add a recipient from either the accept list or the reject list, click Add, click the user or the contact name that you want to accept or reject, and then click OK.
8. Click the Content Restrictions tab.
9. Under Allowed priorities, click the message priority levels that are permitted through this connector.
   
   If you use an SMTP connector, you may not want to restrict usage in this manner because SMTP connectors generally use links that are reasonably fast and permanent. To prevent messages of a certain priority level from using this connector, click to clear the appropriate check box.
10. Click Allowed Types, and then click either System messages or Non-system messages to indicate the types of messages that are sent over this connector.
    
    Because this SMTP connector will be exclusively used to link Exchange 2003 routing groups, you want both system messages and non-system messages to traverse this connector.
11. Click to select the Allowed sizes check box, and then type the upper limit in kilobytes (KB) for messages that propagate over this connector.
    
    Oversize messages are either sent over another connector, or the oversize messages are returned and a non-delivery report (NDR) is generated.
12. Click the Delivery Options tab, and then specify the time when you want the connector to run.
    
    The default setting is Specify when messages are sent through this connector, and the delivery frequency is set to Always run. Alternatively, you can either click a preconfigured time in the box, or you can click Customize to specify the times when you want the connector to deliver messages. If you use an SMTP connector, you may not want to restrict delivery times unless either the physical connection itself is very expensive or the bandwidth is restricted.
13. To configure different settings for oversized values:
    1. Click Use different delivery times for oversize messages, and then specify a value for oversized messages.
       
       For example, you can specify 1000 KB.
    2. Under Connection time, either click a time or click Customize.
    3. Type the times when you want oversized mail to be delivered, and then click OK.
       
       Note You do not have to configure a size value for oversized mail that exceeds the Allowed Sizes setting on the Content Restrictions tab.
14. Click to select the Queue mail for remote triggered delivery check box if you are configuring another computer to dial in to this computer to request extended TURN (ETRN) commands or TURN commands to start mail delivery.
15. Click Add, and then add the user account that this computer uses to authenticate so that the download process starts.
16. Click the Advanced tab.
    
    Use this tab to configure settings if the computer that is running this connector is dialing in to another server to collect queued mail.
    
    Note If you click to select the Send HELO instead of EHLO check box, you cannot configure any more settings on this tab. If you use HELO commands, you cannot use TURN commands or ETRN commands. If you do not send an ETRN or a TURN command to dequeue messages, do not configure any more settings on this tab.
17. So that requests to dequeue messages are sent with the message, click Request ETRN/TURN when sending messages.
18. To request to dequeue a message on a server that is different from the computer that the message is sent to, click Request ETRN/TURN from a different server, type a server name by using the fully-qualified domain name, and then specify a connection time.
19. To specify the domains that you want the ETRN command to be issued for, click Domains under Issue ETRN, click Add, select the local domain that you want to collect mail for, and then click OK.
20. To use the TURN command, click Issue TURN.
    
    However, if you use the TURN command, you must use authentication. To do so, click Outbound Security, click either Basic Authentication or Integrated Windows Authentication, and then click OK.
21. Click OK to accept the changes.

How to Confirm That You Configured the SMTP Connector Correctly

To confirm that the SMTP connector is working as expected, follow these steps:

1. Start Exchange System Manager.
2. In the left pane, click Tools.
3. Expand Tools, expand Monitoring and Status, and then expand Status.
   
   Confirm that two objects are listed for each SMTP connector; one object must be listed for each end. The Status column indicates the current state of the link.

Additionally, you can configure the notification functionality so that you receive a message or a script-based notification if one of the connectors stops responding.

Troubleshooting

You may have problems when you configure SMTP connectors if you have not performed the preparation tasks. You must have two or more routing groups configured already, and each routing group must have at least one instance of an SMTP virtual server in it.

If DNS name resolution is not working as expected, you cannot connect your two routing groups.

For more information about how to configure routing groups in Exchange Server 2003, see Exchange Server 2003 Help.