How do I connect my Exchange server to a SMTP server?

A. A. Exchange Server 5.5 ships with the Internet Mail Service which allows Newsgroup feeds and, among other things, connections to a SMTP mailbox.

You will need a connection method to the SMTP mailbox, for example a RAS dial-up connection to an ISP. If you are connecting via a firewall make sure the ports used by POP and SMTP and not disallows (ports 25, 110 and 995).

Before doing any of this you should ensure DNS is correctly configured for you local domain (or this may be done by the ISP) by adding a MX record for the Exchange server in DNS (this is not needed if you are connecting via a RAS dial-up connection and just connecting to a specific host).

In this example we will connect to a SMTP mailbox at a ISP.

1. Start the Exchange Administrator program
2. Expand the root, select your site then expand that, expand Configuration and select the Connections container
3. Select "New Other" - "Internet Mail Service" from the File menu
4. Click Next to the introduction dialog
5. Click Next to the dialog outlining the steps that should have been completed (DNS configuration etc)
6. Select the Exchange server that will have the IMS installed and check the "Allow internet mail through a dial-up connection". Click Next
7. Select a phone book entry and click Next
8. Check the "Route all mail through a single host" and enter the TCP/IP address or hostname of the host, e.g. SMTP.DIAL.PIPEX.COM. Click Next
9. Check the "All internet mail addresses" and click Next
10. Next specify the name that should appended to the mailbox names, e.g. ntfaq.com. Click Next
11. Select the mailbox to be used to send notification/non-delivery reports to. Click Next
12. Enter the Exchange Service account password and click Next
13. A number of changes will occur and an extra service added.

To configure items such as the dial-up account username and password double click on "Internet Mail Service" under Configuration\Connections, select the Dial-up Connections tab and click Logon Information. From this tab you can also configure time-out and how ofter to dial out.

If you have problems try applying Service Pack 1 which I found fixes a number of problems.

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